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Forum on Public Policy Online

Spring 2009 edition (Posted September 2009)

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Food

• Securing Food Supply for Future Generations through Groundwater Management: A Policy Analysis Approach
  Lal K. Almas, Robert H. Taylor, Bridget Guerrero, and Stephen H. Amosson
• Costa Rican Cacao Economy: An ethnographic study of social justice observed
  Madeline del Toro Cherney, Adjunct Faculty, Department of Anthropology, Stony Brook University
• Earth News: Adapt, Mitigate or Die
  Kathe A. Gabel, Department of Health and Human Performance, Montana State University
• The Importance of Nutritional Education in Preventing Obesity and Malnutrition
  Noriko Tanaka and Yukiko Kinoshita

Securing Food Supply for Future Generations through Groundwater Management: A Policy Analysis Approach
Lal K. Almas, Robert H. Taylor, Bridget Guerrero, and Stephen H. Amosson

Abstract
 The linkages between food, water and energy are quite straightforward.  Food production is dependent on water availability.  Approximately 1350 liters of water is needed to produce one kilogram of wheat, 3000 liters for one kg of rice, and for meat production the water requirement is even many times more.  The energy in one form or the other is needed to pump water especially in case of groundwater.  More energy is required due to decrease in saturated thickness and increase in pumping lift.  The rising energy costs coupled with aquifer depletion and increased pumping lift indirectly contribute towards significant increase in production costs of food and feed.  Water scarcity could be considered one of the most important constraints to food and feed production. Therefore, management strategies and policy scenarios that will maintain returns while conserving water are critical to the future of  Texas Panhandle economy.
Among the various policy alternatives, when compared with the baseline scenario, biotechnology option yielded the maximum socio-economic impacts.  The effects were 6% higher than the baseline in terms of gross receipts, industry output, value added as well as employment generation even though the irrigated acreage a well as saturated thickness of the aquifer declined when compared to the baseline scenario.  Several implications can be derived from the results of this study. First, some form of long term water use restriction (percentage per year or permanent conversion) is necessary in order to achieve any meaningful water savings. Second, accelerated adoption of improved biotechnology or irrigation technology without restrictions will not save water and, in fact, could increase water use lowering water availability in the future. However, using these strategies in combination with a water use restriction policy can negate the negative impacts to producer income and the regional economy. Finally, temporary conversion to dryland has little impact on long term water savings and should not be pursued.

Costa Rican Cacao Economy: An ethnographic study of social justice observed
Madeline del Toro Cherney, Adjunct Faculty, Department of Anthropology, Stony Brook University

Abstract
In this paper I focus on the working-class residents of the Osa Peninsula, located in southeastern Costa Rica, and these people’s ability and inability to cultivate sustainable farming methods partially funded by the Costa Rican government. The Osa Peninsula lies within the Puntarenas Province consisting of 11,265.69 sq. km. with a population of 357,483 inhabitants, providing a unique opportunity to explore a ‘thinly-peopled’ Rainforest ecological/agricultural dynamic. The Costa Rican people interviewed express both their own romantic visions of cultural sweet longing as well as their ability for personal sustainable survival within the current environmental circumstances.

Earth News: Adapt, Mitigate or Die
Kathe A. Gabel, Department of Health and Human Performance, Montana State University

Abstract
In 1967, Martin Luther King, Jr. said “We are now faced with the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today.  We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now” (Blair 2009).  Although stated more than 40 years ago, his words are fitting for climate change today.  Scientific data indicates that increased greenhouse gas concentrations are prompting precipitation patterns to shift, droughts to worsen, heat waves to intensify, and monsoons to fail.  Conversely, we are seeing increased precipitation intensity, destructive storms, and ocean acidification.  Between 1990 and 2001, world flooding affected 1.5 billion people and their food security.  For example since 1990, China’s Yangtze River floods and related crop failure have claimed more than a million lives.  As food shortages increase, civil conflict and potential for disease increase.  Many earlier civilizations collapsed due to food insecurity and civil conflict. 
Unabated climate change adversely affects world food supplies, health and civilization.  The fierce urgency of now is here.  Citizens of the world need bold visionary goals to mitigate climate change by using low-carbon technology, energy efficiency, renewable energy, carbon capture and storage.  This paper reviews the links among climate change, crop failure and effects on health, followed with suggestions for adapting to the effects of climate change and mitigating greenhouse gas emissions.

The Importance of Nutritional Education in Preventing Obesity and Malnutrition
Noriko Tanaka and Yukiko Kinoshita

Abstract
Japan once was a country suffering from undernourishment due to the shortage of food supply during and right after World War. Within a half century, however, Japan became one of the most developed industrial counties and, during the process of the economic development, adopted Western life style and eating habit: the Japanese have, with sufficient food supply, the intake of far more animal protein and lipid today than before the War. It is true that the increased intake of animal food has contributed to the nutritional improvement and physical development of Japanese people; but its excessive intake has also led to obesity and life style-related diseases such as diabetes mellitus. Excess energy is deposited and saved as subcutaneous and visceral fat, and prepares the body for starvation; but fat deposit in the well-nourished body becomes prevalence of obesity. This is one serious problem which the world faces today. Another seriously nutritional problem is that more than13 % of the world population is suffering from under-nutrition. Under-nutrition beyond nutritional adaptation is a risk factor leading to death. We have to deal with two contrasting issues: the control of food intake which meets the needs of the body in developed countries and the challenges to malnutrition resulting from inadequate food supply in developing countries. Nutritional education in individual countries should be regarded as imperative.