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Global food supply

Different foods come from different countries:

• Countries in Asia grow more sugar and cereal crops (notably rice and wheat) than other parts of the world. They are also the overall biggest producers of meat, milk and fish.
• North American countries produce the coarsest grain. This is used for making animal feed and for brewing. Wheat is also used to make bread.
• European countries grow the most barley. Like North America, they are also big producers of some types of meat (pig meat in Europe, beef, pork and poultry in the United States), as well as milk and fish.
• Countries in Africa, Central America and Oceania do not produce more of any type of food than other nations.

We can illustrate the world pattern of access to food in different ways:

• global calorie consumption
• the Global Hunger Index

Global calorie consumption

Food energy intake is measured in calories (kcal). Some foods, eg rice, contain fewer calories than others, eg meat.

The map of global calorie consumption shows that sub-Saharan African nations consume fewer calories than other countries. The staple food for many of these countries is corn, wheat and rice.

European and North American countries consume more calories than other nations. Many of these countries eat more animal products, such as meat, milk and eggs.

Reasons for increasing food consumption

Food consumption has been rising globally for over 50 years. Advanced countries (ACs) consume the most calories, but low income developing countries (LIDCs) are experiencing the biggest increase in calorie intake. There are two main reasons for increasing food consumption:

• Economic development. As countries become wealthier, people can afford to eat more food. People in Chad and Somalia eat less than 2,850 calories a day, whereas those in the USA and Italy consume more than 3,440 calories a day. Many ACs have high levels of food wastage because people buy more food than they need. Fast food and food advertising also increase food consumption in wealthier places.
• Rising population. World population continues to grow and is likely to exceed 8 billion by 2030 and 9 billion people by 2050. This means there are more mouths to feed. The most rapid growth is taking place in LIDCs and some emerging developing countries (EDCs) like China and India.

Measuring hunger: The Global Hunger Index

The GHI is calculated by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). It measures world hunger. Each country is given a score between 0, which is no hunger, to 100, which is when everyone is hungry. Three things are used to calculate this score:

• undernourishment - the percentage of people consuming too few calories
• percentage of children underweight - the number of children below the age of five who are underweight or wasting
• child mortality - the death rate of children below the age of five

The Global Hunger Index is used to target food security needs.