The current lack of consensus on the relationships between hunger, malnutrition and food insecurity frustrates efforts to design good policies and programs to deal with the many problems. Disputes over terminology distract from the need for urgent action. This paper argues that our understanding of food insecurity is incremental: it develops as new research in a variety of food-deprived and nutrition-deprived contexts reveals causes, experiences and consequences and how they are interlinked. If we are to improve beneficiary selection, program targeting and intervention impact assessment, it is vital to coordinate our new understandings. The paper brings convergence to our understanding of food insecurity by introducing a new framework that visualizes levels of food insecurity, and the concomitant consequences and responses, as a continuum. Some potential benefits of using the continuum as a diagnostic tool are increased focus on less extreme but nevertheless urgent manifestations of food insecurity, more accurate targeting of interventions and better follow-up, and improved accountability for donor spending.
The global demand for food is projected to continue its upward trend for at least another 40 years while undernutrition among infants, young children, and women remains a major problem. These challenges of food and nutrition insecurity are particularly pronounced in the semi-arid regions of the world. In semi-arid areas, ruminant animal production often represents the best option to meet the projected demand for food since crop production is constrained by erratic rainfall patterns. However, the productivity of ruminant animals in these semi-arid regions is generally accepted to be too low to meet the demand for animal products. This yield gap occurs due to various production constraints that will be explored in this review. Chief among these constraints is the fluctuation in quantity and quality of feed due to growing conditions that only support seasonal growth of grasses in rangelands. Complementing grasses as a source of feed for ruminant animals, is a collection of shrub and browse tree products that can be used during the long dry seasons. Although ubiquitous and, as such, a potential solution to feed shortages, browse products tend to contain secondary plant compounds especially tannins, whose effect on the nutrition of the ruminant is far from being unequivocal. Recent evidence also shows tannins improve composition, quality and shelf life of ruminant products. This review is designed to explore ways through which the beneficial nutritional effects of tannin-rich browse products can be maximized to plug the animal product yield and quality gap and improve food and nutrition security in semi-arid areas of low-income food-deficit countries.
Informal recycling has the potential to contribute to the generation and redistribution of income and hence poverty reduction. However, municipal waste management systems in South Africa do not appear to be ready to formally accommodate informal waste pickers; this has made their activities and waste-picking income vulnerable to the negative effects of policies and strategies. This paper described successful approaches followed on two landfill sites in the North-West Province of South Africa to facilitate the successful integration of informal waste pickers: the key elements in the success of the approach is controlled access to the landfill site, proper management of waste picking activities on the landfill site as well as cooperation, proper collection and support from local Buy Back Centres. Involving waste pickers themselves in policy planning is essential for long term success in informal recycling.
Cities are important settings for production and prevention of non-communicable diseases. This article proposes a conceptual framework for identification of opportunities to prevent diet-related non-communicable diseases in cities. It compares two cities, Cape Town in South Africa and New York City in the United States, to illustrate municipal, regional, national and global influences in three policy domains that influence NCDs: product formulation, shaping retail environments and institutional food practices, domains in which each city has taken action.
Comparative case study.
Critical analysis of selected published studies and government and non-governmental reports on food policies and systems in Cape Town and New York City.
While Cape Town and New York City differ in governance, history and culture, both have food systems that make unhealthy food more available in low-income than higher income neighborhoods; cope with food environments in which unhealthy food is increasingly ubiquitous; and have political economies dominated by business and financial sectors. New York City has more authority and resources to take on local influences on food environments but neither city has made progress in addressing deeper social determinants of diet-related NCDs including income inequality, child poverty and the disproportionate political influence of wealthy elites.
Through their intimate connections with the daily lives of their residents, municipal governments have the potential to shape environments that promote health. Identifying the specific opportunities to prevent diet-related NCDs in a particular city requires intersectoral and multilevel analyses of the full range of influences on food environments.
The role of phenolics and saponins in contributing to bitterness in marama beans, an underutilized legume, especially when roasted, was investigated. Marama beans were roasted at 150 °C for 20, 25 or 30 min, then dehulled to separate cotyledons, and pastes were prepared from these. Water extracts were prepared from full fat and defatted flours from roasted and unroasted marama cotyledons. A sensory panel evaluated the sensory attributes of marama pastes and water extracts. Marama water extracts were analysed for total phenolic content, phenolic composition and saponin content. Roasting of marama beans for more than 20 min resulted in negative properties, such as bitterness. The major extractable phenolic acids present in marama water extracts were gallic and protocatechuic acids which increased as a function of roasting time. Saponin content of the water extracts was in the range of 55–63 mg/l. The identified phenolic acids, saponins and other as yet unidentified compounds may contribute to the perceived bitterness.
There are few studies on the presence of extended‐spectrum β‐lactamases and AmpC β‐lactamases (ESBL/AmpC) in bacteria that contaminate vegetables. The role of the production environment in ESBL/AmpC gene transmission is poorly understood. The occurrence of ESBL/AmpC in Escherichia coli (n = 46) from lettuce and irrigation water and the role of irrigation water in the transmission of resistant E. coli were studied. The presence of ESBL/AmpC, genetic similarity and phylogeny were typed using genotypic and phenotypic techniques. The frequency of β‐lactamase gene transfer was studied in vitro. ESBLs/AmpC were detected in 35 isolates (76%). Fourteen isolates (30%) produced both ESBLs/AmpC. Prevalence was highest in E. coli from lettuce (90%). Twenty‐two isolates (48%) were multi‐resistant with between two and five ESBL/AmpC genes. The major ESBL determinant was the CTX‐M type (34 isolates). DHA (33% of isolates) were the dominant AmpC β lactamases. There was a high conjugation efficiency among the isolates, ranging from 3.5 × 10−2 to 1 × 10−2 ± 1.4 × 10−1 transconjugants per recipient. Water isolates showed a significantly higher conjugation frequency than those from lettuce. A high degree of genetic relatedness between E. coli from irrigation water and lettuce indicated possible common ancestry and pathway of transmission.
Steeping milled sorghum in up to 0.4% NaOH was investigated as a method of tannin inactivation. NaOH steeping substantially reduced assayable total phenols and tannins in both Type III and Type II sorghums and with Type III sorghum caused a 60–80% reduction in α-amylase inhibition compared to a 20% reduction by water steeping. NaOH treatment also reduced starch liquefaction time and increased free amino nitrogen. Type II tannin sorghum did not inhibit α-amylase and consequently the NaOH treatment had no effect. HPLC and LC–MS of the tannin extracts indicated a general trend of increasing proanthocyanidin/procyanidin size with increasing NaOH concentration and steeping time, coupled with a reduction in total area of peaks resolved. These show that the NaOH treatment forms highly polymerised tannin compounds, too large to assay and to interact with the α-amylase. NaOH pre-treatment of Type III sorghums could enable their utilisation in bioethanol production.