World food insecurity and malnutrition: Scope, trends, causes and consequences

Abstract

This chapter provides an in-depth review of recent and projected trends in global food insecurity and malnutrition. It explores causes and consequences. In addition to a detailed review of the health costs of malnutrition (e.g. compromised physical growth, reduced cognitive function, increased vulnerability to infectious disease), the chapter includes discussion of the economic costs of malnutrition. The chapter concludes with a review of factors that are likely to contribute to malnutrition in the future. These challenges are related to climate change and increased demand for biofuel, and include, inter alia , structural shifts in food and agricultural systems, transboundary movement of disease and widespread land degradation.