by BabyPeanut » Fri 28 Jan 2005, 15:16:59
Does China make all the food they need?
http://www.tulane.edu/~internut/Countri ... inaxx.html
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')b]Food & Diet
In China, each province has its specific socio-economic level, food habits, health infrastructures and communication facilities. Thus, the nutritional status of the population shows significant inter-province variations since it results from a varying combination of factors.
For children under five years of age, the prevalence of underweight ranged from 3% in Beijing to 39% in the province of Hainan while that of stunting ranged from 7% in Beijing to 56% in of Guizhou. The highest prevalence of stunting were observed in the same provinces as those of underweight. The marked improvement in nutritional status is shown by a reduction of the prevalence of underweight from 22%, in 1987 to 12% in the 1992. In China, the under-five mortality rate (U5MR), an important indicator of the socio-economic development and health and nutritional status of a society was found to be 47% in 1996. However, a large number of infectious diseases, such as respiratory, intestinal infections and hepatitis remain the main cause of death in children under five, with malnutrition being an aggravating factor.
The provinces of Guangxi and Hainan were found to be affected by adult chronic energy deficiency with more than one fourth of them with a BMI under 18.5 kg/m2. In adults, average BMI values were similar for both males and females (22.0 kg/m2). About 10% of the adult population had a BMI below 18.5 kg/m2 while a significant proportion were overweight or obese (15%). In the last decade, a clear shift to the right is seen in the distribution of BMI values, suggesting an improvement in adults' nutritional status over this period. In the past decade, there has been an improvement in the nutritional status of the Chinese population.
In all the provinces surveyed, cereals mainly rice and wheat flour represented the main source of energy providing from 54% to 78% of total energy intake. The diet in China is mainly based on vegetable products which provide 81% and 63% of total protein and fat intake respectively. The Chinese diet is particularly deficient in iodine but China has started with the Universal Iodization Salt campaign to control IDD and this program is promising to achieve its goals by the year 2000. It is also deficient in iron and women above 18 years of age are the most affected group with 23% suffering from anemia. There are important inter provincial variations in the prevalence of anemia in adult women which ranged from 2% to 52%.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', 'Food and Dietary Indices 1980 1990 1995 1999
Total Calories Consumed (kcals/day) 2,328 2,713 2,874 3,039
Animal Sources of food (kcals/day) 7.5% 11.4% 16.1% 18.8%')
Where are they getting this increased amount of food that is allowing more to not starve?
http://atn-riae.agr.ca/asia/3833_e.htm$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')n 2003, China’s imports reached US$413 billion, surpassing Japan as the world’s third largest importer.
China has strong demand for imported food and agri-products. It is forecasted to become the world’s largest food and agri-products market within 10 to 20 years.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'D')esertification is one of the major environmental issues in the world today. At present, two third of the countries and districts in the world, one fourth of the global land territory and nearly 100 million world population are threatened by desertification. China is one of the countries with serious disasters of desertification in the world. According to the monitoring results of China's State Forestry Administration in 1999, the desert areas are still expanding in China with an average increase of about 10,400 square kilometers per year, and China has 2.67 million square kilometers of desert land, accounting for 27.9 percent of China's total territory.