MEDC vs. LEDC over Food Supply

More Economically Developed Countries

• In many MEDCs the cost of staple food items is relatively cheap.
• Most people make purchases based on taste and preference.
• Produce seasonality has mostly disappeared due to globalization.
• This has also allowed for a greater international variety in most supermarkets.
• The average caloric content per capita per day of food is 3314 calories. In the USA specifically, this number is 3774 calories.
  
  

Less Economically Developed Countries

• In LEDCs, staple food items may not be always affordable as prices fluctuate.
• People tend to make purchases based on nutritional need and affordability.
• Political and economic agendas can affect food production: e.g. cash cropping
• Even if food crops are not used as cash crops, food production is still impacted since aable land is being occupied all the same.
• The average content caloric content per capita per day of food is 2666 calories. In Eritrea this number is 1512 calories.

Think Globally

- The American Association for the Advancement of Science suggests that there is an average of 2790 calories available each day for every human on the planet. That is enough to feed everyone.

Factors to Consider

• Distribution
• Politics

In Summary...

• So far, food supplu has kept peace with human population growth, seemingly refuting Malthus... however recently some are doubting if this can continue.
• As we adapt an increasing amount of global NPP to human needs, use and degrade more land, eat more meat, contaminate more waters, we are getting closer to our planet's K... we just don't know what that is yet.
• There are 1.1 billion people living in poverty... they are increasing and growing hungrier.
• Annual grain yields per hectare have slowed their rate of increase since the Green Revolution (1990-2000 had the lowest increase since before the 1950s)