First broadcast April 2007
Part Two: The Taste of Excess
Mark Doyle investigates the way we eat food and its effect on the global food supply.
The emergence of supermarkets and global supply chains has led to a far greater variety in the types and range of food available to most of us. But it's also, some say, distorted the market in the types of food we eat.
Today, sugars and meat are far cheaper than they were 50 years ago, and they are being heavily sold in the range of fast and processed foods that are widely available. Critics argue this has played a large part in the doubling over that past decade of overweight and obese people.
Furthermore, it has also promoted an appetite for food that is very inefficient to produce, and if as expected emerging economies like India and China start to demand the same meat-heavy diets consumed in the west, the global food supply may struggle to cope.
Thoughts:
Why are meat and meat-products inefficient to produce?
(Think about the food chain, and how energy is actually lost when the animals eat the plants, and how the animals have to eat more as a result. Think about how productive farms growing animals are, compared to growing of crops, in terms of the amount of land used and output.)
How have supermarkets and global supply chains affected the availability of food? Explain in detail.
To find out more: Go to http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/documentary_archive/6501075.stm
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