The Interrelationship Between Food, Gender, And Power Is Essay-worthy.

Discussion

The main aim of the paper is to talk about the interrelationship between food, gender, and power. To be more specific, the paper will focus on the understanding of hunger and malnutrition based on the investigation of the systems and the ways in which institutions tend to hold power over food. The notion of food security will be clearly chalked in the paper based on the social, physical, and economic conditions. Gender could be identified as the crucial aspect to food insecurity and malnourishment, and this claim will be thoroughly discussed in this paper. The primary reason behind women’s rights being considered as central elements of the notion of food sovereignty will be stated in this essay. Lastly, the paper will concentrate on the fact that, few organizations tend to hold significant power and the power is concentrated in their hands in relevance to the food system. Discussion on the above-mentioned relevant concepts will help the readers to realize the overall connection or relationship between food, gender, and power in the modern world.

According to Patel (2012), one of the most continuing misapprehensions related to hunger is that it is caused by the shortage in global food production. Renowned economist Amartya Sen has stated in a study that, in most of the cases of famine-related death during the time of World War II, food has always been accessible in the area where the famine has hit. Therefore, it could be realized that people died due to the want of the entitlement to eat and not for want of food (dos Santos 2017).

There is no single agreed-upon definition of hunger. There are two aspects related to hunger which are “undernourishment” and “food security.” Undernourishment could be connected to individuals whose dietary energy consumption could be identified as significantly lower than the minimum dietary energy obligation to maintain a healthy life and carry out a minimum physical activity (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations 2022). A study has stated that currently, the number of individuals who could be identified as malnourished is around one billion (Tao and Li 2018). On the other hand, the notion of “food security” could be connected to the idea of hunger not due to the deficit in calories, whereas it is seen as the violation of a set of physical, social, and economic circumstances (Rome 2020). Therefore, it is a proven fact that more individuals are food insecure as compared to individuals that are malnourished. Taking a specific example of a country, it could be seen that food insecurity precedes undernourishment.

Based on the study conducted by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), it was found that there were around 48.8 million U.S. citizens who were living in food-insecure households. It could easily be realized that the circulation of food insecurity was significantly irregular. Adding to that, in the United States of America, around 21.6 million kids live in food-insecure households. Based on the statistics presented, it could be seen that around 35.1% of all female-headed households were food insecure when compared to that of the 25.4% of households led by men (Coleman-Jensen et al. 205).

Power Over Food

The relationship between food and gender could be realized based on the understanding of the control and power in the entire food system. An organization of farmers known as La Via Campesina has stated that food sovereignty is significantly more important as compared to that of food security. It has already been identified that La Via Campesina has significantly asked the individuals to be sovereign in relevance to their food systems (Martinez-Torres and Rosset 2010). In simple words, they want individual to possess the authority to choose the formation of the system and the way the system should function. Therefore, it could be realized that the primary claim of the food sovereignty is that the authority to decide the major decisions should be taken by the common individuals who primarily rely on the food system. It should not be concentrated in the hands of the leading government bodies and the influential companies.

To be more specific about the claim, the conversation about agriculture and food policy should be democratic. For that to happen, female participation should be enabled in the discussion as freely as males. However, it is a fact that 43% of the women in the society constitute to the agricultural workforce, in relevance to the production side of the food system (Nelson et al. 2012). With the implementation of practical purpose, upholding women’s rights helps in placing the concept of food sovereignty in recent times. The primary reason behind this claim is that it has already been identified that out of the percentage of the population malnourished, around 60% are girls or women (De 2017). Therefore, it is nearly impossible to carry out relevant discussions about hunger, keeping the notion of hunger epidemiology to that of women’s disempowerment untouched.

It is a paradox that with the presence of billion hungry individuals throughout the world, there are around 1.5 billion individuals who have already been identified as overweight (Chu et al. 2018). The primary reason behind this disparity is due to the fact that the power in the food system is primarily focused within the range of a few specific organizations. The shares have constantly been expanding, and real-life examples could be stated so that the readers get a better understanding of the same. In relevance to the pork sector, it has already been identified that the relevant market share in connection with that of the largest four hog slaughtering firms significantly jumped from 36 percent during the year 1982 to that of 63 percent during the year 2006 (Moody 2017). Even under the present-day scenario, it could be identified that the share of the food industry in relevance to the big firms has been significantly increasing.

As a matter of fact, such relevant meditation of power has multiple gendered consequences connected to it. It could be seen that; female in the society tends to perform in the mainstream of horticultural and agronomic innovation. Based on this observation, it could be realized that they can discover their agroecological knowledge succeeded by modern technologies in relevance to the industrial growth. It is a fact that employment in relevance to agriculture dependably pays females around 25% less as compared to that of the male of the society. Therefore, as soon as food gets accessed through market mechanisms, it tends to increase the women’s systemic risk of hunger (Sánchez-Alcaraz et al. 2020).

Gender and Food

Significantly there is a number of reasons behind the private sector achieving tremendous power in relevance to the food system. The very first factor that could be identified is the philanthropic foundation. The government has completely dictated the policy and terms in relevance to the implementation of the “Green Revolution.” To be more specific, this includes the adoption of various systems such as hybrid seeds, pesticide and fertilizers, which was funded by the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations (Nally and Taylor 2015). Such a farming system has significant gender-negative impacts as it could be seen that the knowledge shared by the female is completely excluded, and women have less power in the decision-making process. It could be seen that the international organizations along with the national government have significantly been faulted for their behaviour and shaped various factors in reference to the food system.

Also, it could be seen that trade agreements rules are significantly influenced by the organizations from which they could benefit. Due to this, women are not able to participate in resource-intensive farming. The government has yet not been able to implement relevant strategies that would help to uplift the position of women in the society in relevance to the food industry. Based on all this information, it could be realized that government play an equal role in creating a disparity in the relationship between food, gender, and power.

Conclusion

On a concluding note, it could be identified that the inequalities in relevance to the power could classify food system which is existing in the international organizations, households, private philanthropic foundations, corporations, along with the state and the regional government. Adding to that, it has also been concluded that the strong point in relevance to the food sovereignty approach tend to be connected to the heuristic approach to power relations that it bids, mostly with reverence to gender. Therefore, it could be realized that highlighting the disparities in power present in the global food system is significantly more compared to that of the academic exercise. It significantly states that it is not only to interpret the system but also, on the other hand, to completely alter the system. All the discussion that has been made in this paper has been backed with relevant sources of information. Hence, this paper could be considered a reliable and credible source of information for further studies in this area of research.

References

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