Anthropology and Food Policy: Human Dimensions of Food Policy in Africa and Latin America

200 Pages·1991·10.24 MB·English

by  Della E. McMillan

Anthropology and Food Policy
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Anthropology
and Food Policy
Human Dimensions
of Food Policy in Africa
and Latin America
Delia E. McMillan, Editor
With the assistance of Jeanne Harlow
Southern Anthropological Society Proceedings, No. 24
Mary W. Helms, Series Editor
The University of Georgia Press
Athens and London
Southern Anthropological Society
Founded 1966
OFFICERS, 1989-90
Andrew W. Miracle, President
Holly F. Mathews, President-Elect
Thomas A. Arcury, Secretary-Treasurer
Benita J. Howell, Councilor
Thomas W. Collins, Councilor
Patricia B. Lerch, Councilor
Mary W. Helms, Series Editor
Gilford S. Nickerson, Newsletter Editor
Program Coordinator, 1989
Thomas W. Collins
© 1991 by the Southern Anthropological Society
Published by the University of Georgia Press
Athens, Georgia 30602
All rights reserved
Set in Times Roman
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for
permanence and durability of the Committee on
Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the
Council on Library Resources.
Printed in the United States of America
95 94 93 92 91 5 4 3 21
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Anthropology and food policy : human dimensions of food policy in
Africa and Latin America / Delia E. McMillan, editor, with the
assistance of Jeanne Harlow.
p. cm.—(Southern Anthropological Society proceedings ; no. 24)
Includes bibliographical references (p. ).
ISBN 0-8203-1287-8 (alk. paper).—ISBN 0-8203-1288-6 (pbk. :
alk. paper)
1. Nutrition policy—Africa. 2. Nutrition policy—Latin America.
3. Applied anthropology—Africa. 4. Applied anthropology—Latin
America. I. McMillan, Delia E. II. Harlow, leanne. III. Series.
GN2.S9243 no. 24
[TX360.A26]
301 s—dc20
[363.8'096] 90-11000
CIP
British Library Cataloging in Publication Data available
To Ronald Cohen
gentle mentor of many anthropologists in food policy
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Contents
Introduction 1
Delia E. McMillan
Mexico's Two Green Revolutions: Feed for Food 12
Billie R. DeWalt and David Barkin
Learning from Experience: Implementing Farming Systems
Research and Extension in the Malawi Agricultural
Research Project 40
Art Hansen
Livestock Development, Policy Issues, and Anthropology
in East Africa 66
/. Terrance McCabe
Anthropology and the Analysis of African Food Markets:
Assessing Market Efficiency at the Village Level 86
Edward B. Reeves
Inter- and Intrahousehold Income Allocation: Implications
for Third World Food Policy 112
Roberta D. Baer
Integrating Nutritional Concerns into Adaptive Small Farm
Research Programs 126
Kathleen M. DeWalt
The Food Game in Latin America 145
PaulL. Doughty
References 167
Contributors 189
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Introduction
Delia E. McMillan
Why study food policy? From the 1960s to the 1970s the world
exalted in the original promise and performance of the Green Revolu-
tion, which produced spectacular increases in many staple food crops
in Asia and Latin America. Many observers were optimistic that the
gross shortcomings in world food production would soon be ended.
Unfortunately, as the decade of the 1980s developed, these increases
slowed and in the face of continued population growth, distortions
in world food supplies resumed their former prominence. For many
policymakers, the problem lay in developing still more sophisticated
production techniques. For others the complexity of the world's social,
political, and economic systems suggested that there were many more
variables that had to be considered before the problem of hunger and
malnutrition could be solved.
Food policy developed either by nations or international organiza-
tions, in the view of a new generation of researchers, has to include
not only the multiple aspects of production but also the multiple effects
of distribution patterns stemming from individual national policies,
international food trade competition, the availability and use of food
aid, social class, cultural biases and conflicts, and the operations of
different types of markets. In addition, a wide variation in consump-
tion patterns and preferences was related to conditions of health and
well-being, age and gender, social and cultural conflict, and classic
rural-urban divisions within populations.
With such an extraordinarily complex range of variables, something
more is needed before an effective worldwide system of policies can
be developed to manage both individual national and international food
problems. It is a task that cannot be solved by one discipline alone but
requires the collaborative effort of motivated researchers working from
grassroots levels to computerized think tanks, from field anthropolo-