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Food security for humans was first achieved by the US around 1800.
by skookumchuck 8y ago
Food security for humans was first achieved by the US around 1800.
- tyre 8y agoFood security is still not a reality in the United States. Millions of people struggle with poverty and face hunger.
- skookumchuck 8y agoI meant food security in the sense of consistent food surpluses and not facing periodic starvation. Americans today throw away about 40% of the food produced, and are the fattest people on the planet.
- mrec 8y ago> and are the fattest people on the planet Not even close. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_body_mass_index https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_body_mass...
- barbecue_sauce 8y agoThere's a few countries that are on there multiple times (like Mexico and New Zealand). How does that work?
- taneq 8y agoThey're so fat that they had to buy extra tickets.
- ironic_ali 8y agoBecause NZ is so awesome, it's on the list twice!
- hn_throwaway_99 8y agoInteresting to me that most of the countries high up on the list are dominated by indigenous populations that are even less able to deal with modern carb-rich Western diets than European-based populations. E.g. I'm assuming New Zealand is so high because of Maori people.
- jzwinck 8y agoMaori make up just 15% of the NZ population. They do however have more obese despite fewer who are only moderately overweight. Since the BMI ranking is by arithmetic mean, extremely fat people will have an outsize effect. Ref: https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/populations/maori-health/tatau-kahukura-maori-health-statistics/nga-tauwehe-tupono-me-te-marumaru-risk-and-protective-factors/body-size https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/populations/maori-health...
- asteli 8y agoThere's speculation (not sure if it's more substantiated than) that the obesity rates seen in the Pacific islands may also involve selection for humans who could amass energy stores necessary for long oceanic voyages.
- adventured 8y agoIt's unfortunate you're being downvoted, because you are broadly correct. The US was the first country to achieve a sustained, structural food surplus nationally. By 1920 it was saving millions of Russians from starvation via its immense food surplus. Millions of Europeans fled their homes over decades to come to the US because of food scarcity and starvation back home. During most of the 19th century starvation was still a common problem across nearly all of continental Europe. All the way back to the late 18th century, the British soldiers and Hessian mercenaries that were raping and pillaging their way across the colonies couldn't believe the general prosperity that New Englanders were enjoying (such that they had any cause to be rebelling; see the book 1776 by McCullough). Until the last 40 years, the US had typically been far wealthier and with a far greater national food surplus than most of Europe. Even now, the US GDP per capita is typically 50-60% higher than the EU GDP per capita. The Irish, Germans and Italians that fled Europe to the US did so because of extraordinary poverty and famine. The standard of poor in the US today is greater than 10x higher than the floor on poverty in Europe, which you see in countries like Moldova, Ukraine, Bulgaria, etc. "Irish, German, and Scandinavian immigrants arriving during the 1840s and 1850s made up the second wave of European immigration, fleeing famine, religious persecution, and political conflicts." https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/european-immigrants-united-states https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/european-immigrants-...
- skookumchuck 8y agoYou can also see this in height statistics - US heights increased steadily from 1800-1900.