Soy Protein And National Food Policy

F. H. Schwarz, Marshall Marcus, F J Schwarz

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781000312799
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Biology
• Index: Biological Sciences

Over the last twenty-five years, a healthy international business has developed in isolated soy protein food ingredients. Today, isolated soy proteins are used primarily as ingredients in processed meat products. They are also used as valuable sources of protein in medical nutritional products and in combination with dairy products around the world

Chapter 1
Policy Implications

D. Gale Johnson^*

I am not one who has believed or now believes that the world's demand for food will outrun its supply of food during the 20th Century. Thus I do not believe that for the foreseeable future international prices for the major sources of calories, such as grains, vegetable oils and sugar, will increase if such prices are adjusted for inflation. Yet I do support the development of soy protein food ingredients, including isolated soy proteins, and the fullest exploration of their economic feasibility.

Contrary to some widely held views, there has been general improvement in the nutrition and health status of the population of the developing countries. The improvement has not been uniform and it is possible that in some parts of Africa there has been deterioration in the food situation. This has certainly been the case where civil wars and insurrections have prevailed such as in Ethiopia, Sudan and Uganda. But for the area of the world for which there was great concern only a decade ago, namely Asia, there has been significant improvements in nutrition and health.

Table 1 includes data on food production per capita in the major regions of developing countries. In all regions, except Africa, there has been increases in per capita food production, modest in the near East and substantial in the Far East.

But the food available depends upon more than production; trade in food affects how much food is supplied to the domestic market. In the early 1960s Africa was a net exporter of food; at the end of the 1970s Africa was a major importer of food. In 1979-81 Africa imported 16 percent of the calories that it consumed. Consequently, as Table 2 indicates, there was no decline in per capita food supplies even in Africa during the 1960s and 1970s. Since much of the food imports by Africa during the 1979-81 period was provided by aid, it would have been clearly preferable had the increased food supply come from increased domestic agricultural productivity.

But the most striking evidence of improvement in health and nutrition, even in low income African countries, is the data on increases in life expectancy and declines in infant mortality and child death rates between 1960 and 1982. While the available data are subject to error, the data we do have indicate an increase in life expectancy in low income African countries of 7 to 10 years during the period. This is less than in other low income economies. The increase in life expectancy in India was 12 years and for all low income countries other than China and India the increase was about the same as for Africa, namely 8 years.

The declines in infant mortality and child death rates are clearly important indicators of improvement, though it is obvious that much remains to be accomplished. It is perhaps worth noting that in 1900 the infant mortality rate

Table 1 Estimated Indents of Food Production Per Capita for Developing Market Economies By Regions, 1966-85 (1961-65 = 100)

	Africa	Latin America	Near East^a	Far East^a
1966	96	101	101	94
67	98	104	103	97
68	100	103	103	101
69	100	104	103	103
1970	100	106	103	105
71	99	103	103	103
72	95	101	107	97
73	89	101	99	104
74	93	103	105	99
75	93	103	109	106
76	94	108	111	105
77	87	107	105	106
78	88	110	110	113
79	87	111	107	109
1980	87	112	107	110
81	86	113	108	115
82	86	113	108	112
83	80	110	106	118
84	81	110	106	118
85	86	115	112	120

¹Source: FAO, FAO Production Yearbook, various issues.

^aThe Near East includes Northern Africa and the Middle East.

^bThe Far East includes South, Southeast and East Asia.

Table 2 Per Capita Dally Calorie Supply, World and Regions: 1961-63, 1969-71, 1979-81

	Calories per Capita Daily
Region/Group	1961-63	1969-71	1979-81
Developed countries	3110	3280	3380
Developed market economies	3080	3260	3370
N. America	3270	3480	3610
W. Europe	3140	3290	3430
Oceania	3190	3280	3150
Other developed	2540	2770	2870
Eastern Europe and U.S.S.R.	3160	3320	3390
Developing countries	2000	2140	2350
Developing market economies	2080	2170	2330
Africa	2130	2180	2260
Latin America	2380	2510	2630
Near East	2290	2410	2840
Far East	1950	2030	2170
Other developing	1950	2190	2310
Asian centrally planned economies	1840	2080	2410
World	2350	2470	2620

Source: Mollett (1985, Table 1, p. 28).

in the United States was 160 per 1000 live births and that in the next 20 years it declined to 80 by 1920. Thus far all low income developing countries both the levels and rate of decline in infant mortality between 1960 and 1980 closely paralleled the U.S. experience in the first two dedades of this century.

The data included in Table 3 support the view that low income countries have generally improved their health and nutrition situation in recent decades. But the data also indicate that there is substantial room for further improvement. It is in this context that approaches that will permit lower cost means of improving food and nutrition merit our support.

Table 3 Life Expectancy at Birth, Infant Mortality Rates and Child Death Rate: Africa, 1960 and 1982

The chapters that follow subject the possibilities and prospects of isolated soy protein to a series of exhaustive analyses. It is unlikely ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• About the Book and Editor
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword
• PART ONE INTRODUCTION
• PART TWO CASE STUDIES
• PART THREE MICROECONOMIC CONSIDERATIONS
• PART FOUR TECHNICAL AND CONSUMER CONSIDERATIONS