Variation In Consumption
REASON: social-cultural
Religious Beliefs
Different faiths influence people's food choice and preparation. Thus, it causes variation in food consumption in some countries.
For example:
- In Buddhist and Hindus countries such as Sri lanka, Thailand, and India they consume very little meat because most of the people in those countries are vegetarian. Since they consume very little meat it causes the meat consumption in those countries to decrease.
- Muslims do not consume pork. Therefore, in many Muslims countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Kuwait they consume lesser pork compared to the world's pork consumption. This causes the pork consumption in the Muslim countries to decrease.
Food Preferences
People's health consciousness, income levels, convenience, and environment may influence their food preferences. Food preference is about the preference (strong liking) of certain food by individuals. **The variation in consumption of food under food preferences is caused by individuals preference when choosing food.
- FAST FOOD
- Organic food
- Organic food is food that does not contain any artificial input such as chemical fertilizer, pesticides, antibiotics, and growth hormones
-Now people have become more health conscious than before (because people are more educated nowadays). Hence, they will consume healthier food such as organic food. - - However, organic foods are generally more expensive due to the higher cost of production. Therefore, people from DCs are able to consume more organic food than the LDCs because people in DCs experience a higher income level = they have a greater purchasing power.
- Since people are becoming more health conscious, they will consume more organic food. Thus, it causes the consumption of organic food to increase.
** The demand for organic food in DCs is more significant than the LDCs because DCs have higher purchasing power.
Migration
Migrations have allowed availability of a vast variety of food and drive demand for new food preferences all over the world. .
- Immigrants introduce new cuisines to the local population of their new country. For example, Chinese immigrants have made the local population accustomed to a wide range of Chinese cuisine like " tim sum" and "peking duck"
*** this will cause the demand for the food that the immigrants introduced to their migrated country to increase. Because the local people will want to try the new food. while it will also increase the demand for the new food to serve the immigrants that lives in that country. - while immigrants introducing their cuisines, they also get themselves acclimatised to local food. For example; Pakistani immigrants in Northway are eating more Norwegian cuisine like salads instead of cooked vegetables.
***this will cause the consumption of local food to increase as more local food is needed to serve the local and the immigrants in that country.
Population Growth
Population growth is one of the key drivers of the increasing demand for food worldwide.
- LDCs experience higher population growth than DCs. (because lack of family planning and the need for farm labour in many LDCs)
- Due to the higher birth rates in LDCs, the increasing demand for food in LDC's is greater than DC's over the years. One of the examples is: Sub-Saharan Africa.
- However, due to the lower income of the people in LDCs, the people in LDCs generally consume more of the starchy food than meat.
- Therefore, the demand for food in LDCs is increasing ( starchy food > meat)
Changing Diets
Globalisation and migration have caused the diets of people in DCs and LDCs to change and will continue to change. **variation in consumption under changing of diet is affected by globalisation and migration
- The changes include the availability of great variety of food. For instance, there have been some birth of fusion food and there are also shifts from traditional food to western varieties.
- For example, Taiwan have shifted from eating rice-based snacks to wheat-based snacks such as cakes, bread and noodles.
- Another example is: sometimes Japanese sushi is stuffed with crabstick, avocado and cucumber instead of the original Japanese sushi which is stuffed with raw fish.
- This provides the country with a wide range of food choices and introduces the shifted food to the country. Therefore, the shifted food such western food, bread, cake and noodles will increase in demand as people have change diet from what they usually eat.