Abstract
Food insecurity is a growing concern both locally and globally. Food insecurity has a number of causative factors. The food delivery system is laden with many inequities and fragilities. We will outline a framework of the food delivery system and the areas where inequities exist.
Climate change is an equally expansive topic. Changes to our climate have a myriad of impacts on our food delivery systems and in turn can exacerbate our already tenuous delivery system. Continued impacts on our environment creates even more imbalance and can subsequently exacerbate food inequities further.
The role climate change has is significant when it comes to food insecurity. Physicians are intimately aware of the role that proper nutrition plays in our health, equally we are aware that poor access to nutritious foods has deleterious effects on a person’s health and wellbeing. Physicians are at the forefront of this interface and are thus uniquely poised to advocate for changes in food delivery, as well as advocate for better resources to combat climate change.
Key Take Away Points
1) Raise awareness that climate change is already impacting the food security and nutrition
of the most vulnerable, and that if action is not very quickly taken, climate change will
increasingly threaten the achievement of the goal to eradicate hunger.
2) Describe precisely the pathways by which climate change finally impacts the food
security of people.
3) Delineate Roles physicians can play
Author Biography
Bashyam Iyengar MD, MPH board certified family medicine physician. He has completed fellowships in both academic and sports medicine. He completed an undergraduate degree in nutrition, which has served as the foundation for his work in the development of sustainable community programs to prevent chronic illnesses such as diabetes, hypertension, and cardiac disease. He currently practices in an underserved and resource limited with a Family Medicine residency setting in Jacksonville, Florida.
Recommended Citation
Bhagratie, Joe and Iyengar, Bashyam
(2021)
"Food Insecurity, Climate Change and Role of Physicians,"
Journal of Applied Research on Children: Informing Policy for Children at Risk: Vol. 12:
Iss.
1, Article 9.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.58464/2155-5834.1458
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.library.tmc.edu/childrenatrisk/vol12/iss1/9
