Development. Malnutrition, Vitamin A.

Badly nourished populations need good food

Abstract

WN regular contributor Ted Greiner writes: Helping poor people to eat more nourishing food, like the pumpkins being grown in Bangladesh by the farmer in the picture above,  does not require justification by proofs that this totally solves deficiencies of one nutrient for one group in the population. Justification for spending hundreds of millions of dollars in ways that distract from food-based programmes, certainly does require strong proof. Without such justification, such programmes should be phased out. Where the vitamin A capsule programme is demonstrably acting as a barrier and impeding fortification or other food-based programmes, then the phasing out process may need to be rapid.