Hidden Hunger : Gender and the Politics of Smarter Foods

For decades, NGOs targeting world hunger focused on ensuring that adequate quantities of food were being sent to those in need. In the 1990s, the international food policy community turned its focus to the "hidden hunger" of micronutrient deficiencies, a problem that resulted in two scientific solutions: fortification, the addition of nutrients to processed foods, and biofortification, the modification of crops to produce more nutritious yields. This hidden hunger was presented as a scientific problem to be solved by "experts" and scientifically engineered smart foods rather than through local knowledge, which was deemed unscientific and, hence, irrelevant. In __Hidden Hunger__, Aya Hirata Kimura explores this recent emphasis on micronutrients and smart foods within the international development community and, in particular, how the voices of women were silenced despite their expertise in food purchasing and preparation. Kimura grounds her analysis in case studies of attempts to enrich and market three basic foods―rice, wheat flour, and baby food―in Indonesia. She shows the power of nutritionism and how its technical focus enhanced the power of corporations as a government partner while restricting public participation in the making of policy for public health and food. She also analyzes the role of advertising to promote fortified foodstuffs and traces the history of Golden Rice, a crop genetically engineered to alleviate vitamin A deficiencies. Situating the recent turn to smart food in Indonesia and elsewhere as part of a long history of technical attempts to solve the Third World food problem, Kimura deftly analyzes the intersection of scientific expertise, market forces, and gendered knowledge to illuminate how hidden hunger ultimately defined women as victims rather than as active agents. Hidden Hunger 1 Contents 8 List of Tables and Figures 10 Acknowledgments 12 List of Abbreviations 14 1. Uncovering Hidden Hunger 16 2. Charismatic Nutrients 34 3. Solving Hidden Hunger with Fortified Food 54 4. Bound by the Global and National: Indonesia’s Changing Food Policies 77 5. Building a Healthy Indonesia with Flour, MSG, and Instant Noodles 96 6. Smart Baby Food: Participating in the Market from the Cradle 126 7. Creating Needs for Golden Rice 154 8. Conclusion 177 Notes 188 References 206 Index 234 Kimura explores the recent emphasis on micronutrients and smart foods within the international development community and, in particular, how the voices of women were silenced despite their expertise in food purchasing and preparation.