In barely more than a single human lifespan, the global population has multiplied over and over. It is amazing that the food supply has kept up with that blistering pace as well as it has. Because women bear and nourish children, they have special nutritional needs. But in many societies, women of every age have disproportionate rates of malnutrition and are over-represented among poor, illiterate, and displaced peoples. Malnutrition among mothers stunts the growth of children, and that keeps hunger, poverty, and ill-health spiraling down the generations.
Poor people depend heavily on nature for their basic needs.
They get food, energy, water, and housing from communal lands, forests, savannas, wetlands or waterways. Moreover, farmers who own land often are so poor they dig the roots for fuel or forage, leaving the soil exposed and unprotected from the wind that blows it away and the water that washes it away. Such environmental degradations make it even harder to produce more food.