Society

Hunger is not just a crisis today. It will hurt Brazil for decades to come

Studies show that malnourished youngsters face a series of physical, social, and mental issues, making it hard for them to ever reach their full professional potential in adulthood

hunger human capital brazil
People scavenge for food in the trash at Recife’s municipal market. Photo: Danilo Verpa/Folhapress

Children suffer more from hunger in Brazil. Nearly 38 percent of households with kids aged 10 and under experienced hunger or at least some sort of food insecurity over the past year — the rate drops to less than 31 percent in homes without children. The data comes from a recent nationwide study from Rede Penssan, a food security research network.

Besides the grave and immediate problem — which The Brazilian Report covered in a recent in-depth investigation — hunger leaves scars felt for years. Infants deprived of proper nutrition are unlikely ever to reach their full economic potential, making the food insecurity crisis of today the productivity crisis of tomorrow.

During the pandemic, Brazil’s Human Capital Index (HCI) — calculated by the World Bank to measure which countries are best in mobilizing the economic and professional potential of their citizens — dropped from 0.601 to 0.540. This means that Brazilians would only reach 60 percent of their development potential in adulthood, a rate now dropped to 54 percent.

The HCI is measured using three main pillars: health, education, and survival — namely, the percentage of children who live beyond five years of age. Every criterion used to calculate the index is affected negatively by a lack of food security. Hunger can lead to infant mortality or stunted growth, as well as making children more susceptible to diseases. 

Without adequate nutrition, human bodies produce less immunoglobulin, which is essential to balancing one’s immune system.

What’s more, hunger interferes with academic performance, as malnourished students tend to fare worse in classrooms due to their lack of energy.

According to Márcia Castro, head of the Department of Global Health and Population at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the drop in HCI translates into a loss of Brazil’s growth potential. “Human capital is the productive capacity that a child would have upon turning 18. Brazil is wasting this capacity because it cannot provide conditions for these kids to fully develop by the time they turn 18,” she explains.

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