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Description
A new study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) suggests that migrants who hang onto their old food preferences readily pay more for food from their native region, even if they have to consume less calories to stay within their budget. The scientists drew data from the 1980s Indian National Sample Surveys (NSS) to compare the consumption patterns of interstate migrants with those of their non-migrant neighbours, as both of whom encounter the same prices but have different food preferences. India is culturally very diverse and since many households are on the threshold of malnutrition, the effects of strong interstate differences in food preferences can be easily detected in an impoverished household's expenditures. The larger but equally diverse China was another option for the research, but such statistical data is neither publicly available nor as comprehensive. The study used the 1983 and 1987-88 Indian NSS, which recorded the purchases of 169 different food products from 240 000 households in all of India's 29 states, along with migration data. Of those households, about six percent consisted of migrants who came from another part of India. The analysis showed that people moving from the north to the south and vice versa are less willing to adjust to local cuisine than those migrating from east to west. This is because the northern regions of India have a more wheat-based diet, whereas those in the south consume more rice. Since the migrants tend to persist with a more familiar diet, this puts a considerable strain on a household's budget due to the relative food price differences between different regions. In the most impoverished families, purchasing these higher-priced ingredients means a 7.2 percent reduction in calories consumed per rupee spent on food. Even households that are more willing to adapt to the local cuisine, suffer from a 5.3-percent reduction in calories. These figures indicating the economic power of food nostalgia are particularly striking, considering that more than 66 percent of the households in the studied NSS data were undernourished. Even though the study examines statistics from the 1980s, similar mismatches between food preferences and availability have previously occurred in India. During the 1942 Bengal Famine, when 1.5-4 million people died, the hungry Bengals could not be convinced to eat the donated wheat and millet, as rice was their local staple. Analogous trends are being observed outside of India as well, as in the case of the current African food crisis. The majority of the continent prefers white to yellow maize and assistance programs providing cheap imported yellow maize to hungry African communities are finding little success. Thus, any attempt to tackle hunger and malnutrition should take into consideration the important role of local food preferences.The scientists believe this is particularly relevant in the case of food aid.
Keywords
migrants,Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), food preferences,Indian National Sample Surveys (NSS), non-migrant neighbours
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