Read article by Katherine Sievert, Mark Lawrence, Asaeli Naika and Phillip Baker on Processed Foods and Nutrition Transition in the Pacific

: Regional Trends, Patterns and Food System Drivers as this article might help you in answering the following questions. Under the listed heading explain how these factors influences changes in Pacific and Fiji's food consumption pattern from pre -colonial time to today.

a.     Pre -colonization

b.     Colonization

c.      Globalization

d.     Economy

e.      Trade"

To answer the question regarding the influences on changes in food consumption patterns in the Pacific and Fiji from pre-colonial times to today, based on the article by Katherine Sievert, Mark Lawrence, Asaeli Naika, and Phillip Baker, here's a summary under each listed heading:Regarding the question of what is driving changes in food consumption from pre-colonial times to present day in the Pacific and Fiji, following the various listed headings her is a brief summary of the article by Katherine J. Sievert, Mark E. Lawrence, Asaeli Rova Naika, Phillip P. Baker :

 a.  Pre-Colonization

 Influence on Food Consumption Patterns:Food consumption pattern:

 Traditional Diets: In the past before the colonization of Pacific Island nations including Fijians, stabled diet was local and of traditional types. Their food diet, as the folklore had it, included fruits and vegetables, tubers such as taro and yams, coconuts, fish among others.

 Self-Sufficiency: The communities were of small nomadic groups mostly involved in food crops farming, fishing, and hunting. The food was processed, various methods of preservation were used when it was required, but mainly it was drying with rare use of fermentation.

 Cultural Practices: Of those, the most immediate links existed between the food consumption sectors and culture, religious practices, and status or rank. But it was also possible to notice that the diet was influenced by the seasonal and geographical shifts.

 b.  Colonization

 Influence on Food Consumption Patterns:Effects of Trends on Consumption of Foods:

 Introduction of New Foods: The Fiji and other pacific Island countries new crops and methods of food production were introduced by Apoorva clinicians colonization. European settlers altered traditional methods of practices in feeding when they introduced to the people the crops such as the sugar cane, the wheat and new livestock.

 Shift from Subsistence to Cash Economy: This is well illustrated by the change from subsistence farming occasioned by the introduction of a cash economy that saw the cash crops being farmed on large scale thus decreasing the local diets list consumption. Consumer opted for processed goods and necessity products like rice, flour and sugar and the likes.

 Dependency on Imports: It was around this time that the practice of importing foods began or at least speeded up, and thus people began to slowly leave behind those foods which were particularly nutritious.

 c.  Globalization

 Influence on Food Consumption Patterns:Like the influence on the types of foods consumed, the over emphasis on meat and dairy products affects the intake of those classes of foods.

 Increased Access to Processed Foods: All the above discussed trends are also witnessed to have been influenced by the forces of globalization in the sense that more and more citizens of Fiji and other people in the pacific region are getting increased access to highly processed foods and beverages. These are; Soft drinks, junk foods and products, and processed foods.

 Cultural Shifts: Western diet and life styles began to penetrate population, and as a result shifting from conventional diet and associate with unhealthy foods.

 Health Impacts: This change has therefore been linked with rise in cases of Non-Communicable Diseases, (NCD’s) such as obesity, diabetes and heart diseases in the region.

 d.  Economy

 Influence on Food Consumption Patterns:Impact on food procurement:

 Economic Development and Urbanization: Change is culture and food habits have been brought about by modernization and urbanization. Supermarkets and convenience stores are considerably more numerous in urban centres than in rural ones and consumers in the urban centres consume more processed foods available in supermarkets and convenience stores but significantly less fresh produce than consumers in rural areas.

 Income Disparities: There is an obvious scenario of domination by one side in terms of food assortment available for each consumer in a given community where the consumers with the low income have to buy the products produced from cheap, and high-calorie, nutrient-void, processed foods.

 Food Security Concerns: Economic shocks lead to vulnerabilities, and therefore lead to food insecurity because due to tight budgets they end up consuming processed and substandard foods from other nations for they are cheaper.

 e.  Trade

 Influence on Food Consumption Patterns:The following area of focus is therefore Influence on Food Consumption Patterns.

 Liberalization of Trade: This has been enhance by globalization and liberalization of trade policies whereby the importation of processed foods in Fiji and most part of the pacific has increased. Some bureaucracies like the tariffs and trade barriers have been lifted to enable the multinational food companies to market and sell their products in the regions.

 Impact on Local Agriculture: Interconnectedness of food systems: intake of cheap foods from other economies has led to the declining of the regional agricultural foods hence altering their food habits.

 Global Food Chains: This participation ensures they are exposed to such global foods as the generally available processed foods and thus makes them prone to such foods.

 The consuming pattern of food in Pacific or Fiji was change due to colonization, globalization, economical conditions and trades at the period from pre colonization to the present period. Such influences have leaned diet towards the valueless foods – away from normal and healthier food that is prevalent in indigenous culture and at the same time, the communities are struggling with the existing health crisis.