Based on ethnographic fieldwork in a coastal village in south-eastern Tanzania, this paper examines how social inequalities and social suffering become embodied in the lived experiences of hunger. The paper explores local meanings of food, fertility and hunger and how these concepts interconnect and materialize on a landscape impacted by two large-scale conservation and development projects, the Mtwara Development Corridor and the Mnazi Bay Ruvuma Estuary Marine Park. Fourteen in-depth interviews Sinde villagers were conducted to elicit narratives about their food experiences in addition to 24 hour food recall and pile sort to explore local taxonomies of food. One focus group discussion with six women was also conducted. The study finds displacement from resources by the conservation and development projects has exacerbated existing food security issues of irregular rains, increasing food prices and malnourished bodies. The downward cycle of food insecurity has local villagers worried about the viability of their community's future, embodied in the health of local children and their performance in school. Increasing food insecurity is internalized within the community as infertility where the health of the landscape is connected to the health of society.
Keywords: fertility; hunger; large-scale conservation and development projects; social suffering.