Food Insecurity

Food insecurity is defined by the inability to acquire adequate food due to insufficient money and other resources for food. Food insecurity can be divided into two categories, low food secure and very low food secure. Very low food security is determined when the eating patterns of individuals or households are disrupted and their food intake is reduced at some point during the year, due to inadequate finances. People with low food security, at times, cannot acquire adequate food because they have insufficient money, so they avoid substantial reductions in food intake, and change their intake to just a few basic foods. Overall, reducing the variety of their diet, as opposed to eating less food.

The prevalence of food insecurity in 2008 shows a spike in both food insecure households and individuals, but plateaus at this point. The reason for the drastic increase in food insecurity is due to the recession which hurt the economy and made it difficult for people to purchase food. Since 2008, approximately 17 million households were food insecure, while 48-50 million of those were food insecure individuals. Food insecure children also hit the highest during 2008, but decreased slightly since then. 

There are questions used to assess the food security of households, as in the Food Security Survey based on the Current Population Survey. Answering often, sometimes, or never true in the last 12 months to questions like, “we worried whether our food would run out before we got money to buy more,” “we couldn’t afford to eat balanced meals,” and “in the last 12 months, did you lose weight because there wasn’t enough money for food” could determine if you are food insecure. Households are still considered food secure if they report no food insecure conditions or only one or two food insecure conditions from the list.

The following data is the prevalence of household food insecurity. Mississippi has the highest percentage of food insecurity in 2010-2012 of 20.9, with low or very low food security. The lowest percentage of food insecurity is 8.7 in North Dakota. Looking at only very low food security, percentages ranges from 3.2 in Virginia to 8.1 in Arkansas. 

After adjusting for inflation of food prices, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients became more food insecure from 2009-2011. The maximum SNAP benefit declined by about half from 2009-2011. Prior to the SNAP-benefit increase in 2009, the benefit for each household adjusted upward with inflation. Now as SNAP benefits remain fixed, as inflation raises prices, households are forced to get less food.

Assessing the prevalence of undernourished people around the world, Asia is the nation with the most undernourished people with 552 million people, but when looking at the prevalence of undernourishment, Africa has the highest percentage of 21.2%.

The FAO views food security as four dimensions, food availability, access to food, food utilization, and stability. Food availability ensures there is enough food to a given population. Over the past two decades in developing countries, food supplies have grown faster than the population, resulting in more available food per person. Access to food is based on two pillars, economic and physical access. Economic access is determined by disposable income and food prices, while physical access is determined by availability and quality of infrastructure. Food utilization conveys the impact of inadequate food intake and poor health. Stability includes equipment such as irrigation to combat drought, and reduction in risks like swings in food and input prices. 

Ghana is just one example of a few countries that halved the prevalence of undernourishment since the beginning of the 1990s. Creating new policies and reforms help increase food production with in return increased GDP, reduced poverty, and reduced undernutrition. These three areas work hand in hand when increasing the well being of people around the world. 


Literature Cited

http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/err-economic-research-report/err155.aspx

http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/err-economic-research-report/err151.aspx 

http://www.fao.org/docrep/018/i3434e/i3434e.pdf