Causes And Solutions Of Food Insecurity

More than 1 billion people in the world right now are suffering from hunger. Food security is “the access by all people at all times to the food needed for a healthy life,” as defined by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. There are four points to food security, which are “availability, access, utilization, and stability.” When one or even all these points are missing, it is described as food insecurity. The rise of food prices in 2008 shocked and affected millions of people, many of whom were very poor. Because of the rise of food prices, there were protests and hunger was put at the top of the list, although it did not stay there. Science has to understand how to deal with hunger as the problem grows. Using scientific research and changing policies can have a huge impact on the issue of hunger. Population is

Many countries around the world have developed food deficiency and food insecurity issues. Deficiency is the lack or shortage of something, so food deficiency is the shortage of food; and food insecurity is when people in an area do not have access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food at all times to meet their dietary needs. There are five main factors that contribute to a country having food deficiency and food insecurity issues, these being: environmental, demographic, political, social, and economic factors. All of these factors have influenced Ethiopia to having food deficiency and food insecurity problems. Ethiopia is located in the Horn of Africa and is home to about 85 million people, and has been suffering from food deficiency and insecurity problems for quite a while. These five factors have contributed to Ethiopia’s current state, in regard to food.

Food insecurity is when a person does not have access to an abundance of food, and when the little food they do have, is not nutritious (Ruane). One of the big steps in lowering the food insecurity rate, is making the public more aware of the issue. If we started showing the world more facts about this issue, more would be done to lower the problem. If we stated the fact that one of every six people suffer from food insecurity in the United States alone (Coleman), maybe it would spark people to become more active and do more to help. The one of every six people fact is just in the United States. This issue strikes at home, not just in underdeveloped countries in Africa like we think. It is startling to know that food insecurity occurs in every community across the United States

In our course of study we have learned the difference between primary, secondary and tertiary prevention levels. Primary prevention is aimed at preventing or reducing the effects on populations. Primary prevention occurs when we educate our patients, families or the community, providing them with the tool of knowledge needed to prevent illness. My project on food insecurity promotes primary prevention in university students by attempting to identify those students experiencing food insecurity, then providing those students with the resources to obtaining supplemental food within their community.

Across the United States there is a growing about of the population that struggles with food insecurity and health disparities. Sometimes it is hard to believe that people in our own community struggle so much to get the proper nutrients for their families to live a healthy and active life. Although this problem is wide and continues to grow there is little going on the help the numbers decrease. With many different charity programs that help families get food, it does not completely bring down the numbers in the population who struggle from food insecurities. One of the main problems that relate to this struggle is the amount of poverty across America. The population that lives in poverty are more likely to have issues with unsecure food households due to the fact that they struggle to simply keep a roof over their head none the less keep the proper food

Food insecurity is defined as “the lack of access to enough food to ensure adequate nutrition.”1 The Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service (ERS) reported that 14.6% of US households were food insecure during at least some portion of 2008 (up 11.1% from 2007), the highest levels recorded since monitoring began in 1995.2 Food insecurity is a concern of under consumption and obesity is a disease of over consumption, yet both outcomes may coexist, seemingly incongruously, within the same household.2 The most popular explanation is that low-cost, energy-dense foods linked to obesity are favored by financially constrained households, who are the most likely to be food insecure.2 Another theory, focusing on environmental context net of individual circumstance, argues that obesity and insecurity are both symptoms of malnutrition, occurring in neighborhoods where nutritious foods are unavailable or unaffordable.2 A separate literature researches environmental roles in poor nutritional outcomes, recent studies link obesity as well as atherosclerosis and diabetes to the food environment, the local context of available food items.2 The theory is that local inaccessibility to healthy foods influences diet composition, a claim supported by evidence.2 Especially in poorer neighborhoods, food options are often limited to fast food restaurants, convenience stores, or grocery stores more poorly stocked both in

Many factors contribute to the food insecurity faced by many American’s today. Poverty seems to attribute to the hunger crisis more drastically than anything else. More specifically, unequal distribution of wealth is the principle cause of hunger. The world does in fact produce enough food to feed everyone, the issues is that income is not distributed is in such a way that everyone can afford or have access to food.

Even though payments from Social Security and Supplemental Security Income have played a critical part in an attempt to increase economic security among older adults, poverty still remains on the rise for this population. Many still live on limited incomes and have the modest savings. In 2013, 50% of people in Medicare possessed incomes of less than $23,000 which corresponds to 200% of poverty in 2015 (Cubanski et. al, 2015). Today, over 25 million people ages 60 or more are economically insecure living at or below 250% of the federal poverty level (FPL) (National Council on Aging, 2016). As a result, these individuals struggle with increasing housing and health care bills, lack of nutrition, inadequate access to transportation, and job

Food insecurity is a term that indicates the limited capability to afford nutritionally adequate and safe food or the limited ability to obtain adequate foods in socially acceptable ways (1-2). In 2015, 13% of all U.S. households, which represents 42.2 million people (including 29.1 million adults and 13.1 million children), were food insecure (3) and food insecurity was found to be present in every county in the United States, ranging from a low of 4% in Loudoun County, VA to a high of 38% in Jefferson County, MS (4).

“There has been many causes for food insecurity like biofuel because it requires a large amount of vegetables which increases the prices for vegetables (National Center Biotechnology Information),  housing cost since the prices for rent have been increasing, unemployment because they lost their job and can’t afford food, low wages because they don’t receive enough money which they have to use for housing cost and would have to cut the cost for food, medical/health care due to them being injured and

Food is a necessary part of ever individual’s daily life. Without food, the body cannot function properly, resulting in poor health, exhaustion, and even death by starvation. Therefore, food insecurity continues to be an international global epidemic. The journal article by Harrigan suggests that the citizens of the Sub-Saharan African country of Malawia are in further poverty due to their lack of food and agricultural resources. The newspaper article from the Guardian tells the real life story of African citizens struggling to farm and find food due to the crop shortages that have spanned Africa for the past two years. This is a current global issue, and the journal and news article prove that there is much to be done in order to help restore

According to UN (1990), household food security defined as “The ability of household members to assure themselves sustained access to sufficient quantity and quality of food to live active and healthy life.” FAO (1992) defines as food security is referred in terms of access to food, availability of food, and also in terms of resource distribution to produce food and purchasing power to buy food, where it is produced. Another definition given by USAID (1992) defines food security as: “when all people at all times have both physical and economic access to sufficient food to meet their dietary needs for a productive and healthy life.” Based on this food security includes at a minimum the availability of nutritionally adequate and safe food, and assured ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways (such as without resorting to emergency food supplies, scavenging, stealing, or other coping strategies). According to World Bank

Witcombe, J., & Sanchez, J. (2004). Food systems and security helping the poor cope. Retrieved from http://www.id21.org/health/InsightsHealth5art3.html

Food Insecurity is defined as access by all people at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life, and at a minimum includes the following: the ready availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods and the assured ability to acquire personally acceptable foods in a socially acceptable way, qualified by their involuntariness and periodicity. Even though food insecurity affects everyone in the household, it may also affect them differently. Food insecurity mostly exists whenever food security is limited. Uncertain or limited availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods results chronic diseases psychological, and suicidal syndrome (Cook & Frank, 2008)

In Chad, the majority of the population has a low standard of living, this is shown through their high levels of inequality, poor housing, low standard of health, high infant mortality rate, high corruption, high levels of malnutrition, lack of overall education and high poverty levels. Its gdp per capita (PPP), has relatively remained stagnant over the last four decades according to IMF world economic outlook data published in 2016. It shows that Chad’s share of worlds gdp (PPP) was approximately 0.02% in 1980’s and is 0.03% in 2017. This stagnant growth in the standard of living in Chad is momentous as it exemplifies that standard of living 35 years ago has remained constant and is roughly the same in present times. This is also evident through its high poverty headcount, over half of the population is still living below the poverty line, meaning that the citizens of Chad cannot afford adequate housing and vaccines and other basic necessities. All of these factors contribute to the low standard of living in Chad, which is a direct result of Chad's lack of economic growth and development.