Food Security Is A Basic Human Right, Essential For Life

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

Food insecurity is best described as when people lack secure access to nutritious and sufficient nourishment

World Food Summit defines food security as: “Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life”. (World Food Summit, 1996) On the contrary, the food insecurity means the situation people who are lack of food or nutrition. A person who lives in such situation for a very long time cannot access enough nutritious food to be healthy. Additionally, food insecurity can be chronic, seasonal or transitory (FAO, 2000). At present, the

Record-high levels of food inequality are being felt most prominently in the world's cities. Since the year 2000, New York City food costs have increased by 59 percent, while the average income of working adults has only increased by 17 percent. (Breggin 1) rising food costs and lack of food availability in urban areas has created effects that are felt by millions of people around the world. The USDA defines Food insecurity as a household-level economic and social condition of limited or uncertain access to adequate food, and it is plaguing our nation. Characterized by inability to find healthy food and not having enough to sustain a household are problems that an estimated 12.3 % of American households experience regularly (USDA 1).chart food sec..png

Food Security is when people have enough food all the time which make them feel safe and keep them healthy so they can live their life. There are three main elements for food security: First, Food availability is that

According to Derek Byerlee, food security can be defined as “the challenge of meeting food and nutritional needs while protecting environmental services.” Based on the definition given by Byerlee, food insecurity will be the exact opposite. Not meeting the food and nutritional needs of a country. Keep this definition in mind as this word will be mentioned throughout the paper.

population, however, one in nine are food insecure. Food security, defined by the United Nations’ Committee on World Food Security is “the condition in which all people, at all times, have physical, economic and social access to sufficient safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs for an active and healthy life.” Developing countries are most at risk of food insecurity with Sub-Saharan Africa having the highest prevalence of hunger.

Food security is to have availability to food, whether it be for basic nutritional needs, special dietary needs, for example, lactose-free, or personal preferences. For a household to be considered food secure, the tenants must not be living in hunger.  In recent years land degradation, climate change, global water crisis, and greedy land deals, are the main causes of food insecurity.  From a global report in 2006, there are more overweight people (over one billion) than undernourished people (an estimated 800 million).  There are up to 2 billion people in the world, that have a shortage of food security due to several levels of poverty.  The population increases and people desire new and different foods, even though there is already enough, however, this cannot happen because the requirements needed to do this are not available. This leads to challenges in the world, such as accommodating the growing population with food at all times.

Many people don’t realize the sever issue that hunger can bring to their community, only because of the lack of knowledge on the situation. Food insecurity is the state of being without reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food. Hunger is a feeling of discomfort or weakness caused by lack of food, coupled with the desire to eat. Food and hunger are some of biggest social and public health issues people are dealing with in the United States. Over 41.2 million people in America live in food-insecure households, while 49 million are having a difficult time trying to provide food. 1 out of 6 people in America face hunger. This epidemic effects

Food insecurity can range from sporadically having food uncertainty to living in full blown famine conditions. Food insecurity is nothing new. It’s something that has been around as long as human life. Food insecurity is not prejudice, it effects both developing and developed countries. The United States is no different than any other country, though we are a developed country, many people within its borders do not know where their next meal is coming from.

Food insecurity will unfortunately always be an issue within our nation to some degree. There will always be a demand for food banks, government assistance, and organizations fighting to alleviate the levels of hunger within our country. However, the misconceptions of those who experience food insecurity do not need to remain prevalent within our society. Knowledge of who is susceptible to food insecurity, why they are, and how we can help is fortunately spreading within mainstream media and even college classrooms. Furthermore, it is difficult to perceive something incorrectly once it has been understood firsthand, and being open minded towards issues that are so easy to prejudge is the first step in growing more compassionate towards all

It is an ongoing cycle in the households of food insecurity. Foods that are lower in cost are purchased to make the most of the limited funds. Unfortunately, these foods are usually higher in fat or sugar and/or dimished nutritional value. It is more cost effect to purchase a box of macaroni and cheese that feeds a family of four than to purchase an apple that cost about the same. The apple has more macronutrients, phytochemicals, minerals, fiber and vitamins than the macaroni and cheese. Although carbohydrates are necessary in the diet, a disproportionate amount of starchy carbohydrates increase weight gain and possibly diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, and other chronic diseases, which contributes to increasing health cost annually. Likewise, a package of Kool-Aid makes an inexpensive half-gallon drink, which is less costly than the same of 100% fruit

consumption, either displaying no interest in the food provided, or struggling to keep it down, often

Access to a healthy food or food security is a very important social determinate of health. Food insecurity is the economic and social condition of a family that have limited food access or unsure of nutritional value and quality of that food (Wang et al., 2015). In fact, nearly 49 million Americans faced food insecurity in 2012 (Wang et al., 2015). Food insecurity is associated with depression, management of the chronic diseases, and worse HIV outcomes (Wang et al., 2015). Also, a study showed that food insecurity is linked to poor glycemic control, inability to control blood pressure and cholesterol level (Berkowitz et al., 2013).

Merriam Webster defines food insecurity as “unable to consistently access or afford adequate food.” While food insecurity is often confused with starvation it must be made clear that food insecurity and starvation are not the same thing despite the fact that they can easily be connected. Simply put food insecurity is the insecurity that a household might not be able to afford the food it needs from month to month. This is a sharp contrast compared to food security which is the ability for a household to sustain itself with the food it