Food Insecurity

Food insecurity is one of the main causes of human suffering, loss of productivity, poor labor performance, deficiency in learning, and an obstacle in the educational progress of youngsters. 

People who grow hungry because of poverty conditions are human beings whose talent and qualities remain unexploited. In most cases, they cannot take advantage of the progress of civilization.

Nowadays, more than a billion people live in poverty and have become food insecure. Half of them are starving or have “chronic hunger”. Every minute, 15 children die from the lack food, drinking water, and basic medical assistance.

The demand for food is higher than the supply, specially in developing countries, where malnutrition is a serious problem.

In the last two years, the demand for tubers and roots in Africa rose to 36 million tons, while production only grew 21 million tons, leaving a deficit of 15 million tons. This gap is being covered by importing cereals (sold by multinational corporations), at very high prices, which creates a whole new economic crisis.

Main causes of food insecurity:

Millions of people, specially those living in rural areas, grow hungry and suffer from malnutrition mainly because of the following factors:

1.      Poverty

2.      Unequal distribution of wealth

3.      Rapid population growth

4.      Unemployment and low incomes 

5.      Insalubrious environment

6.      Lack of education and unwise investment of incomes 

Food security relies fundamentally on the growth of the agricultural sector, which can guarantee a plentiful, permanent and harmonious supply of food. In its turn, more jobs can be created, and rural families can receive higher incomes, thus becoming more economically stable. 

Long-term sustainable growth can only be reached if rural workers gain access to farmland, water, and fertilizers.

Each year, and because of the of lack of incentives, more people are migrating from rural areas to industrialized cities, leaving the farmlands unattended and causing a drop in the production of traditional foods.

“Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.”  This is the definition of food security, as it was made known during the World Food Summit, sponsored by the FAO.

However, we are far from having food security, particularly among the poorest countries of the Third World.

The term “undernourished” is applied to any person whose food intake is insufficient to meet calorie requirements on a continuing basis.

A person becomes “food insecure” when he or she does not have access to a quantity of food and nutrients sufficient enough to maintain a good health status and normal living conditions.

Food insecurity can be transitory or chronic. When the latter occurs, the person becomes undernourished.

Chronic food insecurity or undernourishment stems from the insufficient intake of food on a continuing basis.

Food insecurity becomes chronic when a person is not capable of meeting, on a continuing basis, a sufficient level of nutrient intake; and transitory when there is only a temporary shortage of food intake. However, people who are chronically food insecure can also undergo fluctuations in relation to their degree of food insecurity.

The term “vulnerability” refers to the factors that place a person at risk of becoming food insecure, including those factors that hinder one’s potential of subsistence.

Nutritional status is a designation that makes reference to a person’s physiological status, which is in turn determined by a combination of factors, such as food intake, health status and sanitary conditions.

What are the most food insecure countries in the world?

38 countries have become food insecure due to unfavorable weather conditions and civil riots. An adverse economic situation can also be a cause of vulnerability and food insecurity, when incomes and other resources are not evenly distributed among the population or when the investments of both public and private sectors are insufficient or biased.

A country’s political situation can revert food insecurity, but it can also worsen it. Those political systems that foster people’s participation tend to reduce vulnerability. On the other hand, a civil conflict can become a factor of vulnerability that can hinder commercial trading, destroy people’s social and private property, and trigger both unemployment and the migration of affected families. 

Sometimes, one can find the highest degree of malnutrition among populations inhabiting areas constantly affected by conflicts. Civil conflicts constitute the political factor studied by this report, and it is represented by the number of countries undergoing serious situations.

Social conditions, attitudes, and services all have a significant influence over the degrees of vulnerability and food insecurity. It is thus difficult to find malnutrition in places where the population has access to schooling and medical assistance.  

Traditional customs often determine what foods people consume, how resources are distributed, what foods are available, and how people wash them and prepare them.

According to a FAO report, almost 10 million people living in the sub-Saharan Africa require prompt aid. Due to persisting droughts and civil conflicts, as well as insecurity in many countries along the region, scores of people have had to migrate, interrupting the production of food.

The state of food insecurity in the world

At the World Food Summit in 1996, world leaders pledged to reduce the number of hungry people to around 400 million by 2015. At the current rate of progress, a reduction of 8 million undernourished people a year, there is no hope of meeting that goal.

According to the FAO report “The State of Food Insecurity in the World 1999”, the current reduction does not indicate uniform progress throughout the world. Indeed the data reveal that, in the first half of this decade, just 37 countries achieved a reduction in the number of undernourished, totaling 100 million people. Across the rest of the developing world, the number of hungry people actually increased by almost 60 million.

The State of Food Insecurity in the World also points out that hunger is not limited to the developing nations. The report presents the first assessment of the number of undernourished people in the developed world, finding 8 million in the industrialized countries and 26 million in the countries in transition.

The following countries are among those that arouse most concern:

In Africa:  Angola, Burundi, The Democratic Republic of Congo, The Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leona, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda.

According to the report, the food situation is very serious in Somalia, where the droughts, high temperatures, and military conflicts have led to the loss of the seventh consecutive harvest. Due to the lack of food and the intensification of military conflicts, 70,000 people have migrated. According to estimations, “more than a million people face a serious food shortage, while more than 400,000 are at risk of starving to death.

 In Ethiopia, most of the crops planted in the beginning of the season has spoiled. According to the report, more than 5 million people – including 385,000 refugees from the war against Eritrea – will need urgent food aid.

 In Eritrea, 250,000 war refugees have migrated from Ethiopia, and other 61,500 people have been deported. In spite of a good harvest in 1998, the food situation for these sectors of the population has been quite unfavorable. 

 In Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, where the political situation is more stable, a prolonged drought has had its repercussions on agricultural production. The drought has forced many livestock owners to move from the west of Uganda to the north of Tanzania,  in search of water and pasturelands.

Cereal production has also decreased significantly in South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, and Zimbabwe.

 But not all is bad news. According to the report, the supply of food in Western Africa, specially within the Sahel, will remain satisfactory until the next harvest.

 In Asia:  Afghanistan, Indonesia, Iraq, North Korea, Laos, and Mongolia.

 In Latin America and the Caribbean:  Cuba, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Saint Kitts & Nevis.

 In the Community of Independent States (CIS) and Eastern Europe:

Albany, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Georgia, Macedonia, The Russian Federation, Tajikistan, and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

Source: FAO’s Committee on World Food Security

Twenty – fifth session, Rome 31 May – 3 June, 1999

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