Good Essay On Food Insecurity

Food insecurity refers to a scarcity of food that which results in the lack of access of a family or household to an adequate supply of nutritious food. The U.S. Department of Agriculture defines food insecurity was meaning the lack of access by all people at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life. In essence, food insecurity is the percentage of all individuals across the country who are consistently hungry or underfed. Food insecurity is vitally important to any country’s national interests. To be sure, in a 2013 report to the Senate, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper listed food insecurity as a major threat to the nation.
Food insecurity occurs for a number of reasons. For example, war and conflict is a major source of food insecurity. Wars tend not only to reduce the amount of food available to eat but also tend to disrupt people’s ability actual get food. Climate and environmental circumstances also play a role in the level of food insecurity. For instance, a lack of water or arable land, as well as, the occurrence of droughts, floods, storms all affects the amount of food that can be produced at any given time. Still, perhaps the most common reason for food insecurity is lack of money. Lack of money affects food security on both the supply and demand side. To be sure no funds means less money to buy good seed, prepare land for planting, harvesting production, as well as processing and transporting food to the market. On the demand side, lack of money means the inability to buy food at all, even if the supply was plentiful.
While the United States is one of the richest and most developed countries in the world, it still suffers from food insecurity. In fact, since the beginning of the economic downturn in 2008, the number of individuals that have suffered from food insecurity has “increased significantly and remains at historically high levels” (“Current and Prospective Scope of Hunger”). In 2012, 49 million Americans were suffering from food insecurity (“Current and Prospective Scope of Hunger”). Moreover, the level of food insecurity is largely based on the state or region of the nation one lives in. Take for example the state of Texas, which ranks second in the nation for households that are food insecure and among the top 12 states in terms of overall food insecurity rates. What this means is that approximately one in five Texans are food insecure (“HIA-Texas Report”).
The most vulnerable population for food insecurity is children under the age of 18, who make up nearly one-third or about 16 million of the nation’s food insecure population. As with the adult population, the rate of food insecure children also depends on the state. Children in the south, southwest and west are substantially more food insecure than children in the northeast, Midwest and northwest regions of the nation. In addition to children, vulnerable populations for food insecurity include the indigent, the elderly and ethnic minorities. As mentioned, poverty is one of the most common causes of food insecurity and these populations continue to be the ones that most often are the poorest members of society. One of the current circumstances adversely affecting these populations is the fact that the 2014 Farm Bill and other government cuts to social programs have eliminated over U.S. $5 billion in food stamp benefits (Resnikoff).
In response to the food insecurity problem in the U.S. a range of initiatives have been launched by both state and federal governments. For example, the governors of several states have steeped in to make up the gap created by the 2014 Farm Bill by “moving around funds to prevent food stamp cuts (Resnikoff). In addition to government based assistance private organizations also play a role in alleviating food insecurity. For instance, Feeding America is a private organization that owns a network of food banks and hunger-relief programs across the nation which provide food to local non-profit shelters and kitchens that service people facing hunger (“HIA-National Report”).
I think that one of the most effective ways to decrease food insecurity in the U.S. is to improve the opportunities for people to work or find gainful employment. If the most common cause of food insecurity is poverty, working to end poverty or mitigate its effect would give people not only the funds to get food but also help increase economic activity which would allow more and more people to enjoy a better living standard that includes food security.

Works Cited

Clapper, James. “Worldwide Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence Community. Director of National Intelligence. DNI, 12 Mar. 2013. Web. 11 Mar. 2015.
“Current and Prospective Scope of Hunger and Food Security in America: A Review of Current Research.” RTI International. Research Triangle Institute, 24 Jul. 2014. Web. 11 Mar. 2015.
“Definitions of Food Security.” U.S. Department of Agriculture. USDA, 03 Sep. 2014. Web. 11 Mar. 2015
Resnikoff, Ned. “Governors move to block Farm Bill’s food stamp cuts.” MSNBC. MSNBC , 27 Feb. 2014. Web. 11 Mar. 2015.
Weinfeild, Nancy, and Gregory Mills, Christine Borger, Maeve Gearing, Theodore Macaluso, Jill Montaquila, Sheila Zedlewski. “Hunger in America 2014: State Report for Texas. Feeding America. Westat and the Urban Institute, Sep. 2014. Web. 11 Mar. 2015.
Weinfeild, Nancy, and Gregory Mills, Christine Borger, Maeve Gearing, Theodore Macaluso, Jill Montaquila, Sheila Zedlewski. “Hunger in America 2014: National Report Prepared for Feeding America. Feeding America. Westat and the Urban Institute, Aug. 2014. Web. 11 Mar. 2015.