An Issue of National Food Insecurity

According to a report released this month, food insecurity, an issue long seen as a bane of developing countries, is reaching an alarming level in the United States in the recent post-recession years. The report "Food Security in the United States 2009" found that 17.4 million households in America had difficulty providing enough food due to a lack of resources.

The report, published by the US Department of Agriculture, looked at household food access and security in the U.S. and revealed that 14.7 per cent of American households were food insecure at least some time during 2009, including 5.7 per cent with very low food security. While the latest figures for overall food insecurity and ‘severe’ food security remained close to their 2008 levels (14.6 per cent and 5.7 per cent respectively) they remain the highest recorded levels since the first national food security survey was conducted in 1995.

Highlighting the significant inequalities in food resource availability across U.S. households, the USDA report noted that the typical food-insecure household spent a whopping 33 per cent less on food than the typical food-secure household of the same size and composition. Furthermore, in households with “severe range of food insecurity” resource constraints were often the cause of eating pattern disruptions, with the food intake of members often dropping over the course of the year.

Another worrying fact uncovered by the report was the large racial divide in food security outcomes, with rates of food insecurity among African-American and Hispanic households remaining substantially higher than the national average. Insecurity was also notably higher among households with incomes near or below the federal poverty line and a single parent headed households. 

The USDA report was based on data from an annual food security survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau and covered about 46,000 households.  Adult respondents were asked a series of questions covering experiences and behaviors typically noted to indicate food insecurity - such as being unable, at times, to afford balanced meals, cutting the size of meals or being hungry because of too little money for food.  Household food security status was then designated based on the number of food-insecure conditions reported.

To read the full briefing click here.

For more on world food security in 2009, click here.