An Overview of the Environmental, Social and Economic Causes of Food Insecurity

Babu R. Pandey (Student ID. 318294) Introduction Food Insecurity has been defined by the United Nations, as a lack of physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets [a majority of peoples] dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life (Food Information and Vulnerability Information and Mapping (FIVIMS), 1987). Coleman-Jensen (2010) proposes a different approach to define food insecurity. The approach classifies people into three groups based on food security status: food secure, marginally food secure and food insecure. The conventional approach, which classifies people into only two groups (food secure and food insecure), considers marginally secure groups as food secure whereas the three groups are distinctly different. A huge population (about 903 million) suffers from hunger in varying geographic locations in the world. The majority of suffering population is in developing countries. In 2007, about 98% of the world's undernourished people were from developing countries, particularly from sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia (Food and Agricultural Organization, 2008). However, the problem is not confined only in developing countries. Several studies indicate the presence of food insecurity in certain parts and communities in highly developed countries. Foley et al. (2008) reported that in 2007, seven percent of interviewees, most of aboriginal and uneducated people, in Western Australia did not have enough food. University students in Australia are at significant risk of food insecurity. Hughes et al. (2011) conducted a survey and the results indicated that 12.7-46.7%, depending on analysis method, suffered from food insecurity. African-Americans in North Carolina (Laraia et al., 2009), Latino farm workers in North Carolina (Quandt et al., 2004), Inuit community in Canada (Beaumier and Ford, 2010, Ford and Beaumier, 2011), and Mexican migrants in California (Rosas et al., 2009, Sharkey et al., 2011) have been reported to suffer from food insecurity. Causes Most of the explanations on causes of food insecurity are based on three main ideas that were presented in 1970s food crisis. They include low yields of food crops (deJanvry and Sadoulet, 1991), natural disasters (Skees, 2000, Del Ninno et al., 2003) and high protectionist policies for domestic farmers (Hopkins and Puchala, 1978). These three reasons are not the only causes of food security in developing countries today (Carmichael, 2010); there is severe food insecurity in poor countries even though they have food surpluses at national level (Smith et al., 2000). The
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problem should be understood, unlike individual causes, in a systemic level because a complex set of multiple factors act on it (Brooks and Loevinsohn, 2011). Environmental causes Drought, high temperature and floods Environmental factors like high temperatures, drought and floods have been a major reason to disrupt food production in developing countries. In the Sahel nations in Africa, famines were experienced after severe droughts in the 1910s, the 1940s, and the 1960s, 70s and 80s (Gattoni, 2011). Climate variability especially rainfall fluctuation and poor soil fertility are major reasons for food shortages in Northern Ghana (Hesselberg and Yaro, 2006). Drought, which interacts with other socioeconomic factors, is the main reason for famines in sub-Saharan Africa (Ifejika Speranza et al., 2008). Nyariki et al. (2002) conducted a repeatvisit survey of households in southern Kenya. Food poverty incidences and proportion of insecure households were higher in dry areas (40-52% and 46%, respectively) than in the wet areas (32-42% and36%, respectively). In 2002, drought in Karnataka (India) resulted in poor agricultural production, food shortage, acute shortage of drinking water and other problems (Ravindranath et al., 2005). Floods devastated about 1.7 million hectares of crop, displaced >18 million people, and killed 2000 people in Pakistan last year. People in the region are suffering from food insecurity and malnutrition (Sarwar, 2011). Climate change The uncertain and changing climate is going to be a major challenge of food production in future. There are enough evidences that climate has changed a lot in recent decades and centuries. Paleoclimatic information shows that no time in the past millennium has been as warm as recent (Kerr, 2005a). Recent decades and centuries faced steeper increase in temperatures than before (IPCC, 2007). Changes in pattern of rainfall, humidity and other weather events have been observed in several places. Modelling data by Battisti and Naylor (2009) showed that higher growing season temperatures, particularly in tropics and subtropics, are likely to exceed the record temperatures from 1990-2006. This change in temperature could be the most important constraint to food production systems. The climatic changes have already affected food production systems particularly in tropics and subtropics (Mortan, 2007). Some researchers have indicated benefits of climate changes, like yield increases due to CO2 rise, in some places. Dixon et al. (2009) argue that
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climate change is going to benefit environment and population; climate change challenges the supply of affluent foods, which affect environment and health negatively, produced by industrialized agriculture. With this effect, climate change is going to present opportunities to produce ecofriendly and healthful foods. However, beneficial effects of climate change will be far exceeded by its negative effects, which would intensify food insecurity in developing countries (St.Clair and Lynch, 2010). Climate change will affect all four dimensions of food security, namely availability, access, stability of supplies, and utilization (FAO, 2006). Social Causes The global food insecurity is not accountable to only environmental variables or low production. There are a number of socio-economic, cultural, policy-related and other variables, which interact with each other to contribute to food insecurity. Gender and cultural norms Gender issues, and cultural norms and values are associated to food insecurity in many parts and communities. In the Ekwendeni region of northern Malawi, women are burdened with household and other works, but do not have access to land, employment and are not allowed to participate in decision making (Kerr, 2005b). In south-western Ethiopia, girls are more likely to suffer from food insecurity despite they belong to households of same food insecurity level (Hadley et al., 2008). Women are disproportionately insecure for food access. They are inferior in family and social status and face discrimination, lack of education, and unemployment (Horenstein, 1989) cited by (Molnar, 1999). The gender bias exists not only in developing countries but also in developed nations. Dubois et al. (2011) observed the problem of childhood obesity, which was associated to food insecurity, was higher in girls in Jamaica and in Quebec province in Canada. Norms like who eats first, who eats most and who eats leftover have significant impact not only on women but also on children. There are some other cultural and religious beliefs that promote food insecurity. Some of the examples are early marriage, little investment on girl education, lack of freedom for women to get out of home etc. (Harris, 1995). Population The growing population which is expected to double by 2050 is going to be one of major challenges for food security in future. Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, densely populated in the world, are the regions with extreme food insecurity (Food and Agricultural Organization, 2008).
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Growth in population growth and economyas it results in decreased self sufficiently on foodmay further worsen the food problems in these countries. Moon (2009) has pointed possibility of these problems in north East Asia, another densely populated part of the world. Economic causes Poverty National food availability does not ensure food security in a household/individual level. National food availability does not necessarily correlate with food security (Smith et al., 2000). Household income determines the food security at this level. There is severe food insecurity in poor countries even though they have food surpluses at national level. Misselhorn (2005) conducted a household economic level research on causes of food insecurity in western Africa. Poverty, environmental stressors and conflict accounted for the 50% of food insecurity. Besides environmental stressors, there were prominent socio-economic issues associated with the food insecurity. The food insecurity was the result of interaction between environmental and socio-economic factors. In southern Kenya, food secure households had better off-farm incomes than the food insecure ones (Nyariki et al., 2002). Poverty and affordability are the major reasons for widespread food insecurity in Canadas Inuit community (Ford and Beaumier, 2011). Food Price Food price is another hurdle in accessing food even though food production is enough. An increase in population, with increase in prices of basic food-stuffs, caused violence in 2007 in Asia and Africa (Haiti, Bangladesh, Egypt, Cameroon etc. (Carter, 2008). Price fluctuations has frequently contributed to food insecurity among poor people in rural areas (Naylor and Falcon, 2010). Diversion of food crops to biofuels (ex. Maize to ethanol) has caused price hike and food problems in Mexico, Africa and Pakistan (Tenenbaum, 2008, MacKenzie, 2008). Peter McPherson (2008), the president of NASULGC (a Public University Association) and Chair of Board of The Partnership to Cut Hunger and Poverty in Africa, presented his testimony in the US senate on global food crisis. He emphasized that subsidy in food production and use of food crops in biofuels as major players in food price crisis. Subsidized food production in one country reduced food production in another country and use of corn grain in biofuel production had a big impact in the crisis. Global Trade
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The low trade restriction can hamper food security in developing countries if there is high trade restriction in the partner countries. In the context of no insurance or protection in developing countries, the low trade restriction switches to cash crops to compete and it is risky if the crop failures leading to starvation (Carmichael, 2010). Absence of property rights, land access, poor market access, unemployment and poor distribution network are some others factors associated to food insecurity (Misselhorn, 2005). Other Causes Policy/corruption Much of the problem to the food insecurity goes to the nations faulty policies or failure to execute sound policies (Barnes, 1999, Curry, 1988). Egyptian officials, for instance, channel credits to tax returning activities not towards enhancing food security (Adams, 1993). Policy assessments that merely estimate costs and benefits to the governments to the malnourished are not sufficient to ensure food security (PinstrupAndersen, 1993). Corrupt institutions might undermine good policies and enhance problematic market situation (Barraclough, 1991). Conflict Armed conflicts have resulted in the world hunger emergencies (Food and Agricultural Organization, 2005). In 2004/5, 55.8 million people from 45 countries in Africa and Asia suffered from food insecurity caused by conflict (Messer and Cohen, 2007). Besides the obvious impact of conflict of on food security, food insecurity can cause conflict. Factors closely related to food insecurity like income disparity (Collier et al., 2003) and extreme marginalization of a large proportion of population (Ohlsoon, 2000) increase the possibility of conflict. Mass of the poor is not well organized and represented politically. The groups are usually overly terrorized and repressed. Such a group can react violently if properly organized (Messer and Cohen, 2007). HIV/AIDS Food insecurity can be both a cause and result of HIV/AIDS (Frega et al., 2010). Food insecurity in Malawi has recently included HIV/AIDS as a reason rather than only low productions (Hajdu et al., 2009). In British Columbia, a resource rich setting of Canada, 71% of HIV infected people are food insecure (Anema et al., 2011). Food insecurity exists in fifty percent of HIV-infested urban poor in San Francisco (Weiser et al., 2009). Food Insecurity and Health
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Undernutrition leads to increased susceptibility to chronic diseases. Cardiovascular disease was the most common cause of death in NSW in 2006, although declining from 1987 to 2006. A proportion of the problem could be prevented through nutritional security programs (NSW Department of Health, 2008). Household food insecurity negatively affects childrens social skills in early childhood (Howard, 2011). In Vermont (USA), the children from food insecure households were likely to be less physically active compared to those from food secure households (Khan et al., 2011). Problems related to weight and physical disabilities commonly arise from food insecurity (Brewer et al., 2010). Food insecurity was highly associated with body mass index and waist circumference of women in rural Tanzania (Leyna et al., 2010), overweight in children younger than 5 years (MetallinosKatsaras et al., 2009), school absenteeism and a lower educational attainment in Southern Ethiopia (Belachew et al., 2011). How to Solve the Problem There are environmental, social, economic and other factors which interact to contribute to food insecurity; therefore, a multidisciplinary approach is necessary to combat the problem. Science and Technology This approach can address problems related to low production due to environmental stresses, and disease susceptibility. Development of proper crop management techniques suited to specific growing environment can increase food production. Genetically modified (GM) food crops can be of special advantage to promote food and nutritional security. Anami et al. (2009) pointed that improvement of tropical maize, major staple food in sub-Saharan Africa, through biotechnology and conventional plant breeding can significantly contribute to food security in the region. Transgenic drought tolerant cultivars are of special importance because the drought is the major problem in the tropical region. Scientists have successfully developed transgenic drought-tolerant arabidopsis and potato (Eltayeb et al., 2011); salt tolerant transgenic alfalfa (Li et al., 2011) and the technology are under evaluation. Transgenic virus resistance has been used in protect papaya in Hawaii (Tripathi et al., 2008). Golden rice (for vitamin A), and GM tomato (for vitamin B and antioxidants) are some examples for nutritional security. Climate change adaptation and mitigation

Food security is further worsened by climate change in future. Proper adaptation and mitigation will be necessary to offset the negative impacts. Policy changes A complex interaction between environmental and socio-economic factors has played a key role in food insecurity. Several researchers have pointed the need of policy intervention by the local and federal governments to address the problem. Special supplemental nutritional programs can improve nutritional security. Based on research on 24 countries for 18 years, food stamp nutrition education was successful in improving womens food security. This success indicates that nutrition education is an appropriate intervention in food insecurity (Eicher-Miller et al., 2009). Participation by women, infants and children in such a program was associated with nutritional security in USA (Metallinos-Katsaras et al., 2011). Rosa et al. (2009) and Sharkey et al. (2011) have pointed the need of specific policies to address food insecurity among Mexican migrants in the USA. Federal supports for food supplement and treatment are necessary to minimize food insecurity in HIV positive population (Frega et al., 2010, Weiser et al., 2009). Programs on nutritional education, women empowerment and gender equity etc.; and policies to promote peoples access to food market, price control, employment, and poverty reduction can play key roles to alleviate food insecurity in the long run.

Conclusion Food insecurity is the lack of access to sufficient and nutritious food for an active and healthy life. Majority of food insecure people live in developing countries; however, the problem exists in highly developed countries as well. The causes of food insecurity go beyond the issues like low production and natural disasters to socio-economic causes and their interactions. Besides environmental stresses like droughts, floods and disease outbreaks; socio-economic issues like poverty, access to resources and market, conflict, gender bias etc. have become important. As a complex set of environmental, social and economic cause determine the food and nutritional insecurity, a multidisciplinary approach is required to fight this problem. Application of science and technology (improved
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varieties, better management practices, and transgenic crops), climate change adaptation and mitigation, and policy intervention are necessary to reduce the global food insecurity. Policy interventions to address peoples access to resources, income generation, women empowerment and education, food education and programs etc. will be special importance because these socio-economic factors determine food security even if production is surplus. References