In 1990, the American
Institute of Nutrition (AIN) developed the following
definitions:
Food security: Access by all people at all times to enough food for an active and healthy life. It includes, at a minimim: (1) the ready availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods, and (2) an assured ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways&emdash;that is, through regular marketplace sources, and not through severe coping strategies such as emergency food sources, scavenging, or stealing.
Food insecurity: Limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods, or limited and uncertain ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways.
Hunger: The uneasy or
painful sensation caused by a lack of food; an extreme form of
food insecurity. Hunger is a potential, although not necessary
consequence of food insecurity. Food insecurity and hunger may
coexist with malnutrition, but they are not the same thing, nor
even necessarily closely related.
How much hunger and food
insecurity is there in the world?
According to statistics issued by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, there are currently more than 800 million people in 83 low-income food-deficit countries (LIFDC) who are chronically hungry and suffering from malnutrition on our planet.
This translates into approximately 24,000 deaths every day, and approximately nine million deaths every year attributable to hunger and hunger-related causes. Approximately 75% of these deaths are children less than five years of age.
These kinds of statistics
are approximately equivalent to the effects of war. For instance,
during World War II, there were approximately 10 million deaths
per year, including all military and civilian deaths.
How much hunger and food insecurity is there in the United
States?
In 1995, a nation-wide survey was conducted by the U.S. Bureau of the Census. The survey results indicated that an estimated 88.1% of American households could be classified as food secure. Among the 11.9% of households classified as food insecure, 7.8% were food insecure without evidence of hunger, 3.3% showed evidence of moderate hunger (i.e., hunger predominantly among adults), and 0.8% showed evidence of severe hunger (i.e., hunger among both adults and children.) What this means is that approximately 30 million Americans, including 12 million children, cannot afford to buy enough food to maintain good health.
In
Mississippi, a 1999 U.S. Census Bureau report
indicated that, in 1998, 13.4% of all households were food
insecure, and 2.9 % of all households showed evidence of more
severe hunger.
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