food insecurity solutions essay

What Causes Food Insecurity and What are Solutions to It?

What is food insecurity.

Imagine the entire state of California not knowing where their next meal will come from. For 38.3 million Americans—just shy of California’s 39.5 million population—this uncertainty is a reality of daily life.

The effects of poverty are greatly varied, but many of them like homelessness, a lack of healthcare, and low wages, all are frequently a focus of public conversation. But several go largely undetected. One of these issues is food insecurity.

According to the USDA , food security “means access by all people at all times to enough food for a healthy life.” However, over 10% of the U.S. population struggle with food insecurity. Of these 38.3 million, 11.7 million of them—more than New York City’s population—are children.

Such figures lead to difficult questions: why do so many families and individuals struggle with food insecurity, and who are they? What are the consequences for our society when so many people go hungry? And finally, what can we do to fix this massive issue? In this article, we’ll get to know food insecurity and what we can do about it.

Let’s start with the term itself:

Giving Food Insecurity a Definition

Going by the USDA's definition of food security as “access by all people at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life.” Food insecurity, therefore, can be understood as any time an individual or family doesn’t experience food security.

Many families and individuals experience food insecurity differently. The USDA gives four general ranges of both food security and food insecurity to understand these differences in experiences:

Food Security:

• High Food Security: The USDA defines high food security as individuals or households that don’t report any difficulties with accessing food or suffering from limitations. These households probably don’t worry about food, at least in any significant way.
• Marginal Food Security: According to the USDA, households with marginal food security have reported their occasional anxiety of having enough food, although they don’t indicate any noteworthy changes to their diet or consumption.

Food Insecurity:

• Low Food Security: Households or individuals with low food security report that they consume lower quality food, less variety of foods, and have a generally less desirable diet, although they don’t necessarily consume less food overall.
• Very Low Food Security: Households with very low food security report that their eating patterns and food intake has been reduced or otherwise interrupted. These are people and families who may take actions such as foregoing meals to stretch their food over a longer period of time.

Essentially, food insecurity occurs when a person or group of people can’t access or afford enough quality food. Food insecurity is not hunger, although hunger may be a symptom of food insecurity.

Who is Food Insecure?

We’ve already briefly touched on how children are impacted greatly by food insecurity—you could populate a city larger than New York with all of America’s food-insecure children—but who are the communities most impacted by food insecurity?

Well, the answer is not so simple. With more than one in ten people in the U.S. being food insecure, you will find food insecurity in every community. However, some communities are more impacted by food insecurity than others. Households composed of Black or Hispanic families or individuals are twice as likely to be food insecure than the national average. Communities of color that have been and are still systematically oppressed and impoverished are the most affected by food insecurity.

What Causes Food Insecurity?

The causes that impact food insecurity are wide in scope, and we won’t be able to cover them all here. They are both historical and present-day, deliberate and unintended, but regardless, they are all real and impact a massive portion of our population here in the U.S.

Geography and urban planning has some impact on food insecurity. A food desert is a popular term used to describe areas where the residents can’t access affordable, healthy foods. This means a majority of the population lives a mile or more from an affordable grocery store in urban areas, and 10 miles in rural areas. For areas that have no public transportation or unreliable transport, individuals who don’t own a car, and individuals who struggle with mobility, healthy, nutritious foods are simply out of reach, both physically and economically.

However, despite their impact, pinning the issue of food insecurity on food deserts conveniently ignores the systemic issues contributing to food insecurity. Most people, even low-income individuals, don’t automatically grocery shop at whichever store is closest to them. They may instead opt for a preferred grocery store or chain with lower prices, or instead choose to shop near their workplace, chaining multiple trips together. 

Thus, access, geographic location, and food deserts actually aren’t the main problems facing food-insecure households. The main cause of food insecurity is poverty . While mobility, transportation, and car-centricity are still issues that are deeply connected with poverty, geographic access, as stated by the USDA in a 2014 report , is not “associated with the percentage of households that [are] food insecure.”

The fact is that 38.3 million Americans simply can’t afford food, or enough quality food; living within a mile of a grocery store and having reliable transportation there and back still wouldn’t change that. Low wages and centuries of discrimination have led to a situation where many low-income households spend over a quarter of their income on food , whereas middle and high-income households spend more money, but still a smaller percentage of their income, on food.

The Impact of Food Insecurity

The impacts of food insecurity are wide-ranging. For one thing, considering that food-insecure households spend upwards of 27% of their income on food, it makes budgeting and prioritizing other expenses painfully difficult. When budgeting the cost of food in the face of other necessary expenses like housing, energy, and healthcare, it creates an impossible balancing act: to choose between staying in your apartment, eating, or taking necessary medications.

Medications, too, are related to food insecurity, as food insecurity has ranging health impacts for both children and adults. Food insecure adults may be at higher risk for chronic diseases such as diabetes , obesity , and depression . 

Now, food insecurity is not permanent. It can be brief while a member of the household is between jobs, or during times of other financial hardship, or it can last over an extended period of time, particularly in the case of individuals who can’t work due to disabilities. However, children who experience extended food insecurity are even more at risk, as its effects can compound throughout their life and development. 

Learning outcomes can also be adversely impacted by food insecurity. Inadequate nutrients from their diets can lead to a weakened immune system in children, which can lead to frequent absences. When food-insecure children are at school, they may be unable to focus, resulting in worse performance and retention. Essentially, when children experience food insecurity, it can set them up for challenges for the rest of their lives.

Solutions to Ending Food Insecurity

Systemic changes.

Continue Modernizing SNAP Benefits: The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, often known as SNAP , provides benefits to households and individuals struggling with food insecurity. However, while crucial to helping millions of families, SNAP benefits need to be modernized. They are still based on the USDA’s Thrifty Food Plan (TFP), which is no longer an accurate measure for food expenditures. The TFP doesn’t even meet all the U.S.’s federal nutrition standards .

SNAP benefits are also equal across the country, regardless of differences in cost of living—a feature that is very beneficial to some, while detrimental to others. Many households living in areas where they must devote a larger portion of their income to expenses like housing often have less money available for food, and SNAP benefits are insufficient in these instances. Additionally, SNAP benefits don’t account for the amount of time it takes to cook and prepare meals, a fact that does a great disservice to the many low-wage workers who need to work long, often odd hours to cover expenses such as rent—they’re already stretched for time.

Reduce Food Waste: According to the USDA , between 30 and 40% of the nation’s food supply goes to waste. Globally, the number is closer to about 30%, which would be enough to feed 2 billion people, effectively eliminating hunger. However, there’s a long way to go in reducing and eliminating food waste. 

Food is wasted at various stages of production. Regardless of how products are wasted, be it through spoilage during transportation, being discarded for aesthetic blemishes, or being binned after passing sell-by dates, an astronomical amount of food in the U.S. goes to waste. 

One solution is to improve transparency and clarity for food safety by instituting consistent labeling conventions. The discrepancies between best-by dates, use-by dates, and sell-by dates often cause confusion for customers and lead to food being discarded before it needs to be. According to the USDA , most foods are safe and wholesome until there’s evidence of spoilage, provided that they’re handled properly. 

Additionally, policies should be set in place that protect national grocery retailers from rare liabilities not covered under the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act , so they can donate surplus and unsold goods to charities and local food banks, greatly reducing hunger within communities. 

Offer Free School Lunches For All: School lunch should be free for all students. It is essential for students' ability to remain focused throughout the day and improve learning outcomes. And while learning is one of the most important parts of school, providing free school lunches to all students would come with a host of benefits :

• Reduced stigma around needing school lunch
• Improved variety and quality of foods in students’ diets, particularly with fresh fruits and vegetables
• Improved health and lowered obesity rates
• Higher attendance rates from low-income, food insecure students

School is most beneficial when students are prepared, both mentally and physically, to learn. When students don’t have access to the necessary food and nutrients they need, especially when they’re growing, it reduces their chances of success.

As we’ve said, food insecurity impacts every community. It’s less common in some places, and more common in others, but every state and community is impacted nonetheless. Helping reduce food insecurity is a great way to effect change for the good of your community. There are a few simple ways to get involved and make an impact, regardless of your own comfort level. 

Volunteer: Volunteering with food banks, co-ops, and mutual aid networks is a great way to both fight food insecurity and strengthen bonds in your community. Volunteering benefits everyone involved: it gives you opportunities to make new friends and connections, learn new skills, and is fun (it really is!).

Contact Your Representatives: To create systemic change effectively, you need power. Your representatives, both nationally and locally, are elected to serve you and your community. Use your voice to contact them with your concerns about food insecurity. You can find your local representative here .

Donate: Donations are always welcome by many organizations fighting food insecurity. Whether in the form of money or food products, your donations can go a long way to helping people in need.

Take Action Against Food Insecurity Today

The U.S. is commonly referred to as the most abundant land on the planet. We produce more food than we can consume, and still over a tenth of our population, including millions of children, go hungry and struggle with food insecurity.

While there are countless factors that lead to food insecurity, none is more obvious and culpable than poverty itself. The benefits and support we provide our impoverished brothers and sisters are not enough, and we can afford to do so much more: after all, we currently end up throwing out over 30% of the food we produce. 

Addressing food insecurity is a massive challenge, but it can be done. Progress can be made systemically and on a community level; they’re often one and the same. 

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Policies to reduce food insecurity: An ethical imperative

• • Though a quarter of U.S. households receive food assistance, more than 11% experience food insecurity.
• • Thus, expanding food and nutrition assistance programs is an ethical imperative.
• • Based on empirical evidence and theory, we articulate an ethical framework to guide expansion.
• • Just food policies should (1) embrace compassion, (2) create opportunity, (3) consider essential needs, and (4) promote knowledge and empathy.

A quarter of U.S. households receive food assistance, yet more than 11% still experience food insecurity annually. We argue that an expansion-oriented approach to food and nutrition assistance policy is an ethical imperative. Drawing on values from the Capability Approach and Social Empathy Model and supported by empirical evidence, we propose an ethical framework characterized by four principles that can be used to assess and inform the development of just food policies. We argue that policies should (1) embrace compassion, (2) create opportunity, (3) consider essential needs, and (4) promote knowledge and empathy. In an applied case, we evaluate current SNAP policy in terms of those principles and offer recommendations to promote justice in the design and implementation of SNAP and other food policies.

1. Introduction

In fiscal year 2018, the federal government spent $96 billion on the 14 food and nutrition assistance programs operated by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) [1] . The largest of the USDA's programs, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), alone operated at a cost of nearly $65 billion, reaching an estimated 39.7 million participants [1] . Of these programs, the ones that directly provided meals served 9.5 billion breakfasts, lunches, and suppers to hungry Americans 1 [1] . All told, one out of every four Americans benefits from a USDA food and nutrition program over the course of a year [2] . Despite this sizeable commitment, 11.1% of American households – 14.3 million homes – experienced food insecurity in 2018, meaning that they were “uncertain of having, or unable to acquire, enough food to meet the needs of all their members, because [of] insufficient money or other resources” [3] . Reflecting their high level of need, a substantially higher portion of households receiving food assistance are also food insecure. Among eligible households in 2018, 47.5% of those receiving SNAP, 39.5% of those where children got free or reduced price lunches at school, and 36.9% of those receiving from the Special Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) were food insecure [3] . Of particular concern, 4.3% of all households – 5.6 million homes – experienced very low food security [3] , meaning that one or more household members experienced disruptions to their food intake or normal eating patterns. Rates of very low food security range between 12.3% among households receiving WIC to 21.7% in homes receiving SNAP [3] .

Two general and diverging perspectives can be used to frame a policy response to this series of facts. The first of these is retrenchment [ 4 , 5 ], characterized by the restriction or elimination of food and nutrition assistance benefits, new eligibility requirements to curtail participation, and movement toward restricting choice by benefit recipients. Traditionally, retrenchment is associated with more conservative principles of governance [4] and recently has been accompanied by rhetoric which casts food and nutrition programs as wasteful and recipients of these programs as undeserving [6] . The second broad perspective might be best described as expansion, characterized by the maintenance of choice for beneficiaries, efforts to reduce barriers to participation and stigma, and more generous benefits and eligibility rules. Underlying this second perspective are more progressive principles of governance, a view of structural (rather than individual) factors as fundamental causes of food insecurity and hunger, and the notion that access to food is an ethical issue that requires attention from the government. Both perspectives have long been present in federal food and nutrition assistance policymaking. For example, there have been repeated calls over time to restrict the types of food that can be purchased with SNAP benefits (retrenchment) [ 7 , 8 ]. In contrast, there are also efforts like the recently-implemented Community Eligibility Provision, which allows schools where a sufficient proportion of the student body is deemed eligible on the basis of administrative data to make free lunch and breakfast available for all children, irrespective of individual eligibility (expansion) [9] .

2. An ethical approach to food and nutrition assistance policies

In this paper, we argue that an expansion-oriented approach to food and nutrition assistance programs is an ethical imperative. To do so, we first call on empirical evidence to clarify the need for expansion. Next, we ground our argument in principles from the field of social work, whose professional code of ethics offers important values statements that support this approach. Last, we draw on theoretical frameworks from both social work and economics, which help to translate the ethical values we embrace into explicit statements about the nature of an ethical approach to food and nutrition assistance. Throughout, we demonstrate the application of our ethical framework using SNAP as an example, selected because of its place as the largest of the food and nutrition assistance policies. 2

2.1. Empirical evidence

As noted above, despite a substantial financial commitment on the part of the federal government, many U.S. households still experience food insecurity. Indeed, at no time during the past 20 years has the rate of food insecurity fallen below 10% [11] . We argue that the intransigence of this problem points to an urgent need for expansion, made even more immediate by the tremendous increases in food insecurity and other forms of hardship brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

We underscore the evidence in support of this position by providing empirical evidence to respond to two common arguments typically associated with retrenchment. First, despite arguments to the contrary [12] , there is little-to-no evidence of misspending or fraud in the USDA programs. For example, despite its size and scope, 93% to 95% of federal spending on SNAP has gone directly to benefits in the past 10 years [1] . Both overpayment and underpayment of SNAP benefits have fallen overtime, such that both rates remain at near-historic lows [13] , and only about 1.5% of all SNAP benefits are sold for cash [14] . Second, despite rhetoric that frames recipients of benefits as unfairly benefiting from government largesse (see, e.g., the labeling of the broad based categorical eligibility (BBCE) provision of SNAP as a “loophole” that unfairly expands eligibility [15] ), most food and nutrition assistance benefits go to recipients who are typically understood to be “deserving” of support. More than two-thirds of SNAP participants are either children (44%), older adults (13%), or nonelderly persons with disabilities (10%) [16] . Of the remaining USDA programs, the primary ones are either restricted to or aimed at children (and their parents): WIC; the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs; the Child and Adult Care Food Program; and the Summer Food Service Program. Thus, there is little support for retrenchment on the basis of fraud, inefficiency, or a tendency for those who are “underserving” to receive benefits.

2.2. Values

In articulating the values that we incorporate into our framework, we draw on key ethical principles from the social work tradition. While the National Association of Social Workers’ (NASW) Code of Ethics [17] is not specifically focused on food and nutrition assistance, it underscores the need for an expansionist approach by identifying a set of core values and accompanying ethical principles. Though meant primarily as a guide to ethical practice for social workers, the Code can also be applied to policymaking more broadly and to food and nutrition assistance programs in particular. Two values are especially relevant: social justice and a belief in the dignity and worth of the person . These values are embodied by ethical principles that direct social workers to (a) challenge injustice by “ensur[ing] access to needed information, services, and resources; equality of opportunity; and meaningful participation in decision making for all people” and (b) upholding individual dignity and worth by “promoting [individuals’] socially responsible self-determination and capacity and opportunity to change and to address their own needs” [17] .

2.3. Theoretical frameworks

Supported by empirical evidence, these social work principles suggest that an ethical approach to food and nutrition assistance programs must be based on the ability of these programs to promote justice and ensure dignity by supporting equality of access and opportunity and the right of all people to self-determination. To operationalize these principles, we turn to two existing frameworks: Amartya Sen's Capability Approach [ 18 , 19 ] and Elizabeth Segal's Social Empathy Model [20] . Collectively, these frameworks formalize what an ethical commitment to just food and nutrition assistance policies might look like and provide a mechanism by which to inculcate these values and drive policy change.

2.3.1. The capability approach

Briefly, the Capability Approach conceptualizes ‘capabilities’ as realistic opportunities to achieve those aspects of wellbeing that are desired by individuals, including experiencing states of being (e.g. food security), and engagement in activities (e.g. grocery shopping) [19] . In his description of the Capability Approach, Sen emphasizes truly free choice rather than proscribed outcomes, by focusing on capability to achieve a desired aspect of wellbeing rather than enumerating essential components of wellbeing [21] . Further, this framework considers capabilities holistically, emphasizing people's need to achieve sets of capabilities and recognizing that freedom to achieve a form of wellbeing is not truly present if that achievement requires sacrificing another important aspect of wellbeing. For example, if you must choose between keeping your job or caring for your child, you do not have the capability to achieve those aspects of wellbeing [18] . This framework also identifies individual and systemic constraints on capabilities, such as health status or racial segregation [19] .

The Capability Approach is a philosophical framework and not a theory of social justice. As such, it describes the function and structure of the world as it is rather than dictating how things ought to be [21] . Nonetheless, Sen readily recognizes the utility of the Capability Approach as a framework on which to build theories of justice [21] . We draw on the Capability Approach because it attends to issues of self-determination and acknowledges limits to true freedom when achieving a necessary outcome, like food security, is in competition with other essential needs or is limited by personal or systemic barriers.

2.3.2. Social empathy model

While the Capability Approach concretizes the challenges food policies must consider, the Social Empathy Model articulates the ethical principles which could drive investment in developing just food policies and describes processes to integrate those principles into policy responses. The Social Empathy Model describes moving through and between the three processes of experiencing empathy fully, seeking and gaining deep, complex, contextual understanding, and recognizing and embracing social responsibility [20] . This framework was developed to combat structural inequalities and disparities and emphasizes the need for the powerful and privileged to develop social empathy for the marginalized as a means to reduce inequality, decrease domination of some by others, increase compassion in the shaping of powerful policies and structures, and reduce adherence to stereotypes and differences as justifications for inequity [ 20 , 22 ]. The Social Empathy Model underscores the importance and viability of developing social empathy in individuals and groups as a mechanism for promoting justice in policy design [20] . Empathy can be taught and learned, particularly through direct experiences and modeling, suggesting the plausibility of educating and training policymakers and constituents and the vital importance of careful framing in policy advocacy efforts [22] .

3. Elements of just food policies

We integrate aspects of the Capability Approach and the Social Empathy Model to propose an ethical framework to assess the justice of current food policies and to inform the development of just food policies moving forward. This framework includes four primary principles.

First, just food policies will embrace values of compassion and freedom. Such policies will use empathy to counter shame and stigma, which have long been associated with receipt of public assistance. This includes recognizing individuals’ dignity and freedom and conveying trust in and respect for food assistance beneficiaries by enhancing freedom to make individual food choices.

Second, just food policies will create opportunity for all people to experience food security, by accounting for personal and systemic barriers that limit pursuit of this outcome. Such policies may provide differential support for individuals facing personal barriers, such as disability status or poor health. Further, such policies will actively reduce systemic barriers such as work requirements or immigration penalties for beneficiaries. Finally, realistic opportunities to experience food security may require increased generosity in food and nutrition benefits to address the persistent presence of food insecurity under current policy.

Third, just food policies will consider other essential needs in concert with food assistance needs. Such policies will incorporate collaboration across nutrition assistance programs as well as coordination with policies and programs addressing other vital needs such as health, education, child care, and elder services.

Fourth and finally, just food policies will promote knowledge and empathy in policymakers, constituents, and beneficiaries. Such policies will include training in scientific knowledge around food insecurity as well as empathy development for policymakers, designed to infuse food policies with informed compassion. Training and education will also encompass communities, program staff, and advocates, to promote the discussion and framing of food policies in compassionate terms.

4. Current policies: evaluation and recommendations

4.1. evaluation.

How do our current food and nutrition assistance fare according to the four principles of our ethical framework (embracing compassion, creating opportunity, considering essential needs, and promoting knowledge and empathy)? Somewhat well, as it turns out. For example, a number of characteristics of SNAP are specifically aimed at promoting compassion and freedom. Currently, all SNAP benefits are administered using Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) cards, which were implemented in part as an effort to reduce the stigma that previously occurred when using food stamp coupons for purchasing food [23] . Likewise, the USDA has been steadfast in resisting efforts to restrict what SNAP benefits can be used to purchase. Currently, eligible households can buy most foods in stores that accept SNAP, with the exception of alcohol and tobacco products, hot and prepared foods, and a few other types of items [24] . However, it should be noted that SNAP is transmitted as an in-kind benefit (rather than as cash), which both restricts choice and creates stigma by cultivating a perception of recipients as not to be trusted to spend their benefits on food.

SNAP also fares well with respect to its ability to address personal and systemic barriers and to promote realistic opportunities for food security. Most generally, SNAP is authorized as an entitlement program, meaning that all who are eligible can receive benefits. In addition, the BBCE provision allows states to expand eligibility beyond the federal cutoffs for income and assets. As a consequence, among all nutrition programs, SNAP reaches the greatest number of Americans. Estimates suggest that half of all children will use SNAP at some point before age 18 as will half of adults between the ages of 20 and 65 [ 25 , 26 ]. In addition, the SNAP-Ed program provides education to help recipients use their benefits wisely and prepare nutritious foods [27] . Finally, the USDA has engaged in efforts to expand access to SNAP; currently, 260,000 retailers accept SNAP including big box stores, supermarkets, farmers’ markets and convenience stores [28] .

However, there is also evidence that SNAP benefits may not be sufficient, because the structure of the program does not acknowledge the resources necessary to prepare healthy foods and benefits do not vary across areas with vastly different costs-of-living or meet families’ food needs throughout the month [29] , [30] , [31] . The structure of the program also does not adequately meet the needs of important subgroups of the population. For example, while there is accommodation to persons with disabilities, and SNAP provides essential benefits to many Americans who have a disability but do not qualify for SSI or SSDI [32] , SNAP benefits are not sufficient to eliminate the high rates of food insecurity experienced by households that have a person with a disability [ 33 , 34 this issue], nor is the program meaningfully set up to accommodate the wide range of other personal circumstances that act as practical barriers to achieving food security. As important, aspects of the program – like the ban on eligibility for recent immigrants – create profound barriers among segments of the population at high risk for food insecurity [35] .

As a nutrition assistance program, SNAP does not focus explicitly on meeting other needs. However, a growing body of research points to many additional benefits to SNAP participation including improvements to health, nutrition, and academic outcomes, improved health care use and lower health care costs, and long-term self-sufficiency [36] , [37] , [38] . Perhaps most notably, SNAP is a surprisingly effective anti-poverty program, raising more people out of poverty than any other means-tested program, 3.2 million in 2018 [39] . Comparably, SNAP does less well with respect to its ability to cultivate knowledge and empathy. This is true not only because the program was not designed with these aims in mind, but also because of SNAP's place in the broader US Social Welfare system, which is heavily comprised of targeted and means-tested (rather than universal) benefits intended to serve as a safety net of last resort and which are widely recognized as stigmatizing [40] .

4.2. Recommendations

Based on our framework, we offer a set of recommendations to maintain and strengthen the SNAP program. First, consistent with the need for just policies to embrace compassion, we support the continued use of EBT cards and the maintenance of freedom of choice for recipients, both of which reduce stigma and assure dignity. Second, and in line with our recommendation that policies create opportunity, we argue for the need to maintain BBCE, which will preserve access to food for millions of Americans. Similarly, to ensure access and to address the multiple barriers to food security for this group, we argue for the need to restore benefits to recent immigrant families. But, in light of the persistent problem of food insecurity, we recommend both the expansion of benefits to meaningfully address the food needs of low-income households and serious consideration toward adopting a flexible benefit structure that acknowledges differences in the standard of living and the barriers that affect at-risk households.

Consistent with Segal's Model [20] , the fourth principle of our framework for ethical food assistance emphasizes the need for policies that are structured to cultivate social empathy. The means by which to accomplish empathy via the SNAP program and other food and nutrition assistance programs are not straightforward, however. Social work models like the Liberation Health Model [41] describe mechanisms by which clinical interactions can be used to build critical consciousness and thus could be modified to explicitly focus on social empathy, but generating widespread empathy will likely require policy-level modifications. An initial step toward cultivating empathy could be public marketing strategies, which seek to educate the public and policymakers about the challenges of achieving food security and to reduce stigma about receiving food assistance. Further modifying the structure of some programs will also help. For example, substantially increasing the reimbursement rate for breakfasts and lunches and relaxing eligibility criteria would allow schools to increase the quality and diversity of food offerings, which would likely decrease stigma by increasing participation, in turn increasing food security.

The recommendations offered above represent modifications to existing programs. However, a more ambitious ethical approach to food and nutrition assistance might involve a full restructuring of the US social welfare state. Researchers frequently point to the additional benefits of the SNAP program, most notably the large-scale reductions in poverty noted above. However, these benefits point as much to the inadequacy of the US social welfare system in meeting the needs of low-income families as they do to the successes of SNAP and other nutrition programs. Instead, and consistent with the need for policies to consider all essential needs, one might conceive of a far broader series of supports: universal basic income and universal health insurance programs characterized by ease of access, straightforward recertification and elements to limit stigma. Alongside these could be targeted food and nutrition assistance programs (and other benefits), that could more flexibly and effectively address the needs of those families who continue to struggle to put adequate and sufficient food on the table. Though expensive, if properly conceived and well-implemented, this platform of programs would go a long way toward establishing an equitable approach to meeting the food and nutrition needs of US families.

This work was supported in part by a travel grant from the Ingestive Behavior Research Center at Purdue University.

1 These programs include The National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs, the Summer Food Service Program, and the Child and Adult Care Food Program.

2 We direct the reader to a recent overview by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities for more information about the structure of SNAP benefits and eligibility [10] .

6 ways we can take action on malnutrition, according to the UN

The focus of this year's Nelson Mandela International Day is to improve malnutrition. Image:  Unsplash/Matthew TenBruggencate

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Stay up to date:, agriculture, food and beverage.

• Nelson Mandela International Day is marked every 18 July.
• This year, the focus is on malnutrition.

In 2020, around a tenth of the world’s population was undernourished.

• The UN is looking at ways we can improve access to high-quality food.

With a United Nations goal of reaching zero hunger by 2030 , that means we are a long way off course.

Ensuring food security is one of the key targets of this year’s Nelson Mandela International Day – an event that takes place every 18 July to mark and advance the societal contributions of the late South African leader Nelson Mandela.

The Nelson Mandela Foundation is running the Each One Feed One campaign, encouraging South Africans to donate to a food distribution network to help their fellow citizens.

How can we boost food security?

The COVID-19 pandemic has worsened malnutrition, according to the 2021 edition of the UN report, The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World, with economic disruption and broken supply chains exposing a clear weakness in global food systems .

The situation is exacerbating widespread malnutrition: 22% of children under five are stunted , which impacts not only their physical growth, but also cognitive development and future employment capabilities. According to the World Bank, countries lose an average of 7% of their per capita GDP because of childhood stunting.

The report recommends six pathways for improving global food security.

Have you read?

This is why food security matters now more than ever, ai strawberries and blockchain chicken: how digital agriculture could rescue global food security, want to cut malnutrition don’t forget these 3 things, 1. fostering peace-building alongside humanitarian aid.

Many of the world’s most malnourished people live in war zones. One example of this is Yemen, where acute malnutrition has reached record levels since the start of a civil war in 2014, affecting half of children under five .

The erection of small-scale water treatment plants and irrigation systems has restored clean water, uncontaminated vegetables, and livelihoods .

In conflict conditions, food systems are frequently disrupted, making it very difficult for people to access nutritious food. The UN believes that emergency food assistance and water safety programmes need to be aligned with long-term socio-economic development and conflict resolution efforts in order to have sustainable impact.

2. Scaling up climate resilience across food systems

From wildfires to locusts, climate change is already affecting food security . The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicts that this will worsen, with an increase in CO2 leading to crops with lower nutritional quality and heat stress creating greater food waste.

But food production also has an impact on the environment, with livestock in particular creating high levels of carbon emissions .

The UN report suggests that we need to move towards a “climate-positive future, in which people and nature can co-exist and thrive”. This could include better risk monitoring and resilience-building measures such as agricultural insurance for vulnerable households.

3. Strengthening the resilience of the most economically vulnerable

The world’s most vulnerable have been worst affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. While the social protection programmes implemented by governments were helpful, the report says, they should be in place in advance of any economic downturn, so that when such conditions arise, vulnerable populations are not left without a safety net and can still access nutritious food and a healthy diet.

The UN cites the success of a monthly food voucher programme in Ethiopia, with young families gaining regular access to fresh fruit, vegetables and eggs, and a bolstered cash transfer programme in Kyrgyzstan, which saw 74% of households increase their agricultural activity to provide fresh food at home – improving dietary diversity and nutritional outcomes.

Two billion people in the world currently suffer from malnutrition and according to some estimates, we need 60% more food to feed the global population by 2050. Yet the agricultural sector is ill-equipped to meet this demand: 700 million of its workers currently live in poverty, and it is already responsible for 70% of the world’s water consumption and 30% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

New technologies could help our food systems become more sustainable and efficient, but unfortunately the agricultural sector has fallen behind other sectors in terms of technology adoption.

Launched in 2018, the Forum’s Innovation with a Purpose Platform is a large-scale partnership that facilitates the adoption of new technologies and other innovations to transform the way we produce, distribute and consume our food.

With research, increasing investments in new agriculture technologies and the integration of local and regional initiatives aimed at enhancing food security, the platform is working with over 50 partner institutions and 1,000 leaders around the world to leverage emerging technologies to make our food systems more sustainable, inclusive and efficient.

Learn more about Innovation with a Purpose's impact and contact us to see how you can get involved.

4. Reinventing the supply chain to lower the cost of nutritious foods

The report calls for government policies and incentives to help diversify production towards nutritious foods like fruit, vegetables and legumes. It also recommends the fortification of staple foods with vitamins and minerals as a way to supply whole populations with critical nutrients like iodine and iron.

With rapid rates of urbanization, it’s also important to shorten supply chains enough that city residents can still access fresh and nutritious food; redirecting consumption patterns that have led to rising levels of obesity and diet-related non-communicable diseases.

One effective strategy in tackling this problem is the AGRUPAR programme in Quito, Ecuador , where more than 4,400 urban gardens have been created, with 43% of produce sold in local food markets. Because this produce is travelling shorter distances, the cost to consumers is lowered.

5. Tackling poverty and structural inequalities

Inequality contributes to hunger, food insecurity and poor nutrition, especially in rural areas, where poverty rates are three times higher than in urban settings.

Integrating smallholder farmers into food value chains is one way of resetting the balance. Through improved technology and certification, these farmers have gained a foothold in the marketplace, increased profits and boosted the resilience of their crops by using sustainable production methods.

In Indonesia, for instance, 150,000 cocoa farmers have joined a sustainable value chain since 2014. It gives them increased access to financing and productivity-enhancing technology, as well as introducing traceability systems, nutrition education and farmer organizations.

Over a five-year period, cocoa yields increased by 73%, while empowered smallholders saw their incomes increase by more than 200%.

6. Changing consumer behaviour to promote positive dietary habits

Poor nutrition doesn’t just impact health through starvation. It also leads to the kind of weight problems that trigger diabetes, poor heart health and musculoskeletal disorders.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), global obesity nearly tripled between 1975 and 2016 , when more than 1.9 billion adults were overweight. By 2019, over 38 million children under the age of five were overweight or obese.

The WHO says that low- and middle-income countries are now facing a “double burden of malnutrition”, with undernutrition and obesity often co-existing even within households. Making healthy food choices is as important as access to food supply.

The UN urges restrictions on food marketing to children and cites the example of Chile, where such advertizing is highly regulated, and of the Republic of Korea, where “green food zones” prohibit the sale of foods with limited nutritional value within 200 metres of most schools.

Transforming global food systems is a tall order, but aid agencies are hoping that, as we reach the second half of the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition, there is motivation for change.

As the UN’s food security report says: “Future generations will only thrive as productive actors and leading forces in food systems if decisive action is taken to ensure that children are no longer deprived of their right to nutrition”.

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Recognizing and tackling a global food crisis

Globally, over 200 million people are facing emergency and famine conditions.

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This year, acute food insecurity is projected to reach a new peak, surpassing the food crisis experienced in 2007-2008. A combination of factors—including greater poverty and supply chain disruptions in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, rising inflation, and high commodity prices—has increased food and nutrition insecurity. This is a multifaceted crisis, affecting access to and availability of food, with long-term consequences for health and productivity. The World Bank has scaled up its efforts to bolster food security, reduce risks, and strengthen food systems over the short and long term. Urgent action is needed across governments and multilateral partners to avert a severe and prolonged food crisis.

Declining food access and availability, with high risks

For most countries, domestic food prices have risen sharply in 2022, compromising access to food—particularly for low-income households, who spend the majority of their incomes on food and are especially vulnerable to food price increases. Higher food inflation followed a sharp spike in global food commodity prices, exacerbated by the war in Ukraine. Average global wheat, maize, and rice prices were respectively 18 percent, 27 percent, and 10 percent higher in October 2022 relative to October 2021.

At the same time, food availability is declining. For the first time in a decade, global cereal production will fall in 2022 relative to 2021. More countries are relying on existing food stocks and reserves to fill the gap, raising the risk if the current crisis persists. And rising energy and fertilizer prices—key inputs to produce food—threaten production for the next season, especially in net fertilizer-importing countries and regions like East Africa.

These trends are already affecting health. Stunting and wasting in children, and anaemia in pregnant women, are increasing as households are less able to include sufficient nutrition in their diets. A recent World Bank survey indicated that 42 percent of households across all countries covered were unable to eat healthy or nutritious food in the previous 30 days. These health effects carry long-term consequences for the ability to learn and work, and therefore escape poverty.

Globally, food security is under threat beyond just the immediate crisis. Growing public debt burdens, currency depreciation, higher inflation, increasing interest rates, and the rising risk of a global recession may compound access to and availability of food, especially for importing countries. At the same time, the agricultural food sector is both vulnerable and a contributor to climate change, responsible for one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions. And agricultural productivity growth is not staying ahead of the impacts of climate change, contributing to more food-related shocks. For example, an unprecedented multi-season drought has worsened food insecurity in the Horn of Africa, with Somalia on the verge of famine.

Managing the crisis and preparing for the future

The World Bank is responding to this escalating crisis with four areas of actions: (i) supporting production and producers, (ii) facilitating increased trade in food and production inputs, (iii) supporting vulnerable households, and (iv) investing in sustainable food security. It has made over $26 billion available for short- and long-term food security interventions in 69 countries, including active interventions in 22 of the 24 hunger hotspots identified as countries with the most pressing needs by the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Programme. Since April 2022, the World Bank has disbursed $8.1 billion, approximately evenly split between crisis response and long-term resilience projects. In the short term, projects like the Emergency Project to Combat the Food Crisis in Cameroon will provide 98,490 beneficiaries with emergency food and nutrition assistance with support from the World Food Programme. In addition to supporting vulnerable households, governments of food-exporting countries can improve global food security by limiting measures like export bans and stockpiling of food. In the longer term, governments can make an enormous difference by repurposing public spending on agricultural policies and support for a more resilient and sustainable food system that directly improves health, economies, and the planet.

These actions and newly released funding underline the scale of the crisis. Timely, coordinated, and sustained action through partnerships such as the Global Alliance on Food Security can maximize the impact of new policies and funding, and mitigate the scale of the crisis. The time to act is now.

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Goal 2: Zero Hunger

Goal 2 is about creating a world free of hunger by 2030.The global issue of hunger and food insecurity has shown an alarming increase since 2015, a trend exacerbated by a combination of factors including the pandemic, conflict, climate change, and deepening inequalities.

By 2022, approximately 735 million people – or 9.2% of the world’s population – found themselves in a state of chronic hunger – a staggering rise compared to 2019. This data underscores the severity of the situation, revealing a growing crisis.

In addition, an estimated 2.4 billion people faced moderate to severe food insecurity in 2022. This classification signifies their lack of access to sufficient nourishment. This number escalated by an alarming 391 million people compared to 2019.

The persistent surge in hunger and food insecurity, fueled by a complex interplay of factors, demands immediate attention and coordinated global efforts to alleviate this critical humanitarian challenge.

Extreme hunger and malnutrition remains a barrier to sustainable development and creates a trap from which people cannot easily escape. Hunger and malnutrition mean less productive individuals, who are more prone to disease and thus often unable to earn more and improve their livelihoods.

2 billion people in the world do not have reg- ular access to safe, nutritious and sufficient food. In 2022, 148 million children had stunted growth and 45 million children under the age of 5 were affected by wasting.

How many people are hungry?

It is projected that more than 600 million people worldwide will be facing hunger in 2030, highlighting the immense challenge of achieving the zero hunger target.

People experiencing moderate food insecurity are typically unable to eat a healthy, balanced diet on a regular basis because of income or other resource constraints.

Why are there so many hungry people?

Shockingly, the world is back at hunger levels not seen since 2005, and food prices remain higher in more countries than in the period 2015–2019. Along with conflict, climate shocks, and rising cost of living, civil insecurity and declining food production have all contributed to food scarcity and high food prices.

Investment in the agriculture sector is critical for reducing hunger and poverty, improving food security, creating employment and building resilience to disasters and shocks.

Why should I care?

We all want our families to have enough food to eat what is safe and nutritious. A world with zero hunger can positively impact our economies, health, education, equality and social development.

It’s a key piece of building a better future for everyone. Additionally, with hunger limiting human development, we will not be able to achieve the other sustainable development goals such as education, health and gender equality.

How can we achieve Zero Hunger?

Food security requires a multi-dimensional approach – from social protection to safeguard safe and nutritious food especially for children to transforming food systems to achieve a more inclusive and sustainable world. There will need to be investments in rural and urban areas and in social protection so poor people have access to food and can improve their livelihoods.

What can we do to help?

You can make changes in your own life—at home, at work and in the community—by supporting local farmers or markets and making sustainable food choices, supporting good nutrition for all, and fighting food waste.

You can also use your power as a consumer and voter, demanding businesses and governments make the choices and changes that will make Zero Hunger a reality. Join the conversation, whether on social media platforms or in your local communities.

Facts and Figures

Goal 2 targets.

• Despite global efforts, in 2022, an estimated 45 million children under the age of 5 suffered from wasting, 148 million had stunted growth and 37 million were overweight. A fundamental shift in trajectory is needed to achieve the 2030 nutrition targets.
• To achieve zero hunger by 2030, urgent coordinated action and policy solutions are imperative to address entrenched inequalities, transform food systems, invest in sustainable agricultural practices, and reduce and mitigate the impact of conflict and the pandemic on global nutrition and food security.

Source: The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2023

2.1 By 2030, end hunger and ensure access by all people, in particular the poor and people in vulnerable situations, including infants, to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all year round.

2.2 By 2030, end all forms of malnutrition, including achieving, by 2025, the internationally agreed targets on stunting and wasting in children under 5 years of age, and address the nutritional needs of adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating women and older persons.

2.3 By 2030, double the agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers, in particular women, indigenous peoples, family farmers, pastoralists and fishers, including through secure and equal access to land, other productive resources and inputs, knowledge, financial services, markets and opportunities for value addition and non-farm employment.

2.4 By 2030, ensure sustainable food production systems and implement resilient agricultural practices that increase productivity and production, that help maintain ecosystems, that strengthen capacity for adaptation to climate change, extreme weather, drought, flooding and other disasters and that progressively improve land and soil quality.

2.5 By 2020, maintain the genetic diversity of seeds, cultivated plants and farmed and domesticated animals and their related wild species, including through soundly managed and diversified seed and plant banks at the national, regional and international levels, and promote access to and fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge, as internationally agreed.

2.A Increase investment, including through enhanced international cooperation, in rural infrastructure, agricultural research and extension services, technology development and plant and livestock gene banks in order to enhance agricultural productive capacity in developing countries, in particular least developed countries.

2.B Correct and prevent trade restrictions and distortions in world agricultural markets, including through the parallel elimination of all forms of agricultural export subsidies and all export measures with equivalent effect, in accordance with the mandate of the Doha Development Round.

2.C Adopt measures to ensure the proper functioning of food commodity markets and their derivatives and facilitate timely access to market information, including on food reserves, in order to help limit extreme food price volatility.

International Fund for Agricultural Development

Food and Agriculture Organization

World Food Programme

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8 Ways We Can Actually Increase Food Access Nationwide

By Nikesha Elise Williams

We’ve all seen the lines. Dozens, hundreds, sometimes thousands of people either standing socially distanced or navigating their cars through orange cones in an effort to pick up a bag or a box of food to feed themselves and their families.

It evokes the black-and-white photos from the Great Depression era, of families standing in lines that wrapped around buildings for blocks just to get a hot meal. Only this isn’t 1931. It’s 2021, and we still have a staggering number of people in this country who don’t know where their next meal is coming from.

“Thirty-five million people were already suffering from not being able to put food on their table,” Thao Nguyen, the vice president of advocacy at Feeding America, tells SELF. That number has only grown under the compounded pressure of the COVID-19 global pandemic . “Now we’re looking at nearly 50 million people not being able to know where their next meal comes from.”

These stats demonstrate the growing problem of food insecurity, which the U.S. Department of Agriculture defines as uncertain access to food, meaning you may not know when you can expect your next meal or how you’re going to pay for it. It’s slightly different from the official definition of hunger, which is defined as a physiological condition on an individual level that could arise from food insecurity. More broadly, food insecurity is not only about access to food in general, but to the kind of food that can fuel you for a healthy lifestyle—one that allows you to take the best care possible of yourself, your loved ones, and your community.

There are lots of issues driving food insecurity, but systemic inequities are a huge one. These inequities do not happen by accident, Sarah Reinhardt , MPH, R.D., the senior analyst of food systems and health at the Union of Concerned Scientists, tells SELF. In many cases, racism is a huge driver.

“They’re not natural,” she says. “They’re a result of policy decisions that were made to keep Black people and many other people of color living in neighborhoods without the resources and opportunities that were afforded to white people.”

While the cause is pretty clear, the solution is more complex. It includes a mix of public-private partnerships (i.e., government support of local, community-based food systems), food justice advocacy , local activism, federal policy innovation, and fighting racism. It’s a tall order, and even though the issue is so urgent, it’s not going to be a sprint, Nguyen explains: “It’s going to be a marathon.” With that in mind, here are some strategies that could help us actually make access to affordable, healthy food a reality for the millions of people facing food insecurity.

1. Urge politicians to rectify the effects of racist community policies.

Many problems leading to food insecurity and food access issues can be traced back to legacy structural policies in communities that left certain areas—many in Black communities or other communities of color—without much-needed food resources.

“Redlining and other policies have left an indelible mark on how our neighborhoods look and function in almost every major city and in some rural areas too,” Reinhardt says. Redlining refers to the practice of outlining areas with large Black populations in red ink on city maps, so mortgage lenders would know the neighborhoods where Black families lived and be less likely to approve their loan applications. This also showed businesses—including grocery stores—the neighborhoods with high-density Black populations, and as a result, many companies were less likely to invest and set up shop in those locations. According to Jasmine Ratliff , Ph.D., the self-determining food economies and policy manager for the National Black Food & Justice Alliance, this disinvestment led to a lack of generational wealth in Black and other underserved communities.

The depressed level of economic investment and home ownership in these areas created what’s known as food deserts , where there’s a lack of access to healthy food, as well as food swamps , or areas where there is a high density of businesses selling fast food and less conventionally healthy food. Food justice advocate Karen Washington, co-founder of Black Urban Growers , is credited with coining the term “food apartheid” to more adequately describe what has led to a lack of access to nutrient-rich food in Black communities.

While the redlining that led to this food apartheid was technically banned 50 years ago with the Fair Housing Act of 1968 , factors like city zoning laws continue to be an issue for food access.

“Zoning laws can have tremendous impacts on where grocery stores exist, as well as a community’s ability to participate in urban farming, local food production, things like that,” Reinhardt says. For example, food justice activist Neftalí Durán, cofounder of the group I-Collective , has been trying for years to get zoning laws passed to allow backyard hen farming for residents in Holyoke, Massachusetts, only to be faced with what Durán describes as growing barriers—including special permits and inspection fees—against it. Circumstances like these show how zoning laws can keep people from achieving food sovereignty (the right to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced sustainably, as well as to define your own agricultural system), Reinhardt says.

Even laws that were implemented to increase equity in food access, such as the Morrill Acts of 1862 and 1890—which established land-grant institutions in states to educate people on agriculture and other practices—struggle to fulfill their initial intent. Initially these institutions included predominantly white universities and colleges, but when the act was expanded in 1890, it added historically Black colleges and universities. According to Dr. Ratliff, though, there are often noticeable inequities in how the laws are implemented. “You’ll see sustainable agriculture in the white universities, and not necessarily in the Black universities,” she says. “We’re always trying to fight for that same treatment or that state match [in funding], or things that were supposed to be equalized and in legislation, but are not being implemented at this point.”

By Julia Ries

By Nikki Campo

By Julia Sullivan

To adequately and sufficiently address these issues in policy and in federal and local laws, we first need to address the inherent racism that’s influencing them. Voter turnout is crucial in doing so, because even smaller elections can help areas work for change. But the impact of voting policy, especially as it relates to voters of color, cannot be overlooked. According to a February 2021 report from the Brennan Center for Justice, legislators introduced four times the number of bills restricting voting access since February 2020 compared with the previous year. These proposals include restrictions on mail voting, ending or restricting election day registration, and decreasing voter hours on Sundays, when many Black churches hold mass voter drives known as Souls to the Polls. This can create barriers, where many in these communities feel like they don’t have a say in what happens at their local level, says Dr. Ratliff.

“We have policy makers who are uncomfortable with people of all races having equal access to some of these important aid programs, and that’s an unfortunate legacy that just makes all of our policy-making that much more complicated and unjust,” Nina F. Ichikawa, the executive director of the Berkeley Food Institute at U.C. Berkeley, tells SELF.

2. Pay a fair and liveable wage for work.

The federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour, which has not changed since 2009. Some workers make even less than that, including tipped workers and agriculture workers.

When wages are low, people’s paychecks must stretch to cover all of the necessities, including food, shelter, transportation, or medication. As it stands now, some agriculture workers can’t afford to buy the food they plant, harvest, and help distribute across the country.

“We can’t keep paying people less and less and then scrambling to find food for them to avoid hunger,” Ichikawa says. “It’s a disempowering and ultimately counterproductive strategy.”

And the pandemic has only magnified these issues for people in low-income households who were already struggling to meet their basic needs, according to a 2020 study published in Nutrients. In the study, which included nearly 1,500 people with incomes less than 250% of the federal poverty line ($26,200 for a family of four), researchers found that 44% of participants were food insecure in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. The adults dealing with food insecurity were also more likely to have their hours reduced at work and were more likely to say they’d lose their jobs if they missed too many days of work.

Experts say now more than ever is the time for lawmakers to raise the federal minimum wage. “Being able to put money in the hands of people who need it to be able to get food is the most efficient way for families to be able to get out of food insecurity,” Nguyen says. What’s more, if people made more money at one job, they’d also have more time to grocery shop and cook, Ichikawa says—two time-related factors that can play a role in the quality of food people eat.

While there had been some movement on this at the federal level with the introduction of the American Rescue Plan , the provision to increase the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour was removed before the plan passed. More push to increase the minimum wage has taken place at the state level, or by large businesses themselves, who have declared raises to their minimum wage. For instance, in July, Target increased its minimum wage to $15 an hour. And just in February, Costco announced it was raising its rate to $16 an hour.

Until there is a widespread bump, though, unions continue to play a big role in working toward fair and livable wages. Union organizers for airline workers and those who work at Marriott hotels are using the tagline One Job Should Be Enough to emphasize that they should make enough to live by working eight-hour days.

3. Continue and expand some of the food-access programs we already have.

The key programs that are used to fight hunger in the United States include SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which is accessed through an electronic benefit transfer, or EBT card), WIC (Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children), and P-EBT (Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer). The role of programs like these that give people direct access to money that can be used to purchase food can’t be understated, Reinhardt says.

And that holds true especially amid this health crisis. During the pandemic, benefit levels for SNAP have been increased 115% to help struggling families address their food insecurity. And P-EBT, which was created during the pandemic, provides additional electronic benefits that families can use when school is closed . “It’s essentially taking the place of the meals kids would have been receiving at schools,” says Reinhardt.

While the process of applying for and receiving benefits like SNAP can be frustrating in some cases, these kinds of programs can be very effective as a first line of defense against hunger. In fact, for every meal that Feeding America serves, SNAP provides nine, Nguyen said. What’s more, research from the Berkeley Food Institute published in the Journal of Health Economics s hows SNAP purchasing power has also been linked to better health outcomes for children, such as fewer school days missed due to illness and a greater likelihood of seeing their doctors for check-ups—as well as reducing their risk of food insecurity.

According to Ichikawa, the efficacy of these programs is no longer up for debate. Instead, we need continued support from policy makers (and to overcome the will of those against them) to maintain and further these programs.

One possible way to do that is to expand programs that provide boosted benefits. For example, SNAP benefits can be used at grocery stores and at eligible farmers markets, which gives struggling families access to even more food. But there are also programs in certain states that allow folks to double their SNAP benefits at their farmers markets, Nguyen says. For instance, Feeding Florida’s Fresh Access Bucks program in Florida allows people to do so at farmers markets, community grocery outlets, and CSAs (community-supported agriculture programs).

There are some barriers to this, though, including easy accessibility to these markets and programs. “The double-bucks program is currently a state-funded program, but it needs some support from federal funding to be accessible at all farmers markets, especially the ones in the highly populated Black communities that are lower income and need the resources more,” says Dr. Ratliff.

4. Increase the child tax credit.

Among the 50 million people across the country who are hungry, 17 million are children. Another way to help cut hunger for them is by increasing the child tax credit , Nguyen says. This could be a direct way to cut child poverty and child hunger, again by putting more money into people’s pockets that they can spend on necessities such as food.

We’re already making strides with this: As part of the American Rescue Plan, the Biden administration increased the child tax credit from $2,000 to $3,600 for children under age 6 (and to $3,000 for children ages 6 to 17). The new tax credit is fully refundable, which means if you don’t owe any taxes, you will get the full credit as a tax refund.

Right now this expansion of the child tax credit is only supposed to last for the 2021 tax year, but some lawmakers are aiming to make it permanent. In any case, this expansion—together with other measures of the American Rescue Plan—is estimated to cut child poverty in half, which can play a vital role in decreasing child hunger and food insecurity.

5. Feed students no matter what.

When the COVID-19 lockdowns first began, experts worried that children who were already living with some degree of food insecurity might go without meals entirely. They feared that since they were being homeschooled, they wouldn’t be receiving breakfast and lunch at school.

P-EBT has helped alleviate this concern, as did the expansion of other programs, such as the USDA’s Summer Food Service Program . But other programs, like the National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program , have more restrictions and are implemented at a school district’s discretion. This can mean some students in some states will have access to breakfast and lunch no matter the income level of their parents, while others will have to continue to fill out the paperwork to qualify for free or reduced price lunch. For those who don’t qualify, paying full price can increase their school lunch debt , which could prevent a student from graduating or moving to the next grade level, or can mean they simply go without eating.

The flexibility states have in implementing these programs means in some states they work very well, whereas in others it’s a mess. “I think as a country we should get more towards some national consistency,” Ichikawa says.

In fact, experts say a federal policy can go a step further by creating a universal school meal program—something that can help take a hit at hunger even in nonpandemic times. This might look like every state allowing all students to have breakfast and lunch for free regardless of income level, as well as providing these same meals during the summer.

“Kids go to school, they get to sit in desks, they get to drink from water fountains, they should get to eat healthy meals ,” Reinhardt says. “It should just be a given.”

6. Support resources that make it easier for people to grow their own food.

While some of these solutions to increasing food access may take longer than others—in particular, rectifying the legacy of racism—some people are able to grow their own food to lessen their food insecurity.

Ichikawa says urban agriculture is one way that people can achieve food sovereignty—as long as they have the space, time, or zoning support to do so, which unfortunately is not the case for everyone dealing with food insecurity. Urban agriculture can include raising hens in your backyard, establishing a community garden , or working on a local farm. Some of these community-based options can be particularly helpful for establishing food sovereignty for those who live in urban areas without access to a backyard, or who have zoning laws that make farming on their own difficult.

Through urban agriculture, “a lot of people in urban, semi-urban, and even rural contexts are feeding themselves,” Ichikawa says. “A lot of food is cultivated and changes hands, and it’s not about buying or selling—it’s about doing it for yourself.”

Programs such as the International Rescue Committee , a refugee organization that establishes successful farms led by immigrants, can be important ways for people to get involved with agriculture when they may not know where or how to start.

“There’s no shortage of enthusiasm for urban agriculture, but what we do need is policy support,” Ichikawa says. We also need the creation of careers in this field, Dr. Ratliff says, which would decrease the burden on people who are involved in urban farming as a way of feeding themselves while also working one or more full-time jobs.

Additionally, urban agriculture requires the support of people who are food secure, especially those who live in areas where urban agriculture is taking off. That support can look like voting in favor of zoning laws that allow its development, or establishing or serving on a food policy council. Buying their offerings, if they’re available to the public, can help too.

7. Support food banks and pantries.

Feeding America has a network of 200 food banks and 60,000 partner pantries and meal sites to help reduce food insecurity in every county across the country. But it’s still not enough. “We are not going to be able to food-bank our way out of ending hunger,” Nguyen said.

This is especially true since Feeding America estimates that food banks will see a decline of USDA foods of 30% to 40%, when the need at food banks has increased about 60%. The reason for this decline? Food banks relied on food from The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) to provide more than a billion meals last year, but with the USDA ending the Food Purchase and Distribution Program at the end of 2020, they’ll be missing out on the food that program provided. “That is a lot of missed meals that many American families are going to need to come from their food banks,” Nguyen says.

Feeding America is actively working to make sure families aren’t harmed by the possibility of less food coming in by fighting against disruptions in the USDA food supply chain and for funding to purchase more USDA foods. You can help on an individual level, too, by donating food or time to these food banks.

8. Use your voice.

Just as powerful as policy is people—whether they’re food insecure or not—using their voice to advocate for those who are struggling.

“I hope that one of the silver linings coming from this pandemic is that there’s an increased awareness of how hunger is pervasive in our communities, and that people look for opportunities where they can really add their voice— where they can volunteer, or where they can consider donating to ensure that this crisis doesn’t continue,” Nguyen says.

Nguyen knows not everyone can afford to donate to food banks and food pantries or even volunteer, but she believes everyone can take a step like making a call to Congress, sending an email to your state representatives, or writing a note to local leadership about the long lines of people trying to get assistance to access food in their community. “If you’re able to just use your voice, you can change the lives of so many people.” For more specifics on how you can help, check out these tips on how you can help people facing hunger in your community .

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Home — Essay Samples — Science — Food Safety — Global Food Insecurity: Causes And Solutions

Global Food Insecurity: Causes and Solutions

• Categories: Food Safety World Food Crisis

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Published: May 17, 2022

Words: 2149 | Pages: 5 | 11 min read

Table of contents

Introduction, section i. background, section ii. technologies that can reduce hunger and improve food security, section iii. specific factors in chosen developing country.

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• World Resources Institute. 2018. How to Sustainably Feed 10 Billion People by 2050, in 21 Charts? Retrieved from https://www.wri.org/blog/2018/12/how-sustainably-feed-10-billion-people-2050-21-charts
• Bread for the World. 2020. About Hunger. Who Experiences Hunger. Retrieved from https://www.bread.org/who-experiences-hunger
• World Food Programme. Philippines: World Food Programme Clarification on Yolanda Response Funds. Retrieved from https://www.wfp.org/news/wfp-statement-yolanda-reponse-funds
• Bill Gates. 2017. The tech solutions to end global hunger. Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/2017/02/23/health/tech-apps-solving-global-hunger-famine/index.html
• iCow. 2020. We aim to secure food production. Retrieved from https://www.icow.co.ke/
• WordPress. 2020. Kilimo Salama. Since we cannot control the weather. Retrieved from https://kilimosalama.wordpress.com/about/
• Grameen Foundation. 2020. The end of poverty is finally within reach. Retrieved from https://grameenfoundation.org/?url=https://grameenfoundation.org/&gclid=Cj0KCQiAkKnyBRDwARIsALtxe7iX8k7sJWnhLUIi7-zh8cEXVS_OvdMq4hAD4Hq9n-rW4O3wM2oniP0aAgo3EALw_wcB
• Kiko Pangilinan. 2016. P-Noy Becoming a Farmer Upon Retirement a Big Boost to PH Farmers, Agriculture. Retrieved from https://kikopangilinan.com/2016/03/18/pangilinan-p-noy-becoming-a-farmer-upon-retirement-a-big-boost-to-ph-farmers-agriculture/
• OXFAM. 2020. The power of people against poverty. Retrieved from https://philippines.oxfam.org/
• Investopedia. 2019. How Corruption Affects Emerging Economies. Retrieved from https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/012215/how-corruption-affects-emerging-economies.asp

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Food Security in the United States: The Major Lapses of the Conventional Food Systems Essay

Introduction, the meaning of food security, food insecurity in the american perspective, major problems associated with the traditional food systems, american communities affected by food insecurity, my role in the food system.

Even as commercial and peasant farmers continue to increase pressure on farmland for the production of non-food crops, food security continues to dominate major global forums. Global farmlands are gradually losing their historical fertility, food-processing companies are increasingly becoming unstable, and food galleries are becoming emptier.

The issue of food security is a universal dilemma that has struck several nations across the world, even as climate continues to be unpredictable, and the events of hunger and drought continue to occur repeatedly. The intent of this essay is to give an in-depth meaning of food security, the perspective of food insecurity to the case of the United States, the major lapses of the conventional food systems, and the American communities that frequently remain affected by food insecurity.

Food security may refer to the sufficient accessibility of nutritious, safe, and religiously and culturally appropriate food to all the people across the world. Food security may also depict a situation whereby all communities of the world, regardless of their ethnic backgrounds, religious beliefs, political affiliations, and socioeconomic statuses, rightfully enjoy unlimited access to reliable and affordable food that is nutritious and safe for human consumption.

Food security is also a state whereby all the people across the continents are capable of accessing food that is sufficient in quantity and quality, depending on their daily nutritional demands. The concept of quantity applies because food has to be adequate to feed the populations sufficiently. The concept of quality applies because food has to be safe and nutritious.

Despite the United States seeking equitable access to economic food resources and physical food resources, food insecurity in the American perspective comes in a disparity manner. American food insecurity occurs when the vulnerable groups of people in different communities are suffering an acute shortage of ability to have an economic and physical access to safe, nutritious, and religiously and culturally appropriate food.

Food insecurity in America is eminent when children are facing a devastating shortage of adequate food that is nutritious and safe for human consumption. Food insecurity in the United States also becomes eminent when the elderly, the ethnic minority, and the rural people, lack access to food of the right quality and quantity, due to their mobility conditions and other socioeconomic situations.

The foremost problem associated with the American conventional food systems is lack of food maintenance. The traditional American food systems lacked proper food maintenance because they lacked proper food harvesting techniques, they lacked proper food preservation methods, and they lacked ample storage infrastructures.

Although the traditional food systems are more nutritious and safer compared to the foods produced through the contemporary technologies and stored through the modern industrial systems, they lack their sustained value because of poor preservation. Since the modern industrial food systems replaced the traditional methods of producing and preserving food, food security has improved tremendously across the continents. The traditionally gathered foods have never proven significant in dealing with the modern food insecurity. The replacement of traditional galleries with industries is worthwhile.

Although hunger is a universal problem that affects all the global communities, food insecurity in United States affects the minority ethnicities unfairly. The most affected minority communities are those that make up the biggest minority groups. The ethnic communities of America that often face food insecurity are large minority communities.

These communities involve the African American ethnic communities and the Latino minority population, which report constant events of food shortages. In the American demographic statistics and history, the two minority communities have remained disproportionately affected by poverty, food insecurity, and unemployment misfortunes. These two ethnic communities of the United States live in the rural, the suburban, and the underdeveloped cities of America. These are areas, where racial poverty, lack of education and unemployment, are major social concerns.

My major role in the modern food system is to ensure appropriate use of the available food in the markets, at home, and within the institution. People must use the right amount of food required by the body tissues to enable the body systems work properly. I must practice suitable cooking. Suitable cooking means cooking the right amount of food, without wasting any food amount that may deem important somewhere else in the world.

My other significant role in the food system is ensuring an appropriate budgeting of food to avoid unnecessary food decay, which literally leads to loss of food. Lastly, my other role in the food security is sensitizing the local communities about the appropriate use of farmland.

Food insecurity is becoming a growing concern in many nations. Food security primarily means an unlimited economic and physical access to food that is nutritious, safe, and culturally and religiously acceptable. Although hunger is a universal problem that affects many people across the world, the situation may sometimes be disproportionate in some parts of the world, depending on several socioeconomic dynamics.

In America, poverty, unemployment, and old age are some of the variables that determine access to food, as well as define the situation of food insecurity in the nation. In America, there is food insecurity when the elderly, the ethnic minority, the children, and the rural and suburban populations report considerable incidences of hunger. Such situations make the issue of food insecurity a complex phenomenon.

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IvyPanda. (2020, May 15). Food Security in the United States: The Major Lapses of the Conventional Food Systems. https://ivypanda.com/essays/food-security-in-the-united-states/

"Food Security in the United States: The Major Lapses of the Conventional Food Systems." IvyPanda , 15 May 2020, ivypanda.com/essays/food-security-in-the-united-states/.

IvyPanda . (2020) 'Food Security in the United States: The Major Lapses of the Conventional Food Systems'. 15 May.

IvyPanda . 2020. "Food Security in the United States: The Major Lapses of the Conventional Food Systems." May 15, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/food-security-in-the-united-states/.

1. IvyPanda . "Food Security in the United States: The Major Lapses of the Conventional Food Systems." May 15, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/food-security-in-the-united-states/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Food Security in the United States: The Major Lapses of the Conventional Food Systems." May 15, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/food-security-in-the-united-states/.

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Three Theories of the food insecurity ‘problem’ and the right to food ‘solution’

• Published: July 2017
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Chapter 3 sets out the key theories with which the book engages: food insecurity and the human right to food. Following on from a conceptualisation and definition of food insecurity, the right to food is introduced. Emphasis is placed on normative element of ‘adequacy and sustainability of food availability and access’ and on the state’s obligation to ‘respect, protect and fulfil the right to food’. Theories of ‘othering’ and ‘agency’ are employed to assess the social acceptability of emergency food systems as a means of acquiring food, and the power of providers to make sufficient food available through these systems and of potential recipients to access it. Theories of ‘care’ and ‘social protection’ are employed to explore the ways in which charitable providers are in practice taking responsibility for the duty to respect, protect and fulfil the right to food and how shifts in welfare policy are affecting need for this provision.

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Food Security Priorities in Russia

• First Online: 07 August 2021

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• Stanislav Lipski 5 &
• Olga Storozhenko 6  

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Progressing development of Russia’s agricultural sector in the past decade has contributed to the significant increase in exports of wheat, soybeans, and other agricultural products. Further expansion of food exports is emphasized in Russia’s Food Security Doctrine adopted in 2020. One of the critical factors of such improvement in agricultural production and trade is the efficient use of the country’s land resources, mainly irrigated lands. Since the breakup of the Soviet Union, the area of irrigated lands in Russia has been decreasing. The decline has been halted only recently, but the area of drained lands is still shrinking. About 30–50 million ha agricultural lands are abandoned in Russia due to land privatization faults, while about 70% of irrigated lands are not irrigated properly. In the past years, the measures to engage abandoned lands back to agricultural production have been taken on the regional level, including in the sparsely populated Far East. To ensure the efficient use of agricultural lands and ongoing improvement of the country’s ameliorative system, such measures should be complemented by implementing state programs in the sphere of land use. In light of the achievement of food security and agricultural development targets in Russia, this study explores the use of various categories of agricultural lands, including irrigated, drained, unused reclaimed, and underused irrigated lands.

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Rosinformagrotech. (2020). National report “On the progress and outcome of implementation of the state program for agricultural development and agricultural market regulation, raw materials and agricultural products” . Retrieved March 19, 2021, from https://rosinformagrotech.ru/data

Rosinformagrotech. (2021). Reports on the status and use of agricultural land 2011–2019 . Retrieved March 19, 2021, from https://mcxac.ru/monitoring-zemel/state_land/

Rosreestr. (2021). Annual national reports on the status and use of agricultural land in the Russian Federation in 1992–2018 . Retrieved March 19, 2021, from https://rosreestr.gov.ru/site/press/archive/materials/

Volkov, S., & Lipski, S. (2017). Legal and land use planning measures for involvement of unused agricultural land into economic circulation and ensuring their effective use. Land Management, Monitoring and Cadaster, 145 (2), 5–10.

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Lipski, S., Storozhenko, O. (2021). Food Security Priorities in Russia. In: Erokhin, V., Tianming, G., Andrei, J.V. (eds) Shifting Patterns of Agricultural Trade. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-3260-0_17

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Drought Pushes Millions Into ‘Acute Hunger’ in Southern Africa

The disaster, intensified by El Niño, is devastating communities across several countries, killing crops and livestock and sending food prices soaring.

By Somini Sengupta and Manuela Andreoni

An estimated 20 million people in southern Africa are facing what the United Nations calls “acute hunger” as one of the worst droughts in more than four decades shrivels crops, decimates livestock and, after years of rising food prices brought on by pandemic and war, spikes the price of corn, the region’s staple crop.

Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe have all declared national emergencies.

It is a bitter foretaste of what a warming climate is projected to bring to a region that’s likely to be acutely affected by climate change, though scientists said on Thursday that the current drought is more driven by the natural weather cycle known as El Niño than by global warming.

Its effects are all the more punishing because in the past few years the region had been hit by cyclones, unusually heavy rains and a widening outbreak of cholera.

‘Urgent help’ is needed

The rains this year began late and were lower than average. In February, when crops need it most, parts of Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Angola, Mozambique and Botswana received a fifth of the typical rainfall.

That’s devastating for these largely agrarian countries, where farmers rely entirely on the rains.

In southern Malawi, in a district called Chikwawa, some residents were wading into a river rife with crocodiles to collect a wild tuber known as nyika to curb their hunger. “My area needs urgent help,” the local leader, who identified himself as Chief Chimombo, said.

Elsewhere, cattle in search of water walked into fields still muddy from last year’s heavy rains, only to get stuck, said Chikondi Chabvuta, a Malawi-based aid worker with CARE, the international relief organization. Thousands of cattle deaths have been reported in the region, according to the group.

The first few months of every year, just before the harvest begins in late April and May, are usually a lean season. This year, because harvests are projected to be significantly lower , the lean season is likely to last longer. “The food security situation is very bad and is expected to get worse,” Ms. Chabvuta said.

Local corn prices have risen sharply. In Zambia, the price more than doubled between January 2022 and January of this year, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization . In Malawi, it rose fourfold.

The F.A.O. pointed out that, in addition to low yields, grain prices have been abnormally high because of the war in Ukraine, one of the world’s biggest grain exporters, as well as weak currencies in several southern African countries, making it expensive to buy imported food, fuel and fertilizers.

Why it’s happening

According to an analysis published Thursday by World Weather Attribution, an international coalition of scientists that focuses on rapid assessment of extreme weather events, the driving force behind the current drought is El Niño, a natural weather phenomenon that heats parts of the Pacific Ocean every few years and tweaks the weather in different ways in different parts of the world. In Southern Africa, El Niños tend to bring below-average rainfall.

El Niño made this drought twice as likely, the study concluded. That weather pattern is now weakening, but a repeat is expected soon.

The drought may also have been worsened by deforestation, which throws off local rainfall patterns and degrades soils, the study concluded.

Droughts are notoriously hard to attribute to global warming. That is particularly true in regions like Southern Africa, in part because it doesn’t have a dense network of weather stations offering detailed historical data.

Scientists are uncertain as to whether climate change played a role in this particular drought. However, there is little uncertainty about the long-term effects of climate change in this part of the world.

The average temperature in Southern Africa has risen by 1.04 to 1.8 degrees Celsius in the past 50 years , according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and the number of hot days has increased. That makes a dry year worse. Plants and animals are thirstier. Moisture evaporates. Soils dry out. Scientific models indicate that Southern Africa is becoming drier overall .

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change calls Southern Africa a climate change “hot spot in terms of both hot extremes and drying.”

The costs of adaptation

To the millions of people trying to cope with this drought, it hardly matters whether climate change or something else is responsible for why the skies have gone dry.

What matters is whether these communities can adapt fast enough to weather shocks.

“It’s really important that resilience to droughts, especially in these parts of the continent, should really be improved,” said Joyce Kimutai, one of the authors of the study and a researcher at the Grantham Institute, a climate and environment center at Imperial College London.

There are existing solutions that need money to put into effect: early warning systems that inform people about what to expect, insurance and other social safety programs to help them prepare, as well as diversifying what farmers plant. Corn is extremely vulnerable to heat and erratic rains.

Golden Matonga contributed reporting.

Somini Sengupta is the international climate reporter on the Times climate team. More about Somini Sengupta

Manuela Andreoni is a Times climate and environmental reporter and a writer for the Climate Forward newsletter. More about Manuela Andreoni

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In theory, online shopping can be more efficient  than driving to the store. But you may still want to think before you add to cart.

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• Security Council

Attacks on Odesa Port, Grain-Storage Facilities Latest Victims in Moscow’s ‘Senseless’ War against Ukraine, Senior Official Tells Security Council

Russian federation condemning millions to food insecurity, says representative.

Deliberately targeting infrastructure that facilitates the export of food to the rest of the world could be life-threatening to millions of people who need access to affordable food, a senior United Nations official told the Security Council today, as speakers condemned the Russian Federation’s air strikes against ports and grain-storage facilities in Odesa.

Khaled Khiari, Assistant Secretary-General for Middle East, Asia and the Pacific in the Departments of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs and Peace Operations, said this week, the port city of Odesa has been the target of a devastating wave of air strikes.  The 23 July Russian missile attack, which damaged the Transfiguration Cathedral and other historical buildings in the historic centre of Odesa, followed several successive nights of deadly missile and drone strikes targeting Odesa and other cities in southern Ukraine, including Mykolaiv and Chornomorsk.

He emphasized that attacks against Ukrainian Black Sea port facilities risk having far-reaching impacts on global food security, particularly in developing countries.  Port cities that allow for the export of grain — such as Odesa, Reni and Izmail — are a lifeline for many.  “Now they are the latest casualties in this senseless, brutal war,” he said, declaring:  “Ukrainians have suffered enough, the world has suffered enough.”

In the ensuring debate, Council members sounded alarm over the sharp increase in the Russian Federation’s attacks on the Black Sea coast, stressing that these actions will continue to deteriorate global food insecurity.

The representative of Albania said “in a war that has lost its way, as part of a policy that has no meaning”, the Russian Federation is intentionally targeting ports and grain-storage facilities.  By blocking and bombing Ukrainian seaports and preventing freedom of navigation in the Black Sea, Moscow is not only preventing Ukraine from exporting its grain and agricultural production, but also condemning millions to food insecurity, mostly in developing countries in the Global South.

“There is no end in sight to this war [in Ukraine],” warned China’s delegate, calling on all parties to refrain from attacking infrastructure, cultural sites and safeguard the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.  All parties should meet each other part way to revive the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which is essential to maintaining the global food supply, he underscored.

In the same vein, Gabon’s delegate said that, as the food situation is in danger of being deprived of a third of the global grain, strikes on Odesa ports are likely to damage existent infrastructure used to transport grain, raising fear of a food crisis.  “Even if the prospects for peace might seem remote and the sound of cannon fire persists, we hope that dialogue and the melody of peace will eventually triumph,” she said, voicing support for diplomatic initiatives.

Brazil’s delegate, expressing concern over the recent attacks in populated areas in Odesa, resulting in loss of yet more human life and significant damage to civilian infrastructure and to cultural and historic Ukrainian heritage, welcomed the expected deployment of a United Nations mission to Odesa in the next few days to ascertain the extent of the destruction resulting from these attacks.

The representative of the United Arab Emirates cited destruction to Odesa as “a reminder” of the material and intangible costs of the war on civilians, civilian objects and cultural heritage.  Since February 2022, there have been nearly 25,000 civilian casualties recorded in Ukraine, including more than 9,000 killed.  “The toll wrought by war is heavy and the road to reconstruction and healing will be long and arduous,” he said, reiterating that the international community must exert all efforts to achieve a lasting peace in Ukraine.

Rounding out the discussion, Ukraine’s delegate said that, following the 23 July attack, nearly 50 buildings were damaged or destroyed, including 4 schools and 5 kindergartens.  The Russian Federation continues its attacks against port infrastructure and grain storage facilities, he said, warning that — without a strong response — the country “will be encouraged to further undermine the security situation in the Black Sea by attacking civilian vessels”.

KHALED KHIARI, Assistant Secretary-General for Middle East, Asia and the Pacific in the Departments of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs and Peace Operations, sounded alarm over the widespread destruction and suffering caused by the war in Ukraine.  This week, the port city of Odesa has been the target of a devastating wave of air strikes.  On 23 July, a Russian missile attack damaged the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)-protected Transfiguration Cathedral and other historical buildings in the historic centre of Odesa, a world heritage site.  In this shocking attack, one person was reportedly killed, and several others, including children, injured.  The attack also caused extensive damage to an important place of worship with religious and cultural significance to Ukraine and beyond, in violation of the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict.  The 23 July attack followed several successive nights of deadly Russian Federations missile and drone strikes targeting Odesa and other cities in southern Ukraine, including Mykolaiv and Chornomorsk, killing at least three people and injuring dozens of others.  Unfortunately, the 23 July attack was not the first targeting Ukrainian culture and heritage, he said, adding that since 24 February 2022, UNESCO has verified damage to 274 cultural sites in Ukraine, including 117 religious sites.

He underscored that attacks against Ukrainian Black Sea port facilities risk having far-reaching impacts on global food security, particularly in developing countries.  He highlighted disturbing reports of further Russian Federation strikes against port infrastructure, including grain-storage facilities, in Reni and Izmail ports on the Danube River — a key route for shipment of Ukrainian grain, not far from Ukraine’s borders with Romania and the Republic of Moldova.  “Deliberately targeting infrastructure that facilitates the export of food to the rest of the world could be life-threatening to millions of people who need access to affordable food,” he stressed.  These attacks targeting Ukraine’s grain-export facilities, similarly to all attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure, must stop immediately, he asserted, emphasizing that attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure may constitute a violation of international humanitarian law.

The Secretary-General stated last week that he would “not relent in his efforts to ensure that Ukrainian and Russian food and fertilizer are available on international markets” as part of his ongoing efforts to fight global hunger and ensure stable food prices for consumers everywhere, he recalled.  However, the Humanitarian Response Plan for 2023 is only 29 per cent funded, he said, noting that further funding is desperately needed to help all in need.  In the first six months of 2023, 7.3 million people have received humanitarian assistance in Ukraine.  The United Nations and its humanitarian partners remain committed to providing life-saving humanitarian assistance and safeguarding the lives and dignity of persons affected by the war.  In the wake of Russian Federation’s withdrawal from the Black Sea Grain Initiative, these latest attacks signal a calamitous turn for Ukrainians and the world. Port cities that allow for the export of grain such as Odesa, Reni and Izmail, are a lifeline for many.  Now they are the latest casualties in this senseless, brutal war.  “Ukrainians have suffered enough, the world has suffered enough,” he said.

ARIAN SPASSE ( Albania ) said “in a war that has lost its way, as part of a policy that has no meaning”, the Russian Federation is targeting everything:  innocent people, residential areas, civilian infrastructure and cultural heritage.  With its latest decision to kill the Black Sea Grain Initiative, Moscow is again disrupting the food supply chain.  Moreover, it is intentionally targeting ports and grain-storage facilities.  The intense drone and missile attacks against Odesa aimed to damage the port infrastructure, including its grain and oil terminal, he said, adding that the bombardment inflicted serious damage to export facilities and destroyed at least 60,000 tons of grain.  By blocking and bombing Ukrainian seaports and preventing freedom of navigation in the Black Sea, Moscow is not only preventing Ukraine from exporting its grain and agricultural production, it is condemning millions to food insecurity, mostly in developing countries in the Global South.

LINDA THOMAS-GREENFIELD ( United States ) said the Russian Federation earlier this morning wasted the Council’s time and it is ironic that it destroyed a cathedral in Odesa when it struck the Port of Odesa.  There have been about 270 cultural sites damaged or destroyed since Russian Federation President Vladimir V. Putin launched his attacks against Ukraine. The Kremlin’s campaign of brutality has been relentless.  The attacks have world consequences and are attacking the world’s food supply.  The bombardment of Odesa and other port cities has destroyed critical grain-storage infrastructure.  The Russian Federation suspended its participation in the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which helped to get food to people in need.  The Initiative lowered food prices for all and has been critical in benefiting the developing world.  The Russian Federation will tell you otherwise, yet the facts are not on their side, which is why they have chosen not to speak in this meeting, she said. “Another temper tantrum for not getting their way,” she added.  The Council should not be silent and should address this pressing matter of international peace and security.

MONICA SOLEDAD SÁNCHEZ IZQUIERDO   ( Ecuador ) deplored that, after suspending its participation in the Black Sea Grain Initiative, the Russian Federation has decided to accompany that decision with continued attacks against port cities and facilities.  She sounded alarm that the military aggression against Ukraine has resulted in the destruction of hundreds of religious sites, most of them verified by UNESCO.  Further, she condemned the continuous attacks against critical civilian infrastructure, calling for an end to the attacks against the production and export infrastructure, as well as the main or alternative routes for grain trade. These actions will continue to deteriorate global food insecurity, she emphasized, calling on the Russian Federation to withdraw its occupation troops and put an end to the military aggression, without further delay.

NICOLAS DE RIVIÈRE ( France ) said that, for more than a week, the Russian Federation has been “raining missiles and drones on the Odesa region.  These deadly strikes have only one purpose:  to punish Ukraine.”  Since ending the Black Sea Grain Initiative, the Russian Federation has been targeting port infrastructure in Odesa and Mykolaiv and shelled grain silos, sheds and grain terminals.  More than 700 million people suffer from hunger and the Russian Federation has already destroyed more than 60,000 tons of grain.  “Again, Russia is leveraging blackmail as a tactic, and hunger as its weapon,” he added.  It blocks exports from Ukrainian ports to spark agricultural prices and increase profits from its own exports.  The most vulnerable countries suffer from these actions and France will continue to assist afflicted populations.  Calling the destruction of Ukrainian culture and heritage a double war crime, he said France will continue to support the preservation and repair of Ukrainian heritage.

GENG SHUANG ( China ) said the situation in Ukraine has been escalating and his delegation is deeply concerned that there seems to be no end to the war.  He called on both parties to the conflict to remain calm and not escalate the situation while observing international humanitarian law.  All parties should refrain from attacking infrastructure, cultural sites and safeguard the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.  The Black Sea Grain Initiative is very important to maintain the global food supply.  All parties should meet each other part way and he encouraged the Secretary-General’s efforts to revive the Initiative.  Efforts to end hostilities must continue and he encouraged the international community to create conditions for a political settlement. His delegation urged that the sovereignty of all States should be respected.

LILLY STELLA NGYEMA NDONG ( Gabon ) said that the strategies used by the parties to the conflict, targeting residential areas to destabilize their adversary, represent actions counter to international peace and security.  Despite the de-escalation calls, violence persists, she stressed, urging the parties not to target essential infrastructure and the civilian population.  “The toll is already too high,” she underscored, calling for a diplomatic and political solution.  As the food situation is in danger of being deprived of a third of the global grain, she noted that strikes on Odesa ports are likely to damage existent infrastructure used to transport grain, raising fear of a food crisis.  Encouraging the Council to support diplomatic initiatives to promote a negotiated settlement, she said:  “Even if the prospects for peace might seem remote and the sound of cannon fire persists, we hope that dialogue and the melody of peace will eventually triumph.”

SÉRGIO FRANÇA DANESE ( Brazil ) expressed concern over the recent attacks in populated areas of Ukraine, namely in Odesa, resulting in loss of yet more human life and significant damage to civilian infrastructure and to cultural and historic Ukrainian heritage. “We once again call on all parties to respect their obligations under international humanitarian law,” he stressed. Since the start of the conflict, UNESCO has recorded damage to 270 cultural sites in Ukraine, including 116 places of worship.  Brazil welcomes the expected deployment of a United Nations mission to Odesa in the next few days to ascertain the extent of the destruction resulting from the recent attacks.  He called for a peaceful solution to the conflict, one that fully respects Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and addresses the security concerns of all parties involved.  Continued fighting will result in more fatalities of the innocent and most vulnerable and jeopardize the future of generations to come.

DOMINGOS ESTÊVÃO FERNANDES ( Mozambique ) said that attacks on critical port facilities signal a significant escalation of the war and could lead to a full-fledged commerce war.  “We fear that neutral third-nation ships passing through these crucial naval routes might be targeted, increasing the risk of collateral damage and retaliatory actions,” he warned.  All parties must fully comply with their obligations under international law, including the requirement to abide by the principles of distinction, proportionality and protection of civilians and civilian infrastructure.  Mozambique strongly urges maximum restraint and reminds all parties of their obligations under international law.  As the conflict intensifies and the humanitarian consequences worsen, a refugee crisis looms over the region.  As each day passes, chances of reviving the Black Sea Grain Initiative dims, worsening the global food shortage and closing diplomatic options to deescalate the conflict.

CAROLYN ABENA ANIMA OPPONG-NTIRI ( Ghana ) emphasized the need for the parties to heed the calls for an immediate cessation of hostilities, while underscoring that the further militarization of the conflict, fuelled by the manifestation of their combative choices, will not change the dynamics of the conflict on the ground.  “It is futile to use force in contemporary State relations,” she stressed, while expressing concern about the negative impact of the conflict on the global humanitarian situation.  In this context, she reiterated a call on the Russian Federation to cease its attacks on cultural property, while urging both Moscow and Kyiv to stop hostilities. “Dialogue is the path we must choose, and dialogue is the choice we must support,” she observed.

SHINO MITSUKO ( Japan ) said that the Russian Federation has used heavy weaponry to target civilian infrastructure and has launched drone attacks on grain-storage facilities.  “Russia’s reprehensible actions clearly demonstrate their strategy of using global food supplies as a weapon, relentlessly causing severe consequences upon those vulnerable across the world,” she added. After the Russian Federation’s termination of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, it has been reported that grain prices have rapidly hiked.  Japan condemned the Russian Federation’s actions, “taking the rest of the world hostage while blaming others for the crisis”.  According to UNESCO, as many as 270 cultural sites in Ukraine have been damaged since the Russian Federation’s onset of hostilities, including religious sites, museums, historically significant buildings, monuments and libraries. “Cultural heritage embodies not only a nation’s unique identity and history, but also that of humanity at large,” she emphasized.

MOHAMED ISSA ABUSHAHAB ( United Arab Emirates ) said destruction and damage to Odesa is a reminder of the material and intangible costs of the war on civilians, civilian objects and cultural heritage. Since February 2022, there have been nearly 25,000 civilian casualties recorded in Ukraine, including more than 9,000 killed and close to 16,000 people injured.  Despite the international community’s appeals, the destruction of critical civilian infrastructure in Ukraine continues with estimated damages reaching billion of dollars.  As mentioned earlier, UNESCO has verified damage to 270 cultural sites in Ukraine since the beginning of the war.  “The toll wrought by war is heavy and the road to reconstruction and healing will be long and arduous,” he said, reiterating that the international community must exert all efforts to achieve a just, lasting peace that is in line with the Charter of the United Nations and respects Ukraine’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity.

ADRIAN DOMINIK HAURI ( Switzerland ) said that, since Moscow’s decision last week not to extend the Black Sea Grain Initiative, “the people of Odesa have had to endure nights that no one should have to live through”.  He sounded alarm over the sharp increase in the Russian Federation’s attacks on the Black Sea coast, which have caused civilian casualties and destroyed homes, port infrastructure and grain silos.  Indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks must be stopped, he asserted, deploring the damages recently caused during Moscow’s artillery attack on a cultural centre serving as humanitarian facility in Chasiv Yar in the Donetsk region. Attacks on areas protected by the World Heritage Convention represent severe damage to Ukraine’s cultural heritage, he said, adding that “not just walls are collapsing; a cultural heritage is under threat”.  He underscored that the attacks on port facilities — including on the Danube River near the Romanian border — and the threats to civilian shipping present a dangerous potential for escalation. 

DARREN CAMILLERI ( Malta ) recalled that, last week, the Russian Federation decided to withdraw from the Black Sea Grain Initiative.  This decision was taken in full knowledge of the fact that it seriously risks undoing everything that has been achieved in the past year and that it might set off a global humanitarian crisis.  Since then, the country has been repeatedly attacking Ukraine’s Port of Odesa, a key hub for exporting grain, and targeting port infrastructure and food storage facilities.  Administrative, cultural, religious and residential buildings have also been subject to a barrage of strikes, and civilians have been killed. In this connection, he welcomed the establishment of the International Centre for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine and the establishment of the Register of Damage Caused by the Aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine.  These are two important steps towards achieving accountability and ensuring the right to reparations for the citizens of Ukraine, the legal entities of Ukraine and the State of Ukraine.

BARBARA WOODWARD ( United Kingdom ), President of the Council for the month of July, speaking in her national capacity, recalled that the Transfiguration Cathedral — Odesa’s largest Orthodox Church — has been bombed twice:  in 1936 on Stalin’s orders and now on Putin’s order.  “This act of cultural and religious vandalism struck at the heart of the civilian community,” she emphasized, noting that Moscow’s aggression has left a wide trail of destruction across the country.  UNESCO has verified damage to over 270 cultural and historical sites, while thousands of artworks and other artefacts have been stolen.  Moreover, the Russian Federation is imposing its laws and education systems in Ukraine, restricting Ukrainian media and Indigenous languages, while also trying to indoctrinate children through forced transfers to the Russian Federation.  “Russia is seeking to destroy Ukraine’s history, identity and cultural heritage,” she stressed, while pointing out that with the strikes, Moscow is also harming the world’s hungriest.

SERGIY KYSLYTSYA ( Ukraine ) said that, on 23 July the Russian Federation shelled the city centre of Odesa with dozens of missiles, adding that using anti‑ship missiles against ground targets effectively turns them into low precision weapons of indiscriminate effect.  In total, nearly 50 buildings were damaged or destroyed following the attack, including four schools and five kindergartens.  Ukrainian grain and other foodstuffs remain another target that the Russian Federation is trying to eliminate.  The Russian Federation continues its attacks against port infrastructure and grain storage facilities.  “These aggressive actions merit a strong response, otherwise Russia will be encouraged to further undermine the security situation in the Black Sea by attacking civilian vessels,” he warned.  There are grounds to believe that the Russian Federation is preparing such incidents for the purposes of blaming Ukraine and discouraging vessels from other countries from entering Ukrainian waters and using Ukrainian ports.

The Russian Federation’s blockade of Ukrainian ports and destruction of infrastructure are aimed at eliminating a market competitor, deliberately raising world food prices and making a profit at the expense of the millions of vulnerable people, he continued.  He went on to describe how Ukrainian children “trapped in the occupied territories of Ukraine are now subject to anti-Ukrainian indoctrination and propaganda”, aimed at instilling hatred towards Ukraine, its language, culture and history.  The Russian Federation plans to take at least 30,000 children away from the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. “The main goal of such recreation for the Ukrainian children, as claimed is to ensure ‘the sociocultural integration of children into Russian society’, which effectively means aggressive brainwashing,” he continued.  Unlike the Russian Federation which seeks only greater war, Ukraine has proposed a peace formula, which aligns with the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.  The peace formula is the only way to restore just and lasting peace and stability in the region, he added.

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‘A Work of Art: Creating Food Security’ exhibit at the Spam Museum

AUSTIN, Minn. (KTTC) –Hormel and Austin high school students are working together to fight food insecurity in Mower County and they want to share their ideas with you.

The “A Work of Art: Creating Food Security” exhibit showcases drawings, paintings, pottery, essays and photography produced by the high schoolers with a theme of fighting hunger while also empowering students to share their ideas and visions for solutions.

You can check it out Thursday from 4:30 to 7 p.m. at the Spam Museum.

If you would like to learn more, you can learn more about this event by clicking here .

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