food insecurity in the world essay

This is why food security matters now more than ever

Food security is a rising concern as the global population is expected to reach 10 billion by 2100 Image:  REUTERS/Philimon Bulawayo

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Keith breene.

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Stay up to date:, food security.

• By 2050 there will be two billion more people on Earth than there are today.
• Today’s agriculture can’t deliver enough food to meet that need.
• So change is needed to increase output across the globe.
• But it mustn’t be done at the expense of an increasingly fragile environment.
• And the world’s most undernourished need help now.

The global food security challenge is straightforward: by 2050, the world must feed two billion more people , an increase of a quarter from today’s global population . The demand for food will be 56% greater than it was in 2010.

The United Nations has set ending hunger, achieving food security and improved nutrition , and promoting sustainable agriculture as the second of its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for the year 2030.

“With 10 years to go until 2030, the world is off-track to achieve the SDG targets for hunger and malnutrition,” says the latest report from the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization . “After decades of long decline, the number of people suffering from hunger has been slowly increasing since 2014.”

So what needs to be done to achieve the SDG target? The solution will involve addressing a whole host of issues, from gender parity and ageing demographics, to skills development and global warming. Agriculture will need to become more productive and greener.

These will be among the issues under discussion at the World Economic Forum’s virtual event ‘Bold Actions for Food as a Force for Good ’ from 23-24 November 2020.

Why is food security such a major global challenge?

The obvious reason is that everybody needs food. But the complexity of delivering sufficient food to a national population and to the whole world’s population shows why food security is such a priority for all countries, whether developing or developed.

In short, this is a global challenge because it’s not just about food and feeding people, but also about practically all aspects of an economy and society.

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What causes it?

1. Population growth – this varies considerably across countries. Sub-Saharan Africa is expected to double its population from one to two billion by 2050 . Populations in the developing world are also becoming increasingly urbanized, with 2.5 billion additional urban residents projected in Africa and Asia.

2. Changing tastes – not only is the population growing, but its diet is changing, too. As people become more affluent they start eating food that is richer in processed foods , meat and dairy. But to produce more meat means growing more grain.

3. Climate change – currently, 40% of the world’s landmass is arid , and rising temperatures will turn yet more of it into desert. At current rates, the amount of food we’re growing today will feed only half of the population by 2050.

4. Water scarcity – 28% of agriculture lies in water-stressed regions. It takes roughly 1,827 litres of water to produce a kilogramme of wheat , and the number of people facing water shortages could double by 2050 .

5. Troubled farmers – fewer people are choosing farming as an occupation. Meanwhile, global food prices are rising , arable land continues to be lost to urban sprawl and soil is being degraded by over-farming .

What makes ensuring food security so complex?

Consider India. Agriculture accounts for 18% of the economy’s output and 41% of its workforce . India is the second biggest producer of fruits and vegetables in the world. Yet according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, some 189 million Indians are undernourished, the largest number of hungry people in any single country . An estimated 14% of the population of India are too malnourished to lead a normal life.

Addressing the problem of hunger and malnourishment in an economy such as India’s requires improvements in the productivity of the agriculture sector, particularly smallholder farms. Rural and farming communities typically experience a higher incidence of poverty and hunger.

Agriculture must also be sustainable. Globally, the sector accounts for 30% of greenhouse gas emissions and 70% of freshwater withdrawals so attention has to be paid to energy and water use in farming. Waste is also a problem, with an estimated one-third of food consumption, some 1.3 billion tonnes , lost.

What’s the World Economic Forum doing about it?

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.

In 2007 and into the first half of 2008, global food prices increased sharply stirring social unrest and riots in both developing and developed economies, from Bangladesh to Brazil, from Mexico to Mozambique. This prompted the World Economic Forum and its partners, members and other constituents to define, in 2009, a New Vision for Agriculture (NVA) ; the aim continues to be to achieve, through market-based public-private approaches, 20% improvement in food security, environmental sustainability and economic opportunities every decade till 2050.

The World Economic Forum’s action portfolio of locally driven public-private partnerships under the NVA has mobilized over $10 billion , with some $1.2 billion already implemented, reaching nearly 3.6 million smallholder farmers.

The Forum also launched the Food Action Alliance , a coalition of organisations working together to strengthen the impact of agricultural value chains to produce food efficiently and sustainably, as well as the Food Innovation Hubs , which are regional platforms designed to enable technology and innovations to meet local needs. In addition, Uplink's Future of Protein initiative is calling for innovative projects to accelerate progress toward accessible, affordable, healthy and sustainable protein.

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What You Need to Know About Food Security and Climate Change

#ShowYourStripes graphic by Professor Ed Hawkins (University of Reading) https://showyourstripes.info/

What is the state of global food security today, and what is the role of climate change?

The number of people suffering acute food insecurity increased from 135 million in 2019 to 345 million in 82 countries by June 2022, as the war in Ukraine, supply chain disruptions, and the continued economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic pushed food prices to all-time highs.

Global food insecurity had already been rising, due in large part to climate phenomena. Global warming is influencing weather patterns, causing heat waves, heavy rainfall, and droughts. Rising food commodity prices in 2021 were a major factor in pushing approximately 30 million additional people in low-income countries toward food insecurity.

At the same time, the way that food is often produced today is a big part of the problem. It’s recently been estimated that the global food system is responsible for about a third of greenhouse gas emissions—second only to the energy sector; it is the number one source of methane and biodiversity loss.

It’s recently been estimated that the global food system is responsible for about a third of greenhouse gas emissions—second only to the energy sector; it is the number one source of methane and biodiversity loss.

Who is most affected by climate impacts on food security?

About 80% of the global population most at risk from crop failures and hunger from climate change are in Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia, where farming families are disproportionally poor and vulnerable. A  severe drought caused by an El Nino weather pattern or climate change can push millions more people into poverty. This is true even in places like the Philippines and Vietnam, which have relatively high incomes, but where farmers often live at the edge of poverty and food price increases have an outsized impact on poor urban consumers.

How might climate change affect farming and food security in the future?

Up to a certain point, rising temperatures and CO2 can be beneficial for crops. But rising temperatures also accelerate evapotranspiration from plants and soils, and there must also be enough water for crops to thrive.  

For areas of the world that are already water-constrained, climate change will increasingly cause adverse impacts on agricultural production through diminishing water supplies, increases in extreme events like floods and severe storms, heat stress, and increased prevalence of pests and diseases.

Above a certain point of warming -- and particularly above an increase of 2 degrees Celsius in average global temperatures – it becomes increasingly more difficult to adapt and increasingly more expensive. In countries where temperatures are already extremely high, such as the Sahel belt of Africa or South Asia, rising temperatures could have a more immediate effect on crops such as wheat that are less heat tolerant.

Without solutions, falling crop yields, especially in the world's most food-insecure regions, will push more people into poverty – an estimated 43 million people in Africa alone could fall below the poverty line by 2030 as a result.

How can agriculture adapt to climate change?

It’s possible to reduce emissions and become more resilient, but doing so often requires major social, economic, and technological change. There are a few key strategies:

Use water more efficiently and effectively, combined with policies to manage demand . Building more irrigation infrastructure may not be a solution if future water supply proves to be inadequate to supply the irrigation systems—which our research has shown may indeed be the case for some countries. Other options include better management of water demand as well as the use of advanced water accounting systems and technologies to assess the amount of water available, including soil moisture sensors and satellite evapotranspiration measurements . Such measures can facilitate techniques such as alternate wetting and drying of rice paddies, which saves water and reduces methane emissions at the same time.

Switch to less-thirsty crops . For example, rice farmers could switch to crops that require less water such as maize or legumes. Doing so would also help reduce methane emissions, because rice is a major source of agri-food emissions. But a culture that has been growing and consuming rice for thousands of years may not so easily switch to another less thirsty, less emitting crop.

Improve soil health . This is hugely important. Increasing organic carbon in soil helps it better retain water and allows plants to access water more readily, increasing resilience to drought. It also provides more nutrients without requiring as much chemical fertilizer -- which is a major source of emissions. Farmers can restore carbon that has been lost by not tilling soil and by using cover crops, particularly with large roots, in the rotation cycle rather than leaving fields fallow. Such nature-based solutions to environmental challenges could deliver 37% of climate change mitigation necessary to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. But getting farmers to adopt these practices will take time, awareness-raising and training. In places where farm plots are small and farmers can’t afford to let fields lie fallow or even rotate with leguminous crops, improving soil health could pose a challenge.  

What is the World Bank doing to help countries build food security in the face of climate change?

The World Bank Group’s Climate Change Action Plan (2021-2025) is stepping up support for climate-smart agriculture across the agriculture and food value chains and via policy and technological interventions to enhance productivity, improve resilience, and reduce GHG emissions. The Bank also helps countries tackle food loss and waste and manage flood and drought risks. For example, in Niger, a Bank-supported project aims to benefit 500,000 farmers and pastoralists in 44 communes through the distribution of improved, drought-tolerant seeds, more efficient irrigation, and expanded use of forestry for farming and conservation agriculture techniques. To date, the project has helped 336,518 farmers more sustainably manage their land and brought 79,938 hectares under more sustainable farming practices.

Website:  Climate Explainer Series

Website:  Climate Stories: How Countries and Communities Are Shaping A Sustainable Future

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Ending hunger

Ending world hunger is one of the greatest challenges of our times. Across the globe, as many as 309 million people are facing acute levels of food insecurity in 2024 in the 72 countries with WFP operations and where data is available. Around  42 million people in 45 countries are at 'emergency' or worse levels of hunger . 

The consequence of diets poor in vitamins, minerals and other nutrients are affecting the health and life prospects of millions more, and casting a shadow over the future of communities and entire countries.  

Although enough food is produced to feed everyone on this planet, the goal of a world with zero hunger , as set out in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and specifically in  Sustainable Development Goal 2 , remains hugely challenging due to a toxic cocktail of conflict, climate change, disasters and structural poverty and inequality . Over the past two years, the socioeconomic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic have further exacerbated global hunger by pushing millions of vulnerable people into greater food insecurity and driving up the costs of reaching people in need. WFP works on various activities in seeking solutions to hunger.

World hunger: causes and solutions

60 percent of the world’s hungry people live in zones affected by conflict, which is the main driver in 8 out of 10 of the worst hunger crises (as in the case of Yemen, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Syria, for example).

What we are doing 

Food and nutrition assistance

WFP brings life-saving food and nutrition assistance to people trapped or displaced by fighting, wherever they are. With the help of local partners, we reach those in need even in the most remote areas, using all-terrain vehicles and dropping food from planes when all other avenues are closed.

Our assistance can help create pathways to peace, as recognized in the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to WFP in 2020.

Prospects for peace

Preliminary findings from a joint research study with the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute indicated that WFP’s work to solve world hunger contributed to improving prospects for peace. It did this by enhancing access to contested natural resources, boosting social cohesion and resolving grievances within and between communities, while increasing opportunities and trust between people and government through strengthening state accountability and service delivery. The study focused on El Salvador, Iraq, Kyrgyzstan and Mali.

Climate change

The impacts of the climate crisis such as floods, drought or heatwaves affect the lives and livelihoods of millions of people, aggravating poverty, world hunger and social tensions. WFP helps governments and communities to adopt to the changing climate and protect themselves and their food security from climate impacts.

What we are doing

Anticipatory action

WFP’s Anticipatory Action programme uses early warning systems to trigger humanitarian action before extreme weather events impact communities, allowing them to protect themselves, their homes, livestock and buy food and other essential items. 

Climate-smart energy solutions

To ensure people can cook and consume food safely, WFP facilitates access to modern cooking solutions such as gas stoves, mini-gasifiers or electric pressure cookers. WFP also strives to empower smallholder farmers through the distribution of sustainable energy equipment and services that boost food production, processing and preservation.

When an earthquake, cyclone, a hurricane or other disaster strikes, WFP is a first responder, bringing food and other life-saving assistance to populations that have lost everything.

As the leader of the inter-agency Logistics Cluster , WFP provides coordination and information management in the response to large-scale disasters.

Connectivity

WFP leads the Emergency Telecommunications Cluster , which provides life-saving connectivity in emergency situations. WFP’s Fast IT and Telecommunications Emergency and Support Team of responders (FITTEST) is ready to deploy anywhere in the world to establish and restore communications and information technology networks.

Geospatial analyses

Targeted geospatial analyses show the immediate impact of natural disasters and allow for a faster response matched to needs. Our Geographic Information Systems tools such as ADAM (Automatic Disaster Analysis & Mapping) provide 24/7 mapping of earthquakes and tropical cyclones.

Inequality drives global hunger by limiting people's opportunities and increasing levels of hunger. Increasing access to employment, finance and markets, for example, can lift people out of poverty very quickly, increasing their productivity and spending power, and stimulating local markets.

Food assistance for assets

WFP’s Food Assistance for Assets programme involves people working on community projects such as restoring unproductive land, in return for cash or food. The private sector-focused Farm to Market Alliance connects smallholders to markets and helps them diversify their crops and increase their business potential.

Cash transfers

Where markets and financial systems are functioning, WFP provides assistance in cash. Whether in the form of bank notes, vouchers, debit cards, e-money or mobile money, cash transfers allow people to make choices that improve their food security and nutrition, and inject cash into the local economy.

Social safety nets

WFP supports governments in strengthening the social safety nets they have in place to protect their citizens from poverty, inequality and  hunger. We also work to enhance the ability of these systems to respond to shocks such as disasters or mass population displacements.

Poor storage facilities in farms lead to pest infestations and mould ruining crops. Lack of access to technology and markets means many farmers are forced to watch their crops rot in fields, as the labour and financial investment required to harvest them is often unavailable.

Zero post-harvest losses

WFP’s Zero Post-Harvest Losses project teaches smallholder farmers how to use improved post-harvest handling methods, combined with simple but effective hermetic storage equipment to protect crops against insects, rodents, mould and moisture.

The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed millions more people into hunger by disrupting production, trade and livelihoods, putting millions out of work.

Common services

WFP set up Common Services – global passenger and cargo movement services – allowing humanitarian staff and food and health supplies to reach vulnerable people around the world, who would otherwise be cut off from support when they needed it most.

Food and cash assistance

To address the increased needs created by the socioeconomic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, WFP has stepped up its cash and food assistance, and supported governments in strengthening their own social safety nets.

Fighting famine

WFP and the Sustainable Development Goals

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Food security trends in 2024 and beyond

Bo pieter johannes andree, hanane ahmed, john dearborn.

In 2024 food security is likely to remain one of the critical challenges for the world to face. The World Bank has therefore included food and nutrition security  among the eight global challenges to address at scale, and has mobilized $45 billion in resources to tackle issues and protect livelihoods worldwide — surpassing its initial projected commitment of $30 billion announced  in May 2022 . 

Anticipating and understanding the evolution of food security and its reactions to future trends is essential for effective policy-making and developing responsive plans. The World Bank's World Food Security Outlook (WFSO), updated three times a year and last in October 2023, serves as one of the comprehensive resources developed to support this endeavor. This blog aims to distill the key insights from the WFSO's latest findings and their implications for food security in 2024 and beyond. 

The World Food Security Outlook: A Comprehensive Tool for Analysis In October 2023, the World Bank published the updated the World Food Security Outlook (WFSO) . Published three times each year, the WFSO is an innovative model-based data series designed to monitor and analyze global food security, providing essential information to complement official statistics and help understand the evolving landscape. Comprising historical, preliminary, and forecast data, the WFSO offers insights into severe food insecurity worldwide, filling critical gaps in knowledge. Key components of the WFSO cover severe food insecurity prevalence, estimates for countries lacking official data, population sizes of the severely food insecure, and required safety net financing. 

One of its primary uses lies in complementing official data from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) published in the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report, filling in gaps for unreported countries and a forward-looking view based on a machine learning model that leverages the World Bank’s World Development Indicators (WDI) database and the IMF's World Economic Outlook (WEO). The WFSO includes estimates for safety net financing needs following past International Development Association (IDA) approaches originally used in IDA (2020) .

Previous versions of this outlook have been used to estimate demand for Early Response Financing under the IDA Crisis Response Window , in Bank regional economic updates , to inform the Bank-wide response to the global food crisis, and update G24 on food security financing perspectives.  

In the World Bank Food Security Update for December 2023 the October 2023 WFSO has been used to analyze major trends in global food security, and it has also been featured in the Global Food and Nutrition Security Dashboard . This blog summarizes the insights. At a glance, the latest projections suggest that global food security conditions are stabilizing slowly in 2024, but that disparities between income groups are increasing.

Global Food Security Conditions Are Slowly Stabilizing The global recovery from COVID-19 and Russia's invasion of Ukraine is slow, impacting economic stability. Elevated inflation, tighter monetary policies, reduced fiscal support, and extreme weather events contribute to continued pressure on global economic growth. As a result, the October 2023 Outlook tentatively suggests a global peak in the prevalence of severe food insecurity was reached at 11.9% globally in 2020-2022, with only a slight near-term improvement to 11.8% (2021-2023) and 11.6% (2022-2023), showing significant variation across regions and income groups. Short-term food insecurity improvements may however stall, posing a risk of reaching a new high of 943 million people facing severe food insecurity by 2025. Looking to 2028, the global severely food insecure population is projected to hit 956 million, narrowly avoiding a billion in a downside economic scenario if central banks fail to control inflation and respond with further tightening, leading to suppressed growth.

Disparities Among Income Groups: Widening Divides The October 2023 WFSO shows stark disparities among income groups, revealing that the overall stabilization in global food security masks underlying challenges. While upper middle-income countries show promising improvements, lower middle-income nations experience only short-term gains, and low-income countries face a projected further increase in food insecure populations. The data exposes widening gaps compared to previous outlooks, with low-income countries expected to witness only a slight improvement in severe food insecurity rates by 2027-2029. Additionally, heavily indebted poor countries are particularly vulnerable, facing both economic challenges and elevated levels of food insecurity. 

A Continued Shift to low-income countries in Global Financing Needs As global food security conditions evolve, the financial requirements to establish safety nets are escalating. The WFSO projects an annual financing need of $41 billion in International Development Association (IDA) countries and $47 billion in International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) countries, nearly doubling pre-pandemic estimates. The shift toward lower-income countries intensifies, highlighting the urgency to reinforce measures safeguarding vulnerable populations. Projections indicate a continuous increase in safety net costs for low-income counties and lower middle-income countries, emphasizing the need for effective monetary and fiscal policies to restore stability.

What will it take to address food security globally? To provide a basic social safety net that covers 25 percent of daily caloric needs for the acutely food insecure, the World Food Security Outlook (WFSO) estimates annual global financing needs at approximately $90 billion from now until 2030, based on projections up to 2027-2029. This assumes no significant changes beyond these projections. However, in scenarios of heightened inflation, lower economic growth, and high commodity prices, these needs could rise substantially, potentially reaching 1.3 times the current estimates. This would elevate the annual financial requirements to around $120 billion. Additionally, addressing malnutrition among women and children is estimated to cost over $11 billion annually while transforming the global food system may demand $300-400 billion each year. Collectively, these expenses could total up to $500 billion annually, necessary for addressing worldwide food and nutrition security. This figure, while substantial, represents roughly 0.5% of global GDP. It's important to note that this estimate is likely conservative, as it does not fully account for complete caloric needs or adequate nutrition, nor does it reverse the long-term impacts of current malnutrition. Furthermore, the burden of these costs is disproportionately heavy for low-income countries, where the required funding instead equates to about 95% of their total GDP. This highlights the need for a shared global responsibility in addressing these challenges.

Funding by the World Bank’s Food Systems 2030 (FS2030) Multi-Donor Trust Fund for the work featured in this blog is gratefully acknowledged.  

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Data Scientist, Development Data Group, World Bank

Senior Agriculture Economist

Food Security Analyst

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Millions of american families struggle to get food on the table, report finds.

Maria Godoy

The increase in food insecurity in 2022 reverses a decade-long decline in the number of U.S. households experiencing hunger. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images hide caption

The increase in food insecurity in 2022 reverses a decade-long decline in the number of U.S. households experiencing hunger.

Just putting three meals a day on the table was a struggle for millions of people in the U.S. last year. That's the sobering conclusion of a new report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which found hunger in the U.S. rose sharply in 2022.

The report found that 44.2 million people lived in households that had difficulty getting enough food to feed everyone in 2022, up from 33.8 million people the year prior. Those families include more than 13 million children experiencing food insecurity, a jump of nearly 45 percent from 2021.

"These numbers are more than statistics. They paint a picture of just how many Americans faced the heartbreaking challenge last year of struggling to meet a basic need for themselves and their children," U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said in a statement.

The findings reverse a decade-long decline in hunger and food insecurity in the U.S. And they reflect the loss of several pandemic-era measures designed to strengthen the social safety net, says Elaine Waxman , a senior fellow at the Urban Institute who studies food insecurity and federal nutrition programs.

" A lot of the programs that had buffered people's experience during the pandemic were retired or rolled back in some way ," Waxman says.

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Pandemic food assistance that held back hunger comes to an end.

Those programs included an expanded child tax credit that gave families with children extra money, temporarily increased benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP – formerly known as food stamps – and free school meals for every child.

At the same time, food prices and housing costs have shot up, says Kelly Horton , chief program officer at the Food Research and Action Center. And she points out an increasing number of Americans are working in unstable gig-economy jobs, like delivering groceries, driving for ride-share services or completing tasks on demand.

" So all of these things converging...we have a lot of people who are living on the edge," Horton says.

In its report, the USDA found that nearly 7 million households were so financially squeezed last year that they had to skip meals at times because there wasn't enough food to go around. Almost all of these households said they couldn't afford to eat balanced meals. In some 381,000 households with children, kids also experienced the pangs of hunger – skipping meals or going the whole day without eating. Waxman notes this could have significant health consequences, especially for kids.

"In particular, we worry about that for children because their trajectory now influences what happens to them later," says Waxman. She notes research has found children who experience food insecurity are more likely to experience worse health outcomes down the road, including cognitive or developmental delays and higher rates of hospitalization.

Overall, households with children and those of color experienced food insecurity at significantly higher rates than the national average. The rates of hunger for Black and Latino households were both more than double the rates for white households.

Congress tackles food stamp changes in the farm bill

Food access advocates say the findings underscore the importance of protecting social safety-net programs. Right now, there's particular concern when it comes to the fate of the food assistance program known as WIC , which serves pregnant mothers and young children up to age 5.

Since the pandemic-era increases to SNAP benefits ended, more families have been turning to WIC for help with food, says Nell Menefee-Libey , public policy manager at the National WIC Association.

" We know that more families are turning to the program and find themselves needing support from WIC who may previously have not been using WIC services," Menefee-Libey says.

But some lawmakers have proposed funding cuts to WIC benefits, even as the program needs additional funding to serve the increased number of families that are seeking assistance, says Horton of FRAC.

"So there could be a case where WIC runs out of money if Congress does not give them additional funds," Horton says.

• food insecurity

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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Food Insecurities

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Published: Mar 19, 2024

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Introduction, causes of food insecurity, consequences of food insecurity, solutions to food insecurity.

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Tackling Food Insecurity in the Modern World

Introduction.

The problem of food shortage persists in a period notable for great inventions and high prosperity. It brings out the existing inequality in the world as well as its complexity. Food insecurity is much more than a lack of enough food; it means not being able to reliably access nutritious and sufficient foods that promote an energetic life. This is a complex issue, incorporating the aspects of food availability, accessibility, and quality of food. The social, economic, political, and ecological environment changes also contribute to it. The occurrence of the same indicates a wider issue of inequality and unequal resource apportionment within our world setting. This essay aims to analyze the reasons behind food insecurity as well as current food problems globally, various approaches used to address these issues, and finally, why we need longer-term food solutions that ensure no one goes hungry. Thus, the paper aims to illuminate this matter while examining how it relates to wider socio-economic developments across the globe.

Background: Understanding the Roots of Food Insecurity

Food insecurity has its roots in a multiplicity of interrelated causes, which add to its prevalence( Iacovino and Randazzo (2022). The first culprit is economic instability. Swings with respect to global and local economies can drastically determine the affordability and accessibility of food. The result of this may be more poverty, unemployment, and lower incomes, which reduces people’s purchasing power for adequate nutrition. These problems are further complicated by climatic changes that produce erratic weather conditions, more frequent cases of naturally occurring calamities, and shifting ago-ecological zones that affect food security and thus lead to shortages and high food costs. The situation is worsened by political upheavals and conflicts that disrupt the food supply chain, force people to move around, and eventually destroy agricultural equipment. In addition, unequal food allocation systems, in which food stocks are sufficient for some areas yet scarce in others, indicate more profound problems with global disparity and resource misuse. The inequity becomes even more pronounced in the rural areas with poor infrastructure and logistic setups, complicating transporting and storing food items. These elements, in sum, produce a milieu for widespread food insecurities, which are not merely economic but also encompass more profound socio-ecological inconsistencies at larger scales.

Food insecurity is marked by a string of changing issues and reactions depending on the dynamic times they take place. The most critical stage in this history was when the green revolution took place in the middle twenty century and converted farming methods altogether (Angelakos et al., 2020). New hybrids and intensified agriculture, including the application of more fertilizers and pesticides, had a positive effect on food supplies. This revolution was instrumental in reducing food scarcity in most parts of the globe. Nevertheless, some concerns raised here included the impact on soils, water resources as well and the ecosystems that were associated with these agricultural practices.

The situation of food insecurity has also been made worse by some of the recent global events, like the COVID-19 pandemic. Indeed, the pandemic has never been anticipated to cause such widespread disruption to global food supplies, and it exposed how vulnerable are our food systems. Shortages of labor within agriculture brought about a situation where food was wasted because it could not be moved and there was no one to take care of it, and this led to less money being generated as no one had any goods to sell, hence a reduction in no one. In addition, the pandemic worsened pre-existing social and economic disparity, causing more difficulties for the poor in obtaining food. The current occurrences emphasize the importance of robust food systems that can overcome shocks and strains leading to food insecurity and its dynamically changing issues (Boyacι-Gündüz et al., 2021).

Current Situation: A Global and Local Perspective

Today, food insecurity is a challenging problem that affects several lives on other continents. The organization known as the FAO estimated that there are around 690 million individuals worldwide struggling with hunger, or nearly 9 percent of the world’s total population. Most of these people are located in Asia and Africa, where systematic phenomena like poverty, political unrest, and bad infrastructures aggravate the situation. Despite the limited boundaries applied to food security, it does not apply exclusively to developing countries (Filippini et al., 2019). This is a challenge that developed countries also face even though they have an image of generally being prosperous and food secure. These occurrences of such challenges, more often than not, go hand in hand with persistent socio-economic inequalities, in which such impoverished sections like poor households, immigrants as well and minority groupings normally struggle more to obtain edible commodities and nourishment. The vastness associated with this international setting of food insecurity is an indication that hunger and nutritional deficiency are worldwide problems that cut across social and financial divides, thus showing the magnitude of this issue on a universal scale.

Food insecurity has significant adverse repercussions, which affect society’s most susceptible groups (Erokhin & Gao, 2020). Malnutrition, stunting, and wasting lead to poor physical and cognitive development among children. However, these developmental problems are usually temporary but have long-term effects on their education and future economic growth at large. Likewise, it is well known that most adults who face food insecurity have many diseases linked to low nutrition. As mentioned above, this entails a higher probability of acquiring conditions like diabetes, hypertension, and other cardiac problems. More importantly, it leads to poor wellness and mental health of individuals.

Another vital facet of this problem is the differential level of food security between urban and rural zones. Rural areas usually depend on farming; thus, they experience more problems associated with few opportunities for diversified food production locations, weak infrastructure, and meager support services. Climate changes and environmental degradation may further compound available and accessible foods in these vulnerable areas. However, urban regions, despite easier access to food markets, experience specific difficulties like the impoverished trap of cities and food deserts in which healthy food is lacking. Dichotomy shows it will be critical for directed responses on the conditions and challenges of separate regions to struggle against food shortages successfully.

In-Depth Analysis: Evaluating Responses and Strategic Approaches

Many approaches are taken to fighting hunger, ranging from the community level all the way to international policies on addressing this issue. This endeavor is driven by international organizations such as the WFP, several governmental departments, and numerous voluntary organizations with distinct skills and input. These institutions have taken different steps in an effort to deal with this problem. The provision of direct food aid is critical and should be one of the main components as this offers instant comfort to the vulnerable. However, these programs go in hand with initiatives geared towards sustainable agriculture that seek to raise farming abilities and guard the environment.

In addition, effective policy reforms have been instrumental in this war. However, governments and international agencies are trying to create policies where the food can be evenly distributed at affordable prices. It entails measures like price stabilization of food, removal of trade barriers as well and supporting small-scale farmers for an equal distribution system. Such measures also entail tackling the root causes of these problems, like land ownership, women’s participation in agriculture, and the provision of rural infrastructure for food sustainability and resilience. Together, these varied strategies represent a comprehensive approach to combating food insecurity, acknowledging its multifaceted nature and the need for coordinated action at both local and global levels.:

In spite of all the efforts and measures taken to fight hunger, there remain some key challenges that often hinder the efficacy of these measures (Sarkar et al., 2021). The major concern that remains is about food aid programs. While these are meant to provide some much-needed relief, there have been criticisms that these do little more than create dependence in the communities they benefit. In some of these cases, however, they may result in dependence on assistance, which is detrimental to indigenous farming and economies. Besides, it is possible that similar aid would unintentionally flood the market with free or cheap foods, which could undermine domestic farmers’ capacity to compete with such prices. Large-scale agriculture policies, however, are usually biased towards industrial production. These bias risks exclude small-scale farmers, a crucial aspect of local food systems and biodiversity. These small farmers may, at times, need more resources, poor infrastructural setup, and unbalanced markets, which bigger farm organizations mostly enjoy.

The complications of the international trading system also pose an extra barrier. Trade regulations work in favor of rich states but limit the agriculture industries of poor ones (Gulotty, 2022). These problems also touch on some environmental issues. For instance, when it comes to sustainability, people tend to ignore the best practices while in a hurry to provide food in huge volumes. The economic system, built on profit and productivity, compounds these problems, as some farms might produce more than others or use some methods rather than others. In this case, it shows how challenging the situation is and how complex the solution should be. It also implies that it depends on some factors.

Finally, solving the multi-faceted food insecurity problem requires a whole approach. The problem is still a reality, being a global trend that involves other situations like climate change and economic disturbances. In the future, emphasis has to be put on new ideas aimed at improving the resilience of the food systems and the fair distribution of resources while encouraging cooperation for the affected parties in different regions and departments. The fight against food insecurity should be continuous, focused, and intensified because it is on our way to reach to UN’s SDG Zero Hunger by 2030. Beyond securing enough food, our joint venture must seek an accessible, environmentally safe, and fair world of wholesome eating for everyone, regardless of where they are from.

Angelakιs, A. N., Zaccaria, D., Krasilnikoff, J., Salgot, M., Bazza, M., Roccaro, P., Jimenez, B., Kumar, A., Yinghua, W., Baba, A., Harrison, J. A., Garduno-Jimenez, A., & Fereres, E. (2020). Irrigation of World Agricultural Lands: Evolution through the Millennia.  Water ,  12 (5), 1285. https://doi.org/10.3390/w12051285

Boyacι-Gündüz, C. P., Ibrahim, S. A., Wei, O. C., & Galanakis, C. M. (2021). Transformation of the Food Sector: Security and Resilience during the COVID-19 Pandemic.  Foods ,  10 (3), 497. https://doi.org/10.3390/foods10030497

Erokhin, V., & Gao, T. (2020). Impacts of COVID-19 on Trade and Economic Aspects of Food Security: Evidence from 45 Developing Countries.  International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ,  17 (16), 5775. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17165775

Filippini, R., Mazzocchi, C., & Corsi, S. (2019). The contribution of Urban Food Policies toward food security in developing and developed countries: A network analysis approach.  Sustainable Cities and Society ,  47 , 101506. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2019.101506

Gulotty, R. (2022). WTO Subsidy Disciplines.  World Trade Review , pp. 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1474745622000118

Iacovino, A., & Randazzo, L. (2022).  Downloaded from . https://teseo.unitn.it/biolaw/article/download/2711/2619

Sarkar, S., Gil, J. D. B., Keeley, J., & Jansen, K. (2021).  The use of pesticides in developing countries and their impact on health and the right to food . Library.wur.nl. https://library.wur.nl/WebQuery/wurpubs/583698

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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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Why the United States Entered the First World War: a Strategic Overview

This essay about why the United States entered World War I discusses the complex blend of economic, diplomatic, and ideological factors that led to its involvement. Initially neutral, the U.S. shifted its stance due to significant economic ties with the Allies, the threat posed by German unrestricted submarine warfare, and the provocative Zimmermann Telegram, which proposed a German-Mexican alliance against the U.S. The essay also highlights President Wilson’s vision of shaping a post-war order based on democracy and self-determination, which played a part in the decision to enter the war. Furthermore, it touches on how social factors and propaganda influenced American public opinion. Ultimately, the entry of the U.S. into World War I marked a significant shift from isolationism to a more active global role, reshaping American foreign policy for the future.

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When the guns of August roared in 1914, igniting the flames of World War I across Europe, the United States initially adopted a stance of neutrality. This position was largely influenced by the nation’s tradition of isolationism, a reluctance to entangle itself in the complex web of European alliances and conflicts that had sparked the war. However, by April 1917, the situation had changed dramatically, prompting the U.S. to join the Allies in the fight against the Central Powers. The reasons behind this shift are multifaceted, involving a mix of economic interests, diplomatic challenges, and ideological commitments.

From an economic standpoint, the U.S. had significant financial ties to the Allied powers. By the time the U.S. entered the war, American banks had lent enormous sums to Britain and France, and the American economy was deeply intertwined with the success of the Allies. The exports to these nations, particularly in terms of war supplies, had boosted the U.S. economy, and a victory by the Central Powers threatened to jeopardize these financial investments. Essentially, an Allied defeat could mean that the massive loans would not be repaid, posing a severe risk to the American economy.

Diplomacy and national security also played crucial roles. The most immediate trigger for U.S. involvement was Germany’s unrestricted submarine warfare. German U-boats targeted Atlantic shipping routes, including civilian and neutral ships, which led to American casualties and significant losses to U.S. maritime interests. The infamous sinking of the Lusitania in 1915, which resulted in the deaths of 128 Americans, stirred public outrage and marked a turning point in American public opinion. Furthermore, the Zimmermann Telegram, intercepted and decoded by British intelligence in early 1917, revealed a German proposal to Mexico for a military alliance against the United States, promising the return of territories lost during the Mexican-American War. This blatant challenge to U.S. sovereignty and security galvanized the American public and government alike toward war.

Ideologically, President Woodard Wilson’s vision for the post-war world also influenced the decision to enter the conflict. Wilson saw an opportunity for the United States to shape an international order that championed democracy and self-determination. By joining the war, Wilson believed the United States could help to end all wars by contributing to a decisive victory that would lead to a just and stable peace. His subsequent Fourteen Points outlined his vision for a post-war world that included the formation of the League of Nations, an organization aimed at ensuring peace through collective security and diplomatic dialogue.

Social factors also contributed to the U.S. entry into World War I. The large immigrant population in the United States meant that various ethnic groups had their sympathies with their homelands, influencing American public opinion and politics. Moreover, the spread of propaganda by both sides of the conflict played a significant role in shaping public perceptions and attitudes towards the war.

Once involved, the U.S. mobilization for World War I was unprecedented, with millions of men registering for the draft and the economy shifting towards war production. The American Expeditionary Forces (AEF), commanded by General John J. Pershing, played a crucial role in the later stages of the war, participating in several key battles in 1918 that helped to turn the tide in favor of the Allies.

In conclusion, the U.S. entry into World War I was not a decision taken lightly but was the culmination of various pressures—economic, diplomatic, and ideological—that converged over time. It marked a significant turning point in U.S. foreign policy, moving away from isolationism towards a more active involvement in global affairs, a stance that would continue to evolve throughout the 20th century and beyond. As such, World War I was a pivotal chapter in American history, reshaping the nation’s role on the world stage and setting the foundation for its future foreign policy directions.

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Fast Food Forever: How McHaters Lost the Culture War

“Super Size Me” helped lead a backlash against McDonald’s. Twenty years on, the industry is bigger than ever.

Credit... Ben Wiseman

Supported by

By Brian Gallagher

• May 12, 2024

The camera zooms in on a large woman, sitting on a cooler at the beach. It cuts to a shirtless man, also quite large, his face blurred out. The next shot shows another overweight man, sitting on a beach towel with plastic grocery bags arrayed in front of him.

“America has now become the fattest nation in the world. Congratulations,” a voice narrates. “Nearly 100 million Americans are today either overweight or obese.” At the end of this soliloquy, the opening credits roll — accompanied by Queen’s “Fat Bottomed Girls.”

So begins “ Super Size Me ,” which was released 20 years ago this month.

Directed by and starring Morgan Spurlock, the bootstrapped, lo-fi documentary was a smash hit, grossing more than $22 million on a $65,000 budget. Following Mr. Spurlock as he ate nothing but McDonald’s for 30 days — and the ill effects that diet had on his health — the film became the high-water mark in a tide of sentiment against fast food. McDonald’s, specifically, became a symbol for the glossy hegemony of American capitalism both at home and abroad.

“McJobs” became a term for low-paying, dead-end positions, “McMansions” for garish, oversize houses. In 1992, the political theorist Benjamin Barber used the term “McWorld” as shorthand for emergent neoliberal dominance; seven years later, protesters against the World Trade Organization seemed to agree, launching a newspaper box through a McDonald’s window during the “Battle of Seattle” marches.

Two years after that, Eric Schlosser’s “ Fast Food Nation ” was published. A broad indictment of the entire fast-food industry, the best seller accused the industry of being bad for the environment, rife with labor issues, culturally flattening and culinarily fattening.

That last point was the primary focus for Mr. Spurlock’s stunt. Awareness was raised, alarms were sounded and nightly news segments ensued. Six weeks after the film’s release, McDonald’s discontinued its Super Size menu, though a company spokesman said at the time that the film had “nothing to do with that whatsoever.”

It would have been easy to call the cultural moment a brand crisis for fast food.

But two decades later, not only is McDonald’s bigger than ever, with nearly 42,000 global locations, but fast food in general has boomed. There are now some 40 chains with more than 500 locations in the United States. Fast food is the second-largest private employment sector in the country, after hospitals, and 36 percent of Americans — about 84 million people — eat fast food on any given day. The three major appeals of fast food remain intact: It’s cheap, it’s convenient and people like the way it tastes.

“I used to own shares of McDonald’s,” said Jay Zagorsky , a professor at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business who has studied fast food in America. “Around the time of ‘Super Size Me,’ I sold off the shares, and now I’m saying to myself why? That was one of the greatest stocks.”

He’s right. The stock price of McDonald’s hit an all-time high in January, and has gone up nearly 1,000 percent since “Super Size Me” came out — nearly twice the return of the S&P 500.

While the sector’s financial performance was largely unaffected, there was a very real image problem, to the point that fast-food companies were compared to Big Tobacco . A big part of that problem had to do with children, who were seen not as informed consumers but rather as victims of their parents’ choices, the industry’s predatory advertising, or both. In fact, the inspiration for “Super Size Me” was a lawsuit filed by two New York City parents against McDonald’s, claiming that the company’s food had made their children severely obese.

In the end, the chains handled the brand crisis with the very tool — their most powerful — that had caused the problem in the first place: marketing.

‘Stop Listening to the Haters’

Historically, fast-food companies have been very astute about marketing to children, realizing decades ago that creating customers early means creating customers for life. At the peak of his fame in the 1980s, Ronald McDonald was in some countries more recognizable to children than Mickey Mouse. In 2000, 90 percent of children ages 6 to 9 visited a McDonald’s in a given month.

But as Frances Fleming-Milici, the director of marketing initiatives at the UConn Rudd Center for Food Policy and Health, put it, “If it’s marketed to children, it’s probably bad for you.”

That became increasingly clear in the mid-2000s. Childhood obesity rates had nearly tripled in 25 years, and the public outcry was growing more urgent. A consortium of large food brands, including McDonald’s, Burger King, PepsiCo and Coca-Cola, tried to get out in front of the problem. They formed the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative , and the participating corporations self-imposed limits on advertising to children under 13 (later 12).

In place of that marketing to children, though, the big fast-food chains have found something arguably more potent, with McDonald’s, as ever, leading the way.

“They’re hyperfocusing on what they call fan-favorite moments, trying to essentially identify how we emotionally connect to McDonald’s,” said Kaitlin Ceckowski, who researches fast-food marketing strategies at Mintel, a market research agency. “What ‘human truths’ exist around their brand?”

That “human truths” idea — essentially, the genuine emotional resonance of eating McDonald’s — originated in part from Wieden+Kennedy and the Narrative Group, the two creative agencies that the chain hired in 2019 and 2020.

As W+K New York’s co-chief creative officer, Brandon Henderson, explained to AdAge in March, “When we first started with McDonald’s, they were hesitant to be themselves and had been listening to the haters since the ‘Super Size Me’ documentary. I think the big shift we gave them was to stop listening to the haters and listen to the fans.”

For the agencies, the lodestar of that strategy was the idea that “No matter who you are, everyone has a McDonald’s order.”

A Universal Experience

It turns out that years of saturating American childhood with fast food has paid real dividends. The 6-to-9-year-olds in that 2000 statistic are now younger millennials, among the group with the highest rate of fast-food consumption today. They have a lifetime of memories that connect them to fast-food brands, and to McDonald’s in particular.

All that needed to be done was to connect the power of that comfort and nostalgia to the power of celebrity. Fast food isn’t just cheap, accessible calories; it’s a universal experience. You’re eating the same fries as your idols.

That idea animated a 2020 Super Bowl ad that showed the McDonald’s orders of famous people both real (Kim Kardashian) and not (Dracula). That spot led, in turn, to a phenomenally successful campaign designed around the preferred orders of celebrities. The first of these, the Travis Scott menu, featured the go-to meal of the Houston rapper and doubled sales of Quarter Pounders in the first week. As a result, the market capitalization of McDonald’s went up by $10 billion.

Other chains have followed suit, with partnerships between Megan Thee Stallion and Popeyes, Ice Spice and Dunkin’, Justin Bieber and Tim Hortons, and Lil Nas X and Taco Bell, which named the pop star its “chief impact officer.”

“It’s not directly targeting children, but let’s be clear: The celebrity meals are for BTS, Travis Scott, Cardi B and J Balvin,” said Ms. Ceckowski. “These are people who resonate with younger audiences.”

They are also celebrities who resonate in particular with younger audiences of color, who tend to have higher rates of fast-food consumption than white consumers.

So while the vast majority of fast-food marketing is no longer aimed at children, per se — the ad budget expressly for kids’ meals and healthy menu items represents just 2 percent of the total spending — that only means that children are now going after the menu items they are seeing advertised. According to a Rudd Center study , this means they are simply ordering from the adult menu at a younger age.

In that same study, 20 percent of parents reported buying additional items for their children, which at Wendy’s could mean an order of fries to round out a meal that comes with apple slices, or at McDonald’s a soda to accompany a Happy Meal that now features only milk.

“If you look at where they put their ad dollars, it’s really just the highest-calorie items,” Ms. Fleming-Milici said. “These healthier menu items appear to be a bit of a public relations effort.”

In the age of social media, brands don’t even have to advertise expressly to children anyway, in the way they might have in the past, by buying a slot during Saturday-morning cartoons or on Nickelodeon. On TikTok and Instagram, kids of all ages see the same content we all do.

Younger people are also making content of their own, getting in on the marketing campaigns with thousands of videos of themselves ordering, unwrapping, eating — a sort of advertising Amway .

‘A Form of Civic Participation’

We may be living in a new era of social-media-driven viral marketing in the palms of millennial hands, but what hasn’t really changed is the food.

The Wendy’s Baconator, for instance, was introduced in 2007, three years after “Super Size Me” came out, and it remains one of the chain’s most popular items. A protein conglomeration of a half-pound of beef, six pieces of bacon and two slices of cheese, each burger delivers 1,010 calories and 67 grams of fat.

Burger King offers a triple Whopper, which carries similar nutritional values, even without the optional bacon and cheese. And at Chipotle, a brand often held up as evidence of healthier fast-food tastes, a standard chicken burrito can easily contain 1,100 calories. The classic Big Mac remains basically intact, at a relatively tame 590 calories.

There are still efforts to steer Americans, particularly American children, away from these options. In April, Senators Bernie Sanders, Cory Booker and Peter Welch introduced the Childhood Diabetes Reduction Act , which would ban advertising junk food to children and require stronger health and nutrition warning labels. The law “would take on the greed of the food and beverage industry and address the growing diabetes and obesity epidemics negatively impacting millions of American children and families across the country,” according to a news release from Mr. Sanders.

Fast food may be a tough habit to legislate away, though. In 2016, 91 percent of parents reported buying lunch or dinner for their child in the past week from one of the four biggest chains — a significant increase compared with the 79 percent who did in 2010 and the 83 percent in 2013.

The problem may be that while we are often scolded for eating at these restaurants, we are more often encouraged. There is a vast network of enticement — from huge marketing budgets, to family traditions, to just the tastiness of the meals — that pushes diners toward the drive-through.

In its harsh depiction of American obesity, “Super Size Me” seemed to judge individuals for their failure to resist that machine. But according to Virgie Tovar , who has written books about weight discrimination, that’s an unfair indictment — especially when applied to consumers for whom a trip to McDonald’s might well offer the most accessible version of the American dream.

“People in my generation, and certainly Gen Z, probably aren’t going to be homeowners,” Ms. Tovar said. “Job insecurity is really high. All these markers of what it means to be a successful American are increasingly inaccessible to these younger generations. And I think about the things that are : They’re these cheaper consumer goods, and some of them are food.”

Eating McDonald’s, she said, should be seen as “a form of civic participation — whether we want to admit it or not.”

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