Understanding the Roots of Hunger, Food Insecurity, and the Fight for Food Sovereignty.
September is Hunger Action Month, a time to reflect and act on hunger and food insecurity in the United States and globally. The campaign was established in 2008 by Feeding America, a national network of food banks, to consistently raise awareness and call for action against hunger. On their website, the network highlights the economic root of food insecurity: hunger is the feeling someone has when they don't have food, while food insecurity is the consistent lack of food to have a healthy life because of your economic situation. Unemployment, low income, lack of affordable housing, chronic health conditions, lack of healthcare access, and systemic racism / racial discrimination all contribute to hunger and food insecurity.
Mitigation and Limits of Food Stamps
The United States’ Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), colloquially known as “food stamps,” is the country’s largest social welfare program in terms of cost, providing supplemental assistance to roughly 12.5% of the total U.S. population. Eligible low-income citizens receive a card with a balance that can be used monthly on grocery items.
While SNAP can help low-income individuals and families put food on the table, there are limits to the eligibility of food, nutritionally balanced options and accessibility to local grocery stores that accept this alternative payment method.
According to the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service Website, SNAP benefits cover “any food for the household,” including fruits, vegetables, meat, poultry, fish, dairy products, breads and cereals, snack foods, non-alcoholic beverages, and even seeds and plants that produce food for the household to eat. However, SNAP does notcover vitamins, medicines, supplements (if an item has a Supplement Facts label, it is considered a supplement and is not eligible), or foods that are hot at the point of sale.
Food Insecurity as a Distribution & Accessibility Issue
Rather than an issue of scarcity, food insecurity is an issue of accessibility and distribution. According to the USDA, an estimated 30-40% of the US’s food supply goes to waste. Not only is food being wasted while Americans go hungry, but significant resources (land, water, labor, energy) are also being exhausted for the processing, transport, storage, and disposal of the wasted food.
Effects on the Global South
How is hunger such a prominent issue in the US, a country with enough food and enough people to grow, transport, and distribute our food? When we zoom out, we may also pose the question: Why is hunger so prominent all over the world, especially in the Global South?
Before we can answer these questions, we must identify key players and analyze the methods of our food system. Who is producing? How are they producing? What are they distributing? Who is distributing it? How are they distributing it? Who has access? In studying these processes and relations, our global food system is revealed to be ineffective in feeding the most people, disproportionately harmful to the Global South, and environmentally and economically unsustainable.
For example, it is common for agri-business corporations to build monocropping plantations in the Global South, even though the intended consumers of their food products are in the Global North. They pay the plantation workers much less than what the plantation workers need in order to keep their families food secure. Resources are exhausted in the transport of the food goods overseas, where a large percentage of it will end up being wasted. Meanwhile, workers and their families in the Global South remain financially insecure, food insecure, and undernourished.
It is also worth noting that the main ways we measure global hunger are misleading. According to anthropologist Jason Hickel, leading research by the United Nations and their Food and Agriculture Organization tends to count people as hungry only when their calorie intake is less than what the organization considers the proper minimum amount for a sedentary lifestyle (A Growing Culture, 2023). However, as mentioned, most people living with poverty and food insecurity don’t live sedentary lifestyles, and are among the most likely to engage with demanding physical labor. Hickel also points out subtle changes to the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), agreed upon by many countries globally, have allowed the UN to claim they are making much more progress in eradicating hunger than they actually are.
What Do We Do?
To truly address the roots of hunger and food insecurity, we must advocate for affordable, accessible, and nutritious foods and work towards the empowerment of communities to take control of their food systems, for a more equitable and sustainable world. Food sovereignty is a food system in which those that consume the food are the ones who control the production, distribution, and policies surrounding their food. This includes localization of food systems, adaptation of more ecological agricultural practices, support and workers’ rights for farmers and agricultural workers, and more.
While we strive to educate and advocate for better practices like food sovereignty, Lunas Global Health Network works to support those who struggle with food insecurity – especially those in crisis. After Typhoons Falcon and Egay ravaged the Philippines, over 1.2 million people – primarily farmers and fisherfolk – were left struggling to survive. As part of our Global Human Health Campaign, Lunas has been continuously fundraising to supply nutritional and financial assistance to those whose lives have been uprooted. Consider joining our network in the fight for food sovereignty as a means of healthcare as we work to supply nourishment to those in need.