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Quantifying Food Insecurity Part II

© Paul Vincent Mroso

Background:

The many definitions of food security (as many as 200 versions) expand the subject to wider concerns like livelihood security, long term sustainability, hunger and fear of it, agricultural practices, the environment, health and nutrition, water, gender issues, human rights and cultural dignity, and international trade through to food aid.

All the above concerns center on whether or not a person has enough food to eat.

It is essential to measure the level of adequacy or insufficiency. A novel method suggested in part 1 is further explored.

Income and purchasing power of food as a basis of food insecurity measurements has been widely discussed but with obvious drawbacks:

• Income disparities are large comparing rich and poor countries or within countries.
• Detailed incomes data in some communities cannot fully be ascertained due to hidden economies.
• Higher income may not always deliver adequate food due to preferences in expenditure choices.
• Incomes in different regions cannot simply be equated by currency conversion.

Wasting or stunting are consequences of food insecurity and could not be a good start to predict food insecurity.

A dollar income a day as a measure of poverty is widely quoted but in fact such an income, coupled with hidden incomes, for example from one's own vegetable garden, could make a person food secure.

In richer communities up to 11.9% (2) of the population, for example in USA, experience food insecurity although their incomes may be higher than those with similar food insecurity problems in the poorer regions.

It appears that novel ideas are needed in quantifying food insecurity in order to help in mapping poverty comparisons, nationally and internationally, with the added benefit of targeting resources before the onset of disasters such as famine.

Evaluation:

Estimating levels of food insecurity by determining daily amounts of food consumed is possible by utilizing the available data of Nutrient Content (NC) in foods and the universally accepted Recommended Daily Allowance-RDA.

A ratio of nutrient content (NC) of proteins, lipids or carbohydrates and the respective RDA (Recommended Daily allowances), NC/RDA, can be generated for many food products.

This ratio, termed DD-Daily Diet value, is the proportion of the RDA of lipid, protein or carbohydrate in a unit weight of food product like corn or soybean. (The RDA adult values for Lipids=30g/day, Protein =56g/day, and carbohydrates =130g/day).

Nutrient content in corn and soybean is as follows: Lipids 4.5% and 20%, Proteins7% and 43% and carbohydrates 70% and 0% respectively.

DD=(NC/RDA) x F (F is the weight of food consumed).