Overview
Worldwide, some 1 billion people in 70 lower income countries
are food insecure, and the situation could grow worse in the poorest countries.
Ironically, most of these people live in rural areas where food
is produced. But food availability does not guarantee food security,
which depends also on the ability to buy food and to utilize it
effectively. Individual health and education levels, as well as
local conditions such as safety of the water supply, affect the
ability to utilize food effectively.
Food
insecurity can be either temporary or chronic. The broader reasons
for it are many: war, poverty, population growth, environmental
degradation, limited agricultural technology, ineffective policies,
and disease. Large-scale scarcity, however, is not on the list:
the growth rate in world food production has at last surpassed population
growth, meaning more food available per person. But this abundance
is distributed unevenly. Many low-income countries have difficulty
producing enough food and are thus food-insecure on a national level.
More common is inequality of food consumption within countries—the
result of uneven purchasing power. This problem exists in even in
the highest income countries like the United States.
At the World Food Summit in November 1996, 186 countries committed
themselves to halving the number of undernourished people by 2015.
At the "World Food Summit: Five Years Later" in June 2002,
these countries reaffirmed their commitment. Donors pledged support,
particularly for technology transfers aimed at increasing food production.
Donor countries pledged to continue providing food aid. Some regions
and countries—due in part to policy changes, stronger economic
growth, and food aid—have significantly improved their food
security situation since the 1996 Summit. This includes several
lower income countries in Asia and Latin America. Sub-Saharan Africa,
however, has seen little progress, and prospects for improvement
are not strong.
Features
 Food Security Assessment, 2007 (July 2008) projects that the food security situation in 70 developing countries will deteriorate over the next decade. The estimates also indicate that the number of food-insecure people for these countries rose between 2006 and 2007, from 849 million to 982 million. Food and fuel price hikes, coupled with a slowdown in global economic growth, hinder long-term food security progress. For a related Amber Waves article, see A Pilot Program for U.S. Food Aid (November 2008).
Obesity in the Midst of Unyielding Food Insecurity
in Developing Countries (September 2008) recounts that the continued
escalation of food prices has again focused attention
on global food insecurity and its root cause, poverty.
Despite international commitments to improve food security
in low-income countries, progress has been limited.
However, the persistence of widespread food insecurity
is troublesome because food consumption in many developing
countries has improved, sometimes to the point that
overweight and obesity are becoming concerns.
Rising Food Prices Intensify Food Insecurity in Developing Countries (February 2008) reports that the use of food crops for biofuels, coupled with greater food demand, has reversed the path of declining price trends for several commodities. For highly import-dependent or highly food-insecure countries, any decline in import capacity stemming from rising food prices can have challenging food security implications. Food aid, a key safety net source, has stagnated during the last two decades, and its share has declined relative to total food imports of low-income countries.
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