Sociology Food Security in Less

Sociology Food Security in Less Developed Countries What factors determine whether an area will be food secure or food insecure? Food is considered one of the most basic human needs and as a central indicator of absolute poverty and physical well being. Food security refers no only to an adequate aggregate supply of food, but also means that all people at all times have both physical and economic access to basic food.

There are two indicators that are used: 1) food supply is measured as the mean daily per capita supply of calories and protein and 2) the child hunger rate is measure by the percentage of children under age 5 who are undernourished. There are six factors that are used to explain whether food is secure or insecure. These include: modernization, economic dependency, urban bias, neo-Malthusian population pressure, ecological evolutionary processes and militarism (Jenkins and Scanlan, 2001).

Have more people become food secure in recent years? Is the observed trend likely to continue? Be sure to cite evidence from the article to support your position. According to Jenkins and Scanlan (2001) more people have become food secure in recent years. The daily calories per capita were 2,227.47 in 1970 and increased to 2,397.43 by 1990. The daily protein grams per capita were 57.62 in 1970 and increase to 60.91 by the year 1990. The percentage of hungry children under the age of 5 decreased from 28.88 in 1970 to 23.42 in 1990.

All three of these factors indicate that the people have become more food secure over the last 20 years. It is likely that this trend will continue because of the following things: an increase in domestic investment in physical and human capital and political democratization. These are both things that have a positive effect on the food security in less developed countries.

They not only do these increase the food supply or the daily calories and daily protein grams per capital but they also help to decrease the number of children under the age of 5 that are hungry. 3. Stepping back from Scanlan and Jenkins's analysis, how might we apply the demographic perspective to this problem? How does this change the focus of the analysis? Would demographers use different variables to explain levels of food security and food insecurity? When looking at food security using a demographic approach it looks very different.

Food security and economic growth interact in a commonly reinforcing process over the course of development. It is only in modern times that entire societies have achieved food security. Before that, it was only privileged members of society who were able to escape from chronic hunger and the constant threat of famine. Rich countries have little to fear from hunger. Consumers often have a considerable buffer of non-food expenditures to rely on, even if food prices rise sharply.

It is well-known that in a market economy, the rich do not starve. Wars, riots, hurricanes and floods can disrupt the smooth functioning of markets, and all in their wake can perish. Rich societies usually have the ability to prevent or alleviate such catastrophes, social or natural. Food security in rich societies is simply part of a broader net of social securities (Timmer, 2004).

Using a demographic perspective would change the analysis that Jenkins and Scanlan did because it would be based more upon the location and wealth of the country other than factors that they.