Strange Food Insecurity in the USA - Essay Example

"Strange Food Insecurity in the USA" is a wonderful example of a paper on food and nutrition. It is a little surprising that the world’s frontrunner of basic human rights, the United States of America, has its citizens facing food insecurity. It doesn't make sense because the simplest question one can ask is there a shortage of food in the 21st century in the United States? In the age of agricultural technology, microbiology, the scientific methods of problem-solving, and genetically modified food, theoretically, there should be a food explosion, but the reality is that people are insecure about food. The article Feeding a Family in a Recession: Food Insecurity among Minnesota Parents by Bruening et al. (2012) discusses food insecurity in Minnesota parents. The results described are shocking because a significant number of these people face food insecurity.

Discussion   

Before going further it would make more sense to define what food insecurity means. In layman’s terms, the insecurity that a person will not have food (or sufficient food) at a later point in time is food insecurity. The most common solution to this is obsessive eating patterns. If a person has starved for too long, on seeing food this person will find it difficult (in some cases even impossible) to control the amount of food eaten.

The article mentions the reason behind this food insecurity. The people discussed in the article are from the state of Minnesota, USA. The economic conditions of the country are not very well. Since the Great Depression, the unemployment levels have always remained alarmingly high. So the low-income families find it really hard to make both ends meet. This section of the population doesn't have consistent access to healthy nutritious food and this results in food insecurity.

When people face these problems of low income against food choices they come up with budget adjustments and alterations in food purchase. For instance, they will prefer energy-rich foods such as sodas, pastries, and other high sugar-calorie foods over nutrition-rich foods such as fruits, vegetables, lean meat, and whole grains.  It is also said that food insecurity haunts the houses with children in more dire ways than houses with no children because parents reduce their own food intake so they can feed their children.

The insecurity also pushes these people to eat compulsively for the fear of skipping a meal. They don’t know if or when they will get a meal like that, so, they feel the need to eat more than usual. The problem goes beyond obsessive eating. Another article by Whitaker et al. (2006) finds food insecurity in mothers causing behavioral problems in pre-school children.  The problems identified include obsessive, aggressive, depressed, inattentive, and hyperactive behaviors.

The parents with food insecurity mention barriers to accessing fruits and vegetables. These food items are very nutritious and probably the best food source humans have. Getting a healthy bowl of greens should be accessible to everyone. Do big companies or the government take responsibility for this trend?

Probably a bowl of healthy salad costs more much more than a burger. An article titled Measuring Food Insecurity by Barrett (2010) agrees with this idea and adds that the situation outside the US is more awful; over 1 billion people are victims of food insecurity. Seeing these aspects of the problem it actually gets harder to look for solutions because everything is traced back to the food companies and their clever ways of setting up the monopoly.

Conclusion

In conclusion it all boils down to the economic classes and their divisions. People with low income have less access to healthy food on a consistent basis. Their uncertainty about having food in the future pushes them to make wrong food choices and develop unhealthy eating patterns. This affects them and their families. Food insecurity in mothers directly impacts their children. The article mentions environmental intervention as a solution to end this food insecurity in the United States. By subsidizing quality food and making it accessible for poor and low-income families food insecurity can be controlled.

 

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