The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently released their latest data on food security in the US. Being food “secure” means you have access, at all times, to enough food for an active, healthy lifestyle.

The data revealed that 86 percent of US households were food secure in 2014, which means 14 percent were not.¹ This number is essentially the same as in 2013, as was the percentage of households with very low food insecurity (5.6 percent).

According to the USDA:

“Food-insecure households (those with low and very low food security) had difficulty at some time during the year providing enough food for all their members due to a lack of resources…

In [the]… more severe range of food insecurity, the food intake of some household members was reduced and normal eating patterns were disrupted at times during the year due to limited resources.

Children were food insecure at times during the year in 9.4 percent of U.S. households with children (3.7 million households), essentially unchanged from 9.9 percent in 2013. These households were unable at times during the year to provide adequate, nutritious food for their children.”

What you’ll notice about the USDA’s findings is that people are going hungry not because of a food shortage, as is often portrayed in the media (and certainly used as a buzz word to promote genetically modified crops), but rather because of a lack of resources, or poverty, combined with a number of other factors discussed below.

A Shortage of Food Production Isn’t the Problem

Genetically modified (GM) crops are often touted as necessary to ensure global food security, even though studies show reduced crop yields with their use. Not to mention, GM crops are monocrops, which means they are more vulnerable to disease and require increased usage of pesticides, insecticides, and fungicides.

A team of 900 scientists funded by the World Bank and United Nations determined that the use of GM crops is simply NOT a meaningful solution to the complex situation of world hunger.²

Instead, the scientists suggested that “agro-ecological” methods would provide the most viable means to ensure global food security, including the use of traditional seed varieties and local farming practices already adapted to the local ecology.  

You see, our current food system is highly concentrated — first, in terms of being a monoculture with very few varieties available, and second, in terms of ownership of these few precious crops. And far from being the answer to the world’s food needs, this concentration actually ensures food insecurity.

Meanwhile, problems with hunger are typically not related to a shortage in food production, but rather problems with the way that food is used and distributed – and the types of food being grown in the first place. The Institute of Hazard, Risk, and Resilience Blog summed it up nicely:3

“… [T]here is more than enough food to go around, even as the global population gets bigger and more people demand a varied diet as many people living in more developed countries do… Because of the technological means in place for planting and harvesting food there are often surpluses, especially in richer countries, but food is often wasted.

Instead of becoming more conservative and conscious of the food resources available, many nations have become overly consumerist and wasteful. 1.2 to 2 billion tons of all food produced ends up as waste, which is 30 percent to 50 percent of total food production in the world, and it is not only a waste of food but a waste of energy, water, and other resources that go into producing it.

In the meantime, while there is a global food surplus taking place there is still starvation in developing countries throughout the world. Many people are not getting enough to eat and the main contributor is a large-scale social problem that no one can seem to tackle fully: poverty.

Poverty is not merely a social problem it is a major health hazard and humanitarian disaster.

And it is largely because of inequality that poverty is allowed to sit at the table unwelcome, removing the possibility of providing the food resources needed by everyone, but tolerated by present, past, and likely future generations nevertheless.

This is one of many reasons why food insecurity is a global challenge. Why during a time when food production is at its highest hundreds of millions of people are still starving?”