Food Insecurity and Poverty
ETH DECs Kenneth Harttgen and Johannes Seiler from the University of Innsbruck contributed a chapter on Food Insecurity and Poverty to the recently published Research Handbook on Measuring Poverty and Deprivation.
The Research Handbook on Measuring Poverty and Deprivation, edited by Jacques Silber, provides comprehensive coverage of poverty measurement, examining various dimensions such as health, energy, and housing. In their chapter, Kenneth Harttgen and Johannes Seiler introduce the issue of food insecurity and its relationship to poverty. Despite efforts to reduce poverty, millions of people still lack regular access to safe and nutritious food. The Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that around 2 billion people worldwide lacked regular access to safe dietary energy in 2019, with the number of people affected expected to rise by 2030. Food insecurity has short- and long-term impacts on health and well-being and hinders a country's long-term growth prospects.
Measuring and understanding food insecurity
In their chapter, Kenneth Harttgen and Johannes Seiler highlight the importance of measuring and understanding food insecurity. They describe different measures of food security as well as recent trends in food insecurity, which vary across regions and income groups. The authors emphasize the interconnection between food insecurity and poverty, highlighting how poverty contributes to food insecurity and vice versa.