Universal food security program and nutritional intake: Evidence from the hunger prone KBK districts in Odisha

This article provides evidence on the role of consumer food subsidies in improving nutritional intake and diet quality by evaluating the expansion of the government food assistance program coverage in the hunger prone state of Odisha in India. In 8 districts of Odisha, popularly known as the Kalahandi-Balangir-Koraput (KBK) region which is notable for extreme poverty and starvation deaths, the government did away with the targeted food assistance program in 2008 and made the scheme universal. Using a Difference-in-Difference methodology over two repeated cross sectional household surveys, this article finds that the shift from targeted to a universal food security program in the KBK region of Odisha has led to an improvement in the household nutritional intake and diet quality. Further examination suggests that proportion of households consuming below the recommended dietary allowance of calorie, fats and protein has declined significantly in this region post the intervention.     

How do indicators of household food insecurity measure up? An empirical comparison from Ethiopia

Renewed emphasis on programs and policies aimed at enhancing food security has intensified the search for accurate, rapid, and consistent indicators. Measures of food security are urgently required for purposes of early warning, assessment of current and prospective status of at-risk populations, and monitoring and evaluation of specific programs and policies. Different measures are often used interchangeably, without a good idea of which dimensions of food security are captured by which measures, resulting in potentially significant misclassification of food insecure populations. The objective of this paper is to compare how the most frequently used indicators of food security portray static and dynamic food security among the same sample of rural households in two districts of Tigray State, Northern Ethiopia. Seven food security indicators were assessed: the Coping Strategies Index (CSI); the Reduced Coping Strategies Index (rCSI); the Household Food Insecurity and Access Scale (HFIAS); the Household Hunger Scale (HHS); Food Consumption Score (FCS); the Household Dietary Diversity Scale (HDDS); and a self-assessed measure of food security (SAFS). These indicators provide very different estimates of the prevalence of food insecurity, but are moderately well correlated and depict generally similar food security trends over time. We suggest that the differences in prevalence estimates, and in some cases the weaker than expected correlation, can be explained in three ways. First, the indicators differ in the underlying aspect of food security they attempt to capture. Second, each indicator is likely only sensitive within a certain severity range of food insecurity and these ranges do not always overlap. Third, categorization of the prevalence of food insecurity is strongly dependent on the choice of cut-off points. For valid reasons, “food insecurity” has no accepted gold standard metric against which individual indicators can be gauged, though without one it is difficult to say which indicator performs “best” in correctly and reliably identifying food insecure households. The implication is that using more than one indicator is advisable, and policy makers should be aware of what elements of food insecurity each indicator portrays.     

How are we doing on poverty and hunger reduction? A new measure of country performance

The paper presents a new composite indicator – the poverty and hunger index (PHI) – to measure countries’ performance toward achieving millennium development goal No.1 (MDG1) on halving poverty and hunger by 2015. Building on the statistical structure of the human development index, the PHI combines all five official MDG1 indicators, thereby generating insights on a country’s net progress towards its own goal, as opposed to progress measured by a single yardstick. Nonparametric analysis on the PHI components provides further evidence on the nature of the relationship between poverty and hunger measures, while cross-country results show significant variance in progress between and within regions. An extension of the PHI allows for consideration of the rate of progress made by each country in its own terms; that is, based on where it needs to be to attain all 5 MDG1 targets by 2015. Countries needing priority attention are identified, as well as areas for future research and recommendations for post-2015 initiatives.     

Eco depletion: The impact of hunger on prosociality by means of environmentally friendly attitudes and behavior

The present research investigated the impact of hunger on prosociality in a consumer choice context by means of environmentally friendly attitudes and behavior. Two eye-tracking studies were conducted with hunger measured (Study 1) and manipulated (Study 2). The data were analyzed through bivariate correlations, Pearson's chi-square tests, and analyses of variance (ANOVAs). Our findings, based on cross-sectional and experimental evidence from field and lab settings, revealed that hungry consumers express more prosocial attitudes than their satiated counterparts in terms of general environmental concerns and importance ratings of buying eco-labeled products. However, we found no significant difference between hungry and satiated consumers regarding choice likelihood of eco-labeled products or visual attention towards prosocial (organic and sustainable) food options. Implications for retailers and organizations trying to encourage environmentally friendly behavior are discussed.     

The fight against hunger: Its history on the international agenda

The problem of worldwide hunger was first recognized as an issue for international concern within the League of Nations before the second world war. However, it was not until after the war, and the demise of the League of Nations, that it was put firmly on the international agenda. This article traces the history of the fight against hunger from those days to the World Food Conference in 1974.     

Scheduling food bank collections and deliveries to ensure food safety and improve access

Food banks are privately-owned non-profit organizations responsible for the receipt, processing, storage, and distribution of food items to charitable agencies. These charitable agencies in turn distribute food to individuals at risk of hunger. Food banks receive donated food from national and local sources, such as The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) and supermarkets. Local sources with frequent high-volume donations justify the use of food bank vehicles for collection. Food bank vehicles are also used to deliver food to rural charitable agencies that are located beyond a distance safe for perishable food to travel without spoilage. Due to limited funds, food banks can only afford to sparingly use their capital on non-food items. This requires exploring more cost effective food delivery and collection strategies. The goal of this paper is to develop transportation schedules that enable the food bank to both (i) collect food donations from local sources and (ii) to deliver food to charitable agencies. We identify satellite locations, called food delivery points (FDPs), where agencies can receive food deliveries. A set covering model is developed to determine the assignment of agencies to an FDP. Both vehicle capacity and food spoilage constraints are considered during assignment. Using the optimal assignment of agencies to FDPs, we identify a weekly transportation schedule that addresses collection and distribution of donated food and incorporates constraints related to food safety, operator workday, collection frequency, and fleet capacity.     

略论张贤亮的“饥饿”意象——以《绿化树》为例

张贤亮长期的“饥饿”生命体验，使其创作了许多特别的“饥饿”意象。这种意象在《绿化树》中所表达的内涵有：人生的“饿”运，生存的困厄与尊严的缺失，灵魂的超脱与精神的重塑。张贤亮所塑造的饥饿意象，不仅让人感受到那个时代的特色，更让人感觉到当今社会经济发展的重要性。     

Measuring the commitment to reduce hunger: A hunger reduction commitment index

Can an index be constructed to assess governments’ commitment to reduce hunger? This paper argues for the need for such an index and outlines one way of constructing it. We use secondary data to construct the Hunger Reduction Commitment Index (HRCI) for 21 developing countries.We operationalise commitment around 3 themes: legal frameworks, policies and programmes and government expenditures, to find Malawi, the Gambia, Guatemala, Brazil and Senegal heading the list, with China, Nepal, Lesotho, Zambia and Guinea Bissau coming bottom. Rankings were robust to our choices about weighting and ranking methods.The paper demonstrates a viable method to measure political commitment and highlights the analytical importance of disentangling hunger commitment from hunger outcomes. Cross-tabulations of HRCI scores with hunger, wealth, administrative capacity and voice and accountability scores can guide action from different stakeholders (governments, civil society, donors). Finally, we show how primary data collection might be used to assess areas of strength and weakness in country specific commitments to reduce hunger.     

Navigating the perfect storm: reflections on the food,energy, and financial crises

The closely interlinked food, energy, and financial crises pose a significant new challenge to the global effort to reduce poverty. In 2008, food prices rose sharply in many countries, and global poverty and hunger levels increased quite markedly. The good news is that the agricultural supply response in many countries was also strong. The impacts of the financial crisis on poor countries have yet to fully roll out, but it is clear that more people have fallen into poverty and more are suffering from hunger. Lastly, there are strong indications that the global food system is fundamentally changing in a number of dimensions. Biofuels are here to stay, and energy and food prices appear to have adjusted to a higher equilibrium and will in turn raise the prospects of renewed volatility in agricultural commodity markets. Trade protection has also resurfaced, but so have renewed investments in agriculture. These fundamental shifts bring with them opportunities and risks that require internationally coordinated responses with strong national buy‐in, as well as timely and relevant research.