| Abstract: | It is generally believed that anthropometry cannot provide early warning of famine; some would say that even for purposes of relief targeting it has little or no value. This article argues that at the level of the community, anthropometrie status can serve as a proxy indicator of access to food, and that its limitations are in fact common to most of the other indicators commonly used in the assessment of food security. For populations in which dietary austerity is an early response to food insecurity, both early warning and targeting can be improved by monitoring an anthropometrie index of ‘biomass’. |
