Food Shortage and Society Today

- Today, with a constantly rising population, food production has become a place of concern. To be able to produce food for the world, some questionable practices have been made when it comes to the production of our food. The main types of production are organic, conventional, and biodynamic production. Conventional farming, unfortunately, the way most of our food is produced. This refers to “farming systems which include the use of synthetic chemical fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, and other continual inputs” (Appropedia, 2016), all of which are things people generally don’t want to hear is in their food. It wasn’t until within the last 20 years, that different forms of food production arose as a result of people no longer wanting the harsh chemicals to be a part of their diet. Biodynamics is a “holistic, ecological, and ethical approach to farming, gardening, food, and nutrition” (Biodynamics Association, 2016) which is very similar to organic food. Organic food is governed by strict government standards, which requires that products bearing the organic label are “produced without the use of toxic and persistent pesticides and synthetic nitrogen fertilizers, antibiotics, synthetic hormones, or genetic engineering” (Haumann, n.d.). The largest difference between organic and biodynamic is that biodynamic doesn’t use anything outside of its farm. While organic farms may purchase organic feed or seed, biodynamic farms must produce everything on its premises.

- Food insecurity in a household is “when any of its members do not have the resources they need to get adequate amounts of nutritious food.” (Blake, 2016, p. 601) When people are food insecure they are at risk for undernutrition due to lack of calories and nutrients in their diets. While America is a wealthy country, it still has many families/citizens that are unable to provide enough food for all the members because of a lack of resources. Most often the cause of food insecurity in the US is poverty. Along with this, households headed by single women, black, non-Hispanic households, and Hispanic households are all more likely to my food insecure. Not only are people in the above categories at risk for food insecurity, many families with one or more adults in the workforce and people who have good jobs but get laid off, can all be victims to food insecurity at some point. Along with outside forces, health problems like chronic illness, disability, substance abuse, and mental illness can also increase food insecurity. One large factor that can be seen around the world to increase food insecurity is crop failure, natural disaster, and wasteful agricultural practices. Some of the contributors to food security can be out of our control, but there are ways to help many people who face insecurity. Children of food insecure can receive free or reduced school lunches, which are normally nutritious and filling. Many families can partake in WIC or food stamps which only allow healthy, nutritious food to be purchased.