Hier ein Auszug aus der Studie "Household Food Security in the United States, 2005"
What Is
“Very Low Food Security”?
In this year’s report, USDA has introduced new language to describe ranges of severity of food insecurity. The labels
“low food security” and “very low food security” have replaced “food insecurity without hunger” and “food insecurity
with hunger,” respectively. USDA made these changes in response to recommendations by an expert panel convened at
USDA’s request by the Committee on National Statistics (CNSTAT) of the National Academies. Even though new
labels have been introduced, the methods used to assess households’ food security have remained unchanged, so statistics
for 2005 are directly comparable with those for 2004 and earlier years for the corresponding categories. (See
appendix B for further information on the history and development of the food security measurement methods.)
USDA requested the review by CNSTAT to ensure that the measurement methods USDA uses to assess households’
access—or lack of access—to adequate food and the language used to describe those conditions are conceptually and
operationally sound and that they convey useful and relevant information to policy officials and the public. The panel
convened by CNSTAT to conduct this study included economists, sociologists, nutritionists, statisticians, and other
researchers. One of the central issues the CNSTAT panel addressed was whether the concepts and definitions underlying
the measurement methods—especially the concept and definition of hunger and the relationship between hunger
and food insecurity—were appropriate for the policy context in which food security statistics are used.
The CNSTAT panel:
recommended that USDA continue to measure and monitor food insecurity regularly in a household survey
affirmed the appropriateness of the general methodology currently used to measure food insecurity
suggested several ways in which the methodology might be refined (contingent on confirmatory research). Research
on these issues is currently underway at ERS.
The CNSTAT panel recommended that USDA make a clear and explicit distinction between food insecurity and hunger.
Food insecurity—the condition assessed in the food security survey and represented in the statistics in this report—is a
household-level economic and social condition of limited or uncertain access to adequate food. Hunger is an individuallevel
physiological condition that may result from food insecurity. The word “hunger,” the panel stated in its final report,
“...should refer to a potential consequence of food insecurity that, because of prolonged, involuntary lack of food, results
in discomfort, illness, weakness, or pain that goes beyond the usual uneasy sensation.” To measure hunger in this sense
would require collection of more detailed and extensive information on physiological experiences of individual household
members than could be accomplished effectively in the context of the household-based and labor force-oriented
CPS. The panel recommended, therefore, that new methods be developed to measure hunger and that a national assessment
of hunger be conducted using an appropriate survey of individuals rather than a survey of households.
The CNSTAT panel recommended that USDA consider alternate labels to convey the severity of food insecurity without
using the word “hunger,” since hunger is not adequately assessed in the food security survey. USDA concurs with this
recommendation and, accordingly, has introduced the new labels “low food security” and “very low food security.”
The defining characteristic of very low food security is that, at times during the year, the food intake of household
members was reduced and their normal eating patterns were disrupted because the household lacked money and other
resources for food. Very low food security can be characterized in terms of the conditions that households in this category
reported in the food security survey. In the 2005 survey, households classified as having very low food security
(representing an estimated 4.4 million households nationwide) reported the following specific conditions:
98 percent reported having worried that their food would run out before they got money
to buy more.
96 percent reported that the food they bought just did not last and they did not have money to get more.
94 percent reported that they could not afford to eat balanced meals.
96 percent reported that an adult had cut the size of meals or skipped meals because there was not enough
money for food; 86 percent reported that this had occurred in 3 or more months.
In 94 percent, respondents reported that they had eaten less than they felt they should because there was
not enough money
In 60 percent, respondents reported that they had been hungry but did not eat because they could not
afford enough food.
In 44 percent, respondents reported having lost weight because they did not have enough money for food.
31 percent reported that an adult did not eat for a whole day because there was not enough money for food;
22 percent reported that this had occurred in 3 or more months.
All of those without children reported at least six of these conditions, and 64 percent reported seven or more.
(Conditions in households with children were similar, but the reported food insecure conditions of both adults and children
were taken into account.)
A summary of the CNSTAT panel’s report, Food Insecurity and Hunger in the United States: An Assessment of the
Measure, and link to the full text are available at:
www.ers.usda.gov/Briefing/FoodSecurity/NASsummary.htm.
Quelle:
http://www.ers.usda.gov/Publications/ERR29/ERR29.pdfKönnten wir in Deutschland doch auch machen, oder?
Die Armen wurden ja auch abgeschafft (-> Unterschicht)
