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Food security for a household means access by all members at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life. Food security includes at a minimum: The ready availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods. Assured ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways... Households that report three or more conditions that indicate food insecurity are classified as "food insecure.".. The questions cover a wide range of severity of food insecurity.... Survey Questions Used by USDA to Assess Household Food Security 1. "We worried whether our food would run out before we got money to buy more." Was...

Food insecurity has been put forward as an obstacle for many students in higher education. During the pandemic, the federal government responded to this issue and other hunger-related problems with an emergency subsidy that broadened both the benefits and the eligibility pool of SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Having benefited college students and others for several years, the emergency fund expired after February of this year. Interviewed by NPR, Brian Montes, a student at Portland State University, related how he had personally benefited from the enhanced SNAP funding. The subsidy, Montes assured listeners, had allowed him to be free...

The Agriculture Improvement Act, known as the farm bill, is up for renewal this year and lawmakers will soon debate whether to extend key provisions that currently help 34 million people suffering from food insecurity in America. But in today’s divisive political environment, where 15 voting rounds are needed to elect a Speaker of the U.S. House, the likelihood that our leaders will reach a consensus on this important legislation, sadly, seems entirely unthinkable. The bill, which requires reauthorization every five years, historically provides funding for nutritional and anti-hunger programs for income-challenged Americans. The bill’s current term, which expires later...

President Biden on Wednesday will announce nearly $3 billion in new U.S. commitments to address global food insecurity, an issue that has been worsened by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In his address to the United Nations General Assembly, Biden will outline $2 billion in global humanitarian assistance through U.S. Agency for International Development to increase emergency food security programing in countries most affected by the pandemic and supply chain woes exacerbated by the war in Ukraine. The money will go toward food and nutrition assistance, safe drinking water and other relief, the White House said.

Ohio's food banks are struggling to keep shelves stocked amid rising costs and supply-chain disruptions. But those same issues are pushing even more people to turn to them for help. Why it matters: More than 1.5 million Ohioans — one in eight of our neighbors — go hungry, according to Feeding America. The Ohio Association of Foodbanks says that some banks have been forced into rationing. State of play: The association's leaders are now urging lawmakers to spend federal pandemic relief funds or other cash reserves to address the critical need. Ohio has nearly $2 billion in remaining American Rescue...

The cause of the imminent cuts is multiplying humanitarian needs around the world and insufficient funding his has already forced the agency to make significant reductions in daily meals for vulnerable people in the Sahel and elsewhere. “As global hunger soars way beyond the resources available to feed all the families who desperately need WFP’s help, we are being forced to make the heartbreaking decision to cut food rations for refugees who rely on us for their survival,” said WFP Executive Director David Beasley. “Without urgent new funds to support refugees - one of the world’s most vulnerable and forgotten...

The king of the Zulu tribe has formed an unlikely alliance with a right-wing Afrikaner lobby group to fight the South African government’s plans to take land from white owners without compensation. King Goodwill Zwelithini said that his motivation in working with “the Boers” was their shared concern for the country’s food security, which he feared would be threatened if President Ramaphosa pressed ahead with his controversial expropriation plans.

Montclair State University's food pantry is tucked away down a maze of hallways in the student center. Like the hunger problem on campus itself, the pantry is not quite out in the open. It opened on the New Jersey college's campus in April, after administrators started hearing from students who said they were hungry and didn't have enough money for food. They surveyed students, finding that more than half said they or someone they know experiences "food insecurity" -- the lack of access to affordable, nutritious food. On one Thursday in December, 33 students visited the food pantry, taking what...

Legal Relativism and Food Insecurity In the new “legal relativism” and mob justice atmosphere that uses “social justice” as an excuse to loot and burn down stores in their neighborhoods, Everett Mitchell, the Director of Community Relations at the University of Wisconsin, Madison campus, stated during a discussion panel, “Best Policing Practices,” that prosecuting shoplifters from Walmart and Target is “aggressive police behavior.” “I just don’t think they should be prosecuting cases for people who steal from Walmart. I don’t think that. I don’t think that Target, and all them other places – the big boxes that have insurance –...

A national poll has found that approximately 25 percent of Springfield households with children report a hardship in affording food. The report by the Food Research and Action Center, based in Washington, D.C., ranks the Springfield metropolitan area as having the 37th highest “food hardship” rate among the 100 largest metropolitan statistical areas in the country. The rankings are based on data gathered in 2009 and 2010 as part of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index project, the center reported. “The food hardship rates in Springfield for households with or without children are unconscionable,” said Andrew Morehouse, executive director of The Food...

Soaring food prices have been, perhaps, the most pressing global issue of the past two years – yet the U.S. Federal Reserve has taken a "hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil" approach to the global crisis. Instead, the Fed has dutifully maintained its focus on so called "core inflation" in the United States – even as Americans suffer the consequences of the "hidden inflation" the government refuses to account for. The Federal Reserve excludes food and fuel prices from its preferred gauge of inflation because they are often influenced by erratic weather patterns and political turmoil. That...

The run-up in global commodity prices is stirring debate in a number of countries over the role of financial speculators, a prospect that could fuel a regulatory backlash by governments keen to control food prices.

<p>As we know, massive popular unrest has broken out against autocratic governments in North Africa and the Arab world. Egypt is the biggest story. But to varying degrees, the people have taken to the streets in Algeria, Jordan, Libya, Morocco, and Yemen.</p>

Political risk has returned with a vengeance. The first food revolutions of our Malthusian era have exposed the weak grip of authoritarian regimes in poor countries that import grain, whether in North Africa today or parts of Asia tomorrow.If you insist on joining the emerging market party at this stage of the agflation blow-off, avoid countries with an accelerating gap between rich and poor. Cairo’s EGX stock index has dropped 20pc in nine trading sessions. Events have moved briskly since a Tunisian fruit vendor with a handcart set fire to himself six weeks ago, and in doing so lit the...

After 24 years in Canada, Rafik and Leila Baladi moved back to Cairo two weeks ago to settle down. Now, like many other residents of the Egyptian capital, they're stocking up on bottled water and essential foodstuffs as chaos engulfs this sprawling city of some 18 million. "We just don't know what is going to happen," said Leila, who along with her husband was pushing a shopping cart loaded with frozen chicken breasts, fava beans, milk and other items at a grocery store in central Cairo. "People are terrified to death." Everyday life in Cairo has been turned upside down...

Commodities traders have warned they are seeing the first signs of panic buying from states concerned about the political implications of rising prices for staple crops. However, the tactic risks simply further pushing up prices, analysts have warned, pushing a spiral of food inflation. Governments in Asia, the Middle East and North Africa have recently made large food purchases on the open market in the wake of unrest in Tunisia which deposed president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali. Resentment at food shortages and high prices, as well as repression and corruption, drove the popular uprising which swept away his government. Youths...

Events have moved briskly since a Tunisian fruit vendor set fire to himself six weeks ago, and thereby lit the fuse that has detonated Egypt and threatens to topple the political order of the Maghreb, Yemen, and beyond. As Al-Jazeera broadcasts authority crumbling in the cultural and political capital of the Arab world, exhilaration can turn quickly to foreboding. Whatever the aspirations of those on the streets of Cairo, such uprisings are easy prey for tight-knit organizations – known in the revolutionary lexicon as Leninist vanguard parties. In Egypt this means the Muslim Brotherhood. The Brotherhood is a different kettle...

--snip--Today there is a global food shortage and skyrocketing prices. This has become the underlying factor in the riots in Tunisia, Algeria, and Egypt, where up to 56% of a person's income is dedicated to the acquisition of food. These riots are now leading to the upheaval of governments and the very real possibility of the ascendancy of the radical elements into control...

While discontent, resentment and nationalism continue to fuel demonstrations, one vital staple is in short supply: food. Many families in Egypt are fast running out of staples such as bread, beans and rice and are often unable or unwilling to shop for groceries. "Everything is running out. I have three children, and I only have enough to feed them for maybe two more days. After that I do not know what we will do." school administrator Gamalat Gadalla told CNN. The unrest has paralyzed daily life in Egypt with many grocers closing shop and spotty food shipments. "With the curfew,...

U.S. grain prices should stay unrelentingly high this year, according to a Reuters poll, the latest sign that the era of cheap food has come to an end. U.S. corn, soybeans and wheat prices -- which surged by as much has 50 percent last year and hit their highest levels since mid-2008 -- will dip by at most 5 percent by the end of 2011, according to the poll of 16 analysts. The forecasts suggest no quick relief for nations bedeviled by record high food costs that have stoked civil unrest. It means any extreme weather event in a grains-producing...