@article{Smith:175419,
      recid = {175419},
      author = {Smith, Lisa C. and Obeid, Amani E. El and Jensen, Helen  H.},
      title = {The geography and causes of food insecurity in developing  countries},
      journal = {Agricultural Economics: The Journal of the International  Association of Agricultural Economists},
      address = {2000-03},
      number = {968-2016-75317},
      pages = {18},
      year = {2000},
      abstract = {At the 1996 World Food Summit, 186 countries made a  commitment to reduce the number of chronically  undernourished
people by half by 2015. In order to  formulate effective policies for reaching this goal, a  thorough understanding of the location
and causes of food  insecurity is needed. This paper provides a broad overview  of the current character of food insecurity in
developing  countries, focusing on two questions: (1) Why are they food  insecure? and (2) Why are the food insecure? To
answer the  latter question data from 58 developing countries with high  prevalences of food insecurity are employed to
examine the  relative importance of two of food insecurity's most basic  causes: national food availability and the inability  of
people to access food due to poverty. Using child  malnutrition as a proxy (along with descriptive controls  for non-food
determinants of malnutrition), the paper finds  little correlation between national food availabilities and  food insecurity. The
group of countries that exhibit the  highest severity of food insecurity are those with high  poverty and food (dietary energy)
surpluses, consistent  with the view that poverty is the most widespread cause of  food insecurity in the 1990s. The paper
concludes by  considering the implications of the analysis for  appropriate geographical and policy targeting to improve  food
security for the greatest numbers of people at the  fastest pace, now and into the 21st century.© 2000 Elsevier  Science B.V. All
rights reserved.},
      url = {http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/175419},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.22004/ag.econ.175419},
}