Food Insecurities

When food prices peaked in 2008 the developing world, as is the case in many economic disasters, was hit the hardest. Food insecurities in Asia and Africa were increased by the high prices, especially in places where drought had already made food production an impossibility. The outward flow of migration from the developing world provided remittances to some families, but migration also had negative effects on families. Even thought the price of food has slowly fallen since 2008, food prices at local levels have remained high. This, combined with the economic meltdown of the last couple years, will have devastating effects on developing world. The silent victim of this global crisis is women, the demographic that has been most severely affected. Women are the ones who have had to go without food most often, have the least diverse diet and who have had to make the greatest sacrifices in search of affordable food. In a world that already leaves women far behind men in terms of political power and autonomy, they are also the ones who must pay for the commodification of food, and who are made to starve when Western policies have made food impossible to buy.

            All over the world, women are the last to eat and eat the least. Women often have a low position in society in developing nations. Even before the 2008 crisis they were the last to eat. As men are migrating out of developing countries or to urban areas women are becoming the heads of households in traditionally patriarchal societies. Yet a woman who runs her own household is still as likely to eat last and least as in a male-run household. This is because women prioritize the needs of their children and husbands above their own. Not only do women eat less, but they eat less diverse and therefore less healthy diets. In a study done on food insecurity and gender in Ethiopia, at the peak of the food crisis men ate 4.1 different foods while women ate only 3.6.

            Women in these developing countries were inconvenienced and strained by high food prices. They had to spend more time searching for food at lower prices and oftentimes had to travel far distances in order to find affordable food. In Bangladesh, women were often stopped from travelling to different markets because female mobility is restricted. If one of the ways to measure autonomy is by access to mobility and resources, this is an example of the way the autonomy of women is stifled to the extent that they must fear starvation and the starvation of their children. 

            To cope with these harsh conditions women must often go without meals or limit the portions of their and their children’s meals. It is Western policies that can largely be blamed on these food insecurities.

            Price speculation and the commodification of food is one of the leading causes of these mounting prices. Another contributing factor is the trade-off occurring when crops such as cassava and maize are used for biofuels instead of food. The land used for biofuels as opposed to food production could also be a contribution to this trade-off. The International Food Policy

Research Institute predicts that if policies toward biofuels consumption remain as they are, the price of maize, sugar, wheat, cassava and oilseeds will dramatically increase.

            Perhaps the most devastating contributor to rising food prices is climate change, which is responsible for droughts in many parts of the world. Although the roots of climate change cannot be blamed entirely on the West and Western policies, it is a global challenge that must be met and solved by the world community, a challenge that so far few have risen to meet. The global community then is responsible for the food shortages and resulting high prices that changes to the environment necessarily bring about.

            It is not just women who suffer from starvation, and all who must face the realities of food shortages deserve aid. However, in communities where food is being rationed and women are receiving the shortest end of the stick, it is time for global attitudes toward women and their place in society to shift. Women can no longer bear the brunt of global crises just because the society in which they are from treats them as second-class citizens. Food insecurity limits women’s abilities to demand higher statuses in life, as the worry about how to afford or find the next meal distracts women from seeking political and economic power. As the developed world struggles to deal with the best way to confront the food crisis and to aid those who are starving, it must consider the plight of women and the empowerment they must achieve before they are able to confront a society which tells them they are not worthy of having equal proportions of food as a man. 


- Amelia Furlong