In article >,
Dan Abel > wrote:

> According to an article in the Washington Post (reprinted in the Santa
> Rosa Press Democrat), they will no longer report on the 11 million
> people in the US who identified themselves as being "hungry" at times.
> Instead, they will report them as "very low food security".
>
> :-(

Food security and food insecurity are actual terms. Think of food
insecurity as a continuum, with starvation at the lowest end. Then would
come hunger. Food insecurity is defined as limited or uncertain
availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods, or limited or
uncertain ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable
ways. As an example, a homeless person who dumpster dives behind
McDonalds may be getting plenty of calories, but the food may not be
safe to eat. In addition, dumpster diving is not socially acceptable in
some circles.

If I were the USDA, I'd continue to call hunger hunger. However, food
insecurity is a more wide-ranging term and may better capture the scope
of the problem.

Cindy

--
C.J. Fuller

Delete the obvious to email me