Abstract
Survey data from a U.S. Department of Agriculture funded multi-state longitudinal project revealed a paradox where rural low-income families from states considered prosperous were persistently more food insecure than similar families from less prosperous states. An examination of quantitative and qualitative data found that families in the food insecure states were more likely to experience greater material hardship and incur greater housing costs than families in the food secure states. Families in the food insecure states, however, did not have lower per capita median incomes or lower life satisfaction than those in the food secure states. A wide range of strategies to cope with food insecurity reported by families in both food insecure and food secure states was examined using the Family Ecological Systems Theory. Families in the food insecure states used several risky consumption reduction strategies such as curbing their appetite and using triage. Families in the food secure states, on the other hand, employed positive techniques involving their human capital.
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Notes
To determine prosperous states, we ranked the states in our data set according to their infant mortality rate, percent of residents with bachelor’s degree, and fiscal capacity index. States with high fiscal capacity have a relatively high capability to cover their expenditure needs using their own resources while those with low fiscal capacity have a low level of revenue-raising capacity given what it would cost to provide a standard set of public services to their citizens (Rueben et al. 2006). Based on these indicators, California, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and Oregon may be considered prosperous while Louisiana, Michigan, and Nebraska may be considered less prosperous.
USDA describes ranges of food insecurity as “low food security” and “very low food security.” These labels replaced “food insecurity without hunger” and “food insecurity with hunger” respectively in 2006. (For the USDA’s new labels see: http://www.ers.usda.gov/Briefing/FoodSecurity/labels.htm). We have used the terms “food insecure”, “food insecurity”, “food insufficiency”, and “food inadequacy” interchangeably as overall terms to describe the general state of families who experience either low food security or very low food security.
For the complete project description, see (Bauer 2004, pp. 1–4) and http://fsos.cehd.umn.edu/projects/rfs.html.
For purposes of this study, families were considered persistently food insecure if they were food insecure in all three waves of data collection.
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Acknowledgments
This research was supported in part by USDA/CSREES/NRICGP Grant Number 2001-35401-10215 & 2002-35401-11591, 2004-35401-14938. Data were collected in conjunction with the cooperative multi-state research project, NC-223/NC-1011, “Rural Low-Income Families: Monitoring Their Well-being and Functioning in the Context of Welfare Reform.” Cooperating states are California, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, and Oregon. The authors gratefully acknowledge the assistance of undergraduate research assistants, Peter St. Marie and Thomas Martin, both at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and Seohee Son, graduate student at the University of Minnesota.
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Mammen, S., Bauer, J.W. & Richards, L. Understanding Persistent Food Insecurity: A Paradox of Place and Circumstance. Soc Indic Res 92, 151–168 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-008-9294-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-008-9294-8