Food security in Latin America and the Caribbean: structural trends and the impact of the crisis
Schejtman, A.
QA, Questione Agraria ( 33/34): 231-264
1989
Document Number: 342080
The food shortages of 1972-74 in Latin America gave way to a crisis of oversupply with consequent destabilizing effects on prices. Transition to a situation of abundant supply and falling prices has meant the neglect of the traditional concept of food security in favour of the problem of underconsumption and of malnutrition of large sectors of the population, even in countries with sufficient food. National food availability and individual access to food are two essential components of food security; this paper proposes a concept of food security which covers both aspects and also attempts to evaluate the levels of sufficiency, of stability and autonomy of supply that have characterized food systems in recent decades and during the crisis years. The impact of the crisis upon food security is traced: effect on total availability, impact on equity and rights of access to food as well as on levels of consumption and nutrition. Figures for variation over time in food consumption, variation in share of imports in calorie intake and variation of production and trade are presented for 22 Latin American countries. There has been a general deterioration in food security, infant mortality and the proportion of poor people in many countries, whilst the share of health care in Latin American budgets fell during the 1980s.