Too poor to choose? Analyzing food agency in food insecure households in rural Burundi

IF 5.6 1区农林科学 Q1 FOOD SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Food Security Pub Date : 2024-09-10 DOI:10.1007/s12571-024-01482-9

Wannes Slosse, Marijke D’Haese, Carl Lachat, Willy Désiré Emera

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Despite recent attention, the concept of food agency has been largely overlooked in academics as a food security dimension. In this study, we define lack of food agency as the inability to make food choices and the consumption of non-preferred and undesirable foods, and examine its relation to other food insecurity domains and household characteristics. Our analysis is based on data collected from 486 households in the impoverished regions of northern Burundi. Specifically, we use the responses to two questions of the Household Food Insecurity Access Score scale that examine the consumption behavior of non-preferred and undesirable foods. The results highlight a worrying lack of food agency in this area of research, as more than 80% of households admitted to consuming such foods. Our study also shows that only households with additional off-farm income are able to avoid non-preferred foods. This study serves to highlight the critical issue of food agency, particularly among low-income consumers in the Global South, and underscores the widespread nature of this problem.

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贫穷到无法选择？分析布隆迪农村粮食无保障家庭的粮食代理情况

尽管最近受到了关注，但作为粮食安全的一个维度，"食物代理权 "这一概念在学术界却在很大程度上被忽视了。在本研究中，我们将食物代理权的缺乏定义为无法选择食物以及食用非首选和不受欢迎的食物，并研究了其与其他食物不安全领域和家庭特征的关系。我们的分析基于从布隆迪北部贫困地区 486 个家庭收集到的数据。具体来说，我们使用了 "家庭粮食不安全获取量表 "中两个问题的答案，这两个问题考察了非首选和不良食品的消费行为。研究结果突出表明，在这一研究领域缺乏食品机构的情况令人担忧，因为超过 80% 的家庭承认消费过此类食品。我们的研究还表明，只有拥有额外非农业收入的家庭才能避免食用非首选食品。这项研究突出了食品代理权这一关键问题，尤其是在全球南部的低收入消费者中，并强调了这一问题的普遍性。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Food Security FOOD SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY-

CiteScore

14.00

自引率

6.00%

发文量

审稿时长

>12 weeks

期刊介绍： Food Security is a wide audience, interdisciplinary, international journal dedicated to the procurement, access (economic and physical), and quality of food, in all its dimensions. Scales range from the individual to communities, and to the world food system. We strive to publish high-quality scientific articles, where quality includes, but is not limited to, the quality and clarity of text, and the validity of methods and approaches. Food Security is the initiative of a distinguished international group of scientists from different disciplines who hold a deep concern for the challenge of global food security, together with a vision of the power of shared knowledge as a means of meeting that challenge. To address the challenge of global food security, the journal seeks to address the constraints - physical, biological and socio-economic - which not only limit food production but also the ability of people to access a healthy diet. From this perspective, the journal covers the following areas: Global food needs: the mismatch between population and the ability to provide adequate nutrition Global food potential and global food production Natural constraints to satisfying global food needs: § Climate, climate variability, and climate change § Desertification and flooding § Natural disasters § Soils, soil quality and threats to soils, edaphic and other abiotic constraints to production § Biotic constraints to production, pathogens, pests, and weeds in their effects on sustainable production The sociological contexts of food production, access, quality, and consumption. Nutrition, food quality and food safety. Socio-political factors that impinge on the ability to satisfy global food needs: § Land, agricultural and food policy § International relations and trade § Access to food § Financial policy § Wars and ethnic unrest Research policies and priorities to ensure food security in its various dimensions.