Household Food Insecurity Indicators in Rural Aotearoa New Zealand: Patterns, Protections, and Persistent Inequities.

Abstract

Food insecurity is a complex phenomenon in high income countries. While there is food security information about Māori, Pasifika, and children in Aotearoa New Zealand (Aotearoa), there is little known about food security by geographic area. Using data from the 2019/2020 New Zealand Health Survey, we report on a set of eight statements relating to having sufficient resources to provide food for all members in the household, by rurality. We further investigate these measures stratified by socio-demographic variables and by rurality. Results showed there are households experiencing food insecurity in rural Aotearoa. Results further showed that food resource insufficiency was less prevalent in rural households than in nonrural households across almost every variable of age, gender, and deprivation. A lower proportion of rural Māori households faced concerns of resource insufficiency than nonrural Māori households, yet rural Māori still experience rates of resource insufficiency higher than nonrural non-Māori for each metric measured. Our results highlight ethnicity as an important marker of food insecurity and support views expressed by public health experts calling for policies and initiatives to address food resource insufficiency that results from structural racism.