As the Economy Recovers, Food Insecurity Remains

We would expect food insecurity—a condition resulting from a household’s lack of adequate resources for food—to increase during a recession, and it did. As shown in the graph below, when unemployment began to rise in 2008 and 2009, food insecurity rose as well. No surprise there.

Figure 1: Food Insecurity, Very Low Food Security, and National Unemployment Rate (1999-2012)

Source: USDA Economic Research Service

But what happened next? As the economy began to recover, the unemployment rate began to decrease, and yet, both food insecurity and very low food security stayed constant.

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service think they know why. Using a statistical tool called multivariate linear regression, the researchers identified two other factors that may explain food insecurity: inflation and the relative price of food. Their study suggests that even while unemployment decreased and people found jobs, higher rates of food insecurity remained because inflation and food prices began to rise at the same time.