Food insecurity is defined as a household-level economic and social condition of limited or uncertain access to adequate food. One would think that living in the United States means everyone has enough food in their house. However, in 2020 there were 13.8 million households and families that experienced food insecurity. Now, food in the grocery store is only getting more expensive and less healthy. Food insecurity has been caused by big corporations that have come in and taken agriculture and farming and turned it into an industrialized system that is meant for profit and nothing else. Massive corporations have taken the natural nutrients out of farming and food production, and people are starting to see evidence of this in their health problems. Big business changed the way of farming to make food more affordable and accessible to people. However, millions of people still experience food insecurity and hunger every day. This is because the cost of living in this country has gotten so expensive. Some people must choose between rent money or food money when they shouldn’t have to. With the amount of food waste in this country, there should be no hungry person on American soil, yet there is.
The fix is simple, better for the economy, and better for the environment. So why haven’t we made this fix yet? The fix is to get the government to support local farms and agriculture. Eating locally and seasonally has been proven to be one of the best diets for you, packed with more nutrition. If every community came together and focused more on gardening and farming and shared with each other, food insecurity would be a thing of the past. Instead, the government supports big businesses to make more money while citizens are going hungry. Nature can give us everything we need when we work with it instead of against it. The government needs to switch its big business mentality to a much smaller and local scale if they want to help people out of food insecurity. Food is a necessity, not something to be profited off of.
