The Hunger Crisis in America: How NYC Can Help Us Understand Nationwide Food Insecurity
New York City street across from Penn Station lined with fast food restaurants. Photo by Brecht Bug.
In the world’s wealthiest city, 13 percent of residents do not have enough food to live a healthy and active life. Though food and proper nutrition are vital to human survival, the city that, for many, is a symbol of economic prosperity has a food insecurity rate 12 percent higher than the national average. While the food insecurity rate in New York City was already alarming prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the economic downturn spiked unemployment, exacerbated economic inequality, and—by some projections—increased the number of residents experiencing food insecurity by 38 percent. Yet, despite the recognition of food as a human right under international law, the government has failed to adequately address the hunger crisis in New York City and the nation. Indeed, government subsidization of the food industry has significantly reduced the quality of affordable food and placed small farmers, producers, and the environment at risk. The impacts of these policies disproportionately burden people of color and harm small farms, which also tend to be owned by racial minorities.
New York City’s Hunger Crisis: A Violation of Human Rights
Although the right to food is a human right protected under international law, this right is clearly not upheld in New York City. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights lays out three principles for the right to food: food must be available through natural resources or in markets, it should be economically and physically accessible to humans, and it should satisfy the dietary needs of a population whilst respecting that population’s culture. In addition to establishing the obligation to combat malnutrition and starvation, international human rights law includes conventions and a committee to identify obstacles barring people from the right to food. Though the United States claims to recognize the importance of freedom from hunger in the international arena, the deprivation of many New Yorkers and Americans from the enjoyment of adequate food shows that American policy fails to uphold this right. Indeed, almost 1.1 million New York City residents suffer from food insecurity, and approximately 1.4 million residents depend on food emergency programs. Food insecurity results in a meal gap of roughly 367 million meals per year in the city’s five boroughs.
This food insecurity affects New York City’s populations unequally due to rampant economic inequality. Given that most urban residents obtain food by purchasing it, food insecurity is most often caused by low household income and the economic inaccessibility of nutritious food. Poverty and unemployment force many households to trade food for other necessary expenses, such as rent and healthcare. People with lower purchasing power will buy smaller quantities of food and choose more affordable food options, meaning that low-income residents are disproportionately deprived of economic access to food.
Unfortunately, these same populations are also often deprived of nutritious and affordable options: low-income neighborhoods have fewer markets with fresh produce and more fast-food restaurants compared to high-income neighborhoods. This geographical deprivation of access to “fairly-priced, good quality healthy food,” is called a food desert, is yet another example of the denial of human rights in New York City. Food insecure groups in these regions are burdened with long-lasting health issues from an early age that affects their education and professional life. Children that suffer from long-term hunger are more vulnerable to illnesses, developmental impairments, and psychological disorders, such as anxiety and depression. Early childhood development and learning impairments can have long-lasting effects that can interfere with career development.
In NYC, food deserts are located in predominantly African American neighborhoods, unveiling the connection between racial discrimination, poverty, and lack of access to adequate food. For example, the adjacent neighborhoods of East and Central Harlem, both majority Black and Hispanic, and the Upper East Side, majority white, have vastly different average incomes: East and Central Harlem have a median household income of $64,850 while the Upper East Side has a median household income of $123,710, about 91 percent above the citywide median income. In a study from 2010 on food deserts, Harlem had the least favorable score on food environments while the Upper East Side had the most favorable score. Discrepancies in the availability and accessibility of food between neighborhoods in New York City demonstrate a nationwide pattern of racial discrimination in which racial minorities are deprived—either due to location or money— from adequate food and a healthy life.
The Policies Underlying Food Deserts
The existence of food deserts is fueled by government agricultural policies, which affect the affordability of food items and directly contradict federal recommendations for eating. The U.S. government heavily subsidizes corn, wheat, soybeans, livestock, and dairy, which are often transformed into processed food items associated with a greater risk of obesity and type-2 diabetes. While the government directs less than 1 percent of agricultural subsidies to fruits and vegetables, the USDA’s nutrition guide recommends that fruits and vegetables comprise half of any diet. In 2019, as the government provided the highest rate of farm subsidies in 14 years, it cut back on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program payments, the largest program to fight hunger in the United States.
Current farm subsidies not only increase the affordability of non-nutritious food options, but additionally harm small farmers and the environment. Most of the money from current subsidies goes to larger agribusiness. Between 1995 and 2020, the top 10 percent of commodity producers received 78 percent of subsidies, totaling almost $188 million. Those subsidies were given at the cost of small farmers, who received a minimal share and suffered from unfair competition. Smaller farms are often owned by African American, Latino, and Asian American farmers, showing how USDA’s subsidy programs propagate racial injustice. Besides hurting small farmers, large agribusiness corporations also are largely responsible for environmental pollution, which disproportionately harms communities of color that live in surrounding areas.
Solving the Hunger Crisis
Individuals have the human right to enjoy an adequate standard of living, and the government should ensure access to a nutritious diet so that all Americans may live a life of dignity and equality. New York City’s inequalities in food access illustrate a larger, country-wide, human rights issue: 35 million Americans suffer from hunger. To improve the affordability and quality of food options, the U.S. government should reform agricultural policies to support smaller and more sustainable food producers, and it should increase government support for the production of nutritious foods. Most importantly, since poverty is at the center of the hunger crisis, the government must mitigate poverty through policies that raise the median household income and reduce unemployment.
Julia Shimizu is a staff writer at CPR and a sophomore at Barnard College studying political science and economics.