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In this forum I provide a response to the infant formula shortage crisis in the U.S. ongoing since May. I argue that government supported monopoly control of the infant formula market is a geopolitics that has nothing to do with infant feeding and everything to do with profit. I suggest that a diversity of strategies as well as a diversity of feeding options must be undertaken to avoid such human-caused crises in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Entomophagy has been touted as one of the solutions for present and likely upcoming food shortages, especially of protein-rich foods, due to the current pace of global population growth. "Minilivestock" require less water, space, and other resources compared to traditional livestock, which makes it an environmentally conscious option. Nonetheless, the Western world lags behind in the consumption of insects, and research and standardization of industrial practices are lacking. One of the most easily accessible insect-based foods in the United States is powdered cricket, which can be used as an adjunct to or substitute for traditional flours. We purchased two lots of eight brands of cricket powders and assessed their food quality and protein and fat composition. Counts of aerobic mesophiles, coliforms, Staphylococcus, fungi, Bacillus, presumptive Bacillus cereus, and aerobic and anaerobic spores varied greatly among brands as well as batches for the same brand. Protein and fat composition were similar on a g/100 g basis among brands, but the labeled serving sizes varied from 10 to 36 g, which made nutrition facts labels vary considerably. Standardization in multiple aspects, including demonstrated food safety, is paramount for the future of the industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Previous studies have shown that cigarette smoking is associated with higher rates and severity of food insecurity but do not address how population-level smoking rates change in response to changes in food security.Design: Trend analysis of serial cross-sectional data.Setting: Data from a representative survey of US households.Participants: Adults within households participating in both the Food Security Supplement and Tobacco Use Supplement of the Current Population Survey during 5 overlapping administrations from 1998 to 2011.Measures: A "current smoker" is defined as someone who indicated that they currently smoke on "some days" or "every day." A household's food security is coded as "secure" or "insecure," according to responses to a food security scale, interpreted using a US Department of Agriculture standard.Analysis: Descriptive comparison of the roughly triennial trends in the prevalence of food insecurity and current smoking from 1998 to 2011.Results: The prevalence of food insecurity increased by 30% among adults overall versus 54% among current smokers, with most of the changes occurring following the economic recession of 2008 and 2009. Over this same period, the prevalence of current smoking declined by 33% among food-secure adults and only 14% among food-insecure adults.Conclusion: Food insecurity increased more markedly among adult smokers than nonsmokers, and the prevalence of smoking declined more slowly in food-insecure households, indicating that more low-income smokers are facing hunger, which may at least partly be due to buying cigarettes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This mixed-methods study explored the circumstances and coping strategies of households at risk of food insecurity among children. Quantitative analyses guided the selection of two samples of households: (1) at risk for food insecure children, yet children were food secure (n = 19) and (2) with food insecure children (n = 54). Qualitative interviews with parents revealed that households with food insecure children were complex and fluctuating in composition and had unpredictable earnings. Coping strategies were similar in both samples, except that households with at risk yet food secure children described home cooking, a household coping strategy that may be attributed to their stable household composition and resources. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Food insecurity is paradoxically associated with obesity in the United States. Current hypotheses to explain this phenomenon are descriptive regarding the low food security population's dietary and physical activity habits, but are not mechanistic. Herein it is proposed that a resource scarcity hypothesis may explain this paradox, such that fattening is a physiologically regulated response to threatened food supply that occurs specifically in low social status individuals. Evidence that this may be occurring, the implications for addressing the food insecurity-obesity paradox, and future areas of research, are reviewed and discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the American debate over price controls and economic stabilization after World War II, when the transition from a war economy to a peace economy was characterized by bottlenecks in the productive system and shortages of food and other basic consumer goods, directly affecting the living standard of the population, the public opinion, and political discourse. Specifically, we will focus on the economist Franco Modigliani and his proposal for a "Plan to meet the problem of rising meat and other food prices without bureaucratic controls." The plan prepared by Modigliani in October 1947 was based on a system of taxes and subsidies to foster a proper distribution of disposable income and warrant a minimum meat consumption for each individual without encroaching market mechanisms and consumers' freedom. We will discuss the contents of the plan and its further refinements, and the reactions it prompted from fellow economists, the public opinion, and the political world. Although the Plan was not eventually implemented, it was an important initiative for several reasons: first, it showed the increasing importance of fiscal policy among postwar government tools of intervention in the economic sphere; second, it showed a third way between direct government intervention and full-fledged laissez faire, in tune with the postwar political climate; third, it proposed a Keynesian macroeconomic approach to price and income stabilization, strongly based on econometric and microeconomic foundations. The Meat Plan was thus a fundamental step in Modigliani's effort to build the "neoclassical synthesis" between Keynesian and Neoclassical economics, which would deeply influence his own career and the evolution of academic studies and government practices in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article talks about the problem of hunger and poverty that has raised n the U.S. due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It mentions that the service-sector-led recession in U.S. history, is a symptom of both the changing shape of the economy and of the nature of the Covid-19 itself. It also mentions about an increase in the unemployment rate in New York; and also mentions that the Economic Policy Institute has documented several workers, workforce, who are either out of work or experiencing a drop in hours and pay due to the Covid-19 pandemic.