From Markets to Tech: Governmental Initiatives, Solutions, and Responses to Food Insecurity

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.1860
• Date: 01 August 2019
• Published date: 01 August 2019

ACADEMIC PAPER

From Markets to Tech: Governmental Initiatives, Solutions, and

Responses to Food Insecurity

Mario Cometti

1

|Damara Fredette

2

|Ashley Elizabeth Panek

2

|Maxwell Radley

2

1

Tully Rinckey PLLC, Albany, New York

2

Albany Law School, Albany, New York

Correspondence

Ashley Elizabeth Panek, Albany Law School,

80 New Scotland Ave, Albany, NY 12208,

USA.

Email: apanek@albanylaw.edu

Food security, or lack thereof, is a global issue, affecting millions of people worldwide.

Although it has been determined that there is enough food on the planet to feed

everyone, nearly one‐third suffer from some form of malnutrition. The purpose of this

paper is to bring awareness to this global crisis. The introduction defines food security

and food deserts, supported by global and U.S. statistics. Next, the paper discusses

the federal and regional initiatives within the U.S. to eliminate food insecurity,

including federal laws and individual state laws. The paper highlights the “Right to

Farm”initiative promulgated by New York state, as well as the Farmers' Market of

Troy, New York, as attempts to combat food insecurity. The paper then discusses

another large metropolitan area in the U.S., Seattle, Washington, and its response to

food insecurity: Seattle's “Farm‐To‐Table Initiative”and “Fresh Bucks”program. Next,

the discussion turns to advancing technology and its ability to bridge gaps in food

accessibility. For example, Sweden has implemented an unstaffed twenty‐four‐hour

grocery store using technology to complete the transactions. Smiliar solutions are

being tested in communities in China. Furtherm ore, Amazon GO, launched in 2016

in Seattle, Washington, is one of the most recent innovations, allowing shoppers

to use an Amazon account to track their purchases. The paper concludes by calling

on the more economic ally influential c ountries to priorit ize food security i n their

respective nations.

1|INTRODUCTION

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights sets forth the basic

necessities that should be afforded each individual:

Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate

for the health and well‐being of himself and of his

family, including food, clothing, housing, and medical

care and necessary social services, and the right to

security in the event of unemployment, sickness,

disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood

in circumstances beyond his control. (Universal

Declaration of Human Rights, 1948)

According to the United Nations World Food Programme, there is

enough food to feed everyone on the planet, yet 815 million people

—one in nine—still go to bed on an empty stomach each night and

one in three people suffer from some form of malnutrition. Whether

a complete lack of food or a lack of healthy affordable food, the com-

mon thread of undernutrition and overnutrition is that poor nutrition

can lead to impaired cognitive ability and work performance (WFP,

2017a).

This paper will discuss various solutions to food security that are

employed by local, state, and, where appropriate, governmental levels.

“Food security,”according to the Global Food Security Strategy, is

access to–and availability, utilization, and stability of—sufficient food

to meet caloric and nutritional needs for an active and healthy life.

Received: 11 May 2018 Accepted: 14 August 2018

DOI: 10.1002/pa.1860

J Public Affairs. 2019;19:e1860.

https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.1860

© 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pa 1of11