Food security in less developed countries, 1970 to 1990

Despite a global food surplus, almost half of the world's less developed co untries suffer significant problems concerning food. Most social science an d policy discussions of food security, make the " food availability " assum ption that increased food supply is the key to reducing hunger. Critics arg ue, however that increased food supply has little impact on hunger and that the primary culprits are entrenched inequality and militarism. A lagged pa nel analysis of food supply and child hunger rates (1970-1990) shows that t he food supply has only modest effects on child hunger rates and that food supply is structurally rooted in development processes (domestic investment , urban bias, foreign capital penetration) while child hunger is politicall y based in arms imports, internal violence and political democratization. P opulation pressure, tapped by increased age dependency, undermines both the supply of food and the population's access to it, and cultural dualism mag nifies the effects of population pressure on child hunger. The effects of e conomic growth " trickle down " to affect both food supply and child hunger , and economic growth is also positively, correlated with political democra tization, suggesting there is no short-term " trade-off " between growth, d emocratization, and social equity.