Who's hungry? And how do we know? : Food shortage, poverty, and deprivation /

The editors of this volume on hunger in the world are associated with the World Hunger Program at Brown University and are well-respected researchers. They have produced a comprehensive assessment of the state of knowledge about the causes of hunger in developing countries. They differentiate between food shortage, food poverty, and food deprivation, suggesting that the dynamics of hunger depend on the cause. This approach combines demography, anthropology, and nutrition, and reflects the thinking of Amartya Sen (Poverty and Famines, CH, Apr'82). The approach operates at three interrelated levels of social organization: region, household, and individual. It provides an evaluation of who is hungry that is both realistic and relevant to policies. The chapter on measurement issues and that on the role of conflict in creating hunger are particularly important. Upper-division undergraduates and above. A. A. Hickey; Western Carolina University