Foodshare

Tuesday, July 25, 2017

Increases in Energy Prices Raise Risk of Food Insecurity


Unexpected increases in energy prices can adversely affect food security, USDA reports. For poor families, rising energy prices create a difficult tradeoff between buying enough food, staying warm, or having enough gas for the car. Energy price shocks may be particularly detrimental to low-income households because they have fewer resources available to absorb an unplanned higher expense. A recent USDA study explored the relationship between energy price shocks and food security and found that price shocks in each energy source—gasoline, natural gas, and electricity—increased the probability of a household becoming more food insecure or food stressed. The magnitude of the response was higher for low-income households compared to the average response for all households. A 41% increase in natural gas prices, for example, led to the prevalence of food insecurity among low-income households rising from 12.4 to 14.7%.

Source: USDA, 7/13/17, Energy Shocks and Food Insecurity

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