by Aleicia Zhu, Rhea Werner, and Sara Maggio
Abstract
Food insecurity is a lack of access to healthy food, and it greatly impairs the art of living and dying well [1,4]. Moreover, it is exacerbated by racial and wealth inequalities, and this furthers influences views of death between classes [9,10]. These inequalities are solidified by political interests and gridlock [11,12,13]. Consequently, the programs needed to alleviate food insecurity will not get implemented [14]. This detriments living well, which is defined as both physical and mental health for happiness [17]. In order to diminish these effects, communities must be bolstered through strengthened collective efforts and weakened polarization [22].
Factor in Death
Food insecurity is defined by the United Nations as a lack of access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food needed to maintain an active and healthy lifestyle. It plays an integral component in the overall quality of life and death. Food insecurity is due to a myriad of socioeconomic factors such as racial inequality, poverty, and regional disparities [1].
The art of living—the ability to both live longer and prosper—is impacted by food insecurity. Some of the key impacts include anemia, asthma, and poor health. Furthermore, racial, cultural, and socioeconomic disparities play major factors. Asylum seekers and the indigenous population of Australia are 71% and 22%, respectively, more prone to food insecurity. Food insecurity is thus much more likely to occur in disadvantaged, minority groups. This poses a huge threat to their art of living and dying. If a household falls into the lower income bracket, their ability to purchase nutritious food is limited. Thus, lower income households are disproportionately subject to food insecurity.
Additionally, food insecurity, if not addressed in early childhood, has a myriad of consequences. The most pertinent is evidently the decreased living standards, as well as the additional expenditure of tax-payer money. This money is squandered on alleviating the symptoms of food insecurity—an issue that could have been prevented. If governments can assuage this problem, there would be economic, political, and social benefit [2].
A factor increasing mortality risk associated with food insecurity is food deserts, defined by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) as areas where people have limited access to a variety of healthy and affordable food [3]. Principal characteristics consist of the socioeconomics, transportation ability, and food storage facilities of a particular region. The same publication found that areas with higher poverty rates and more minorities are more likely to be food deserts, regardless of whether or not it was rural or urban. Furthermore, this can be correlated with higher mortality risk. Those living in food deserts have a much greater propensity to develop cardiovascular diseases [4]. Other effects are the higher incidence of obesity, diabetes, and other weight-related conditions. These factors are undoubtedly due to the populace’s lack of access to nutritious food; thus, it decreases the overall quality of life All in all, strong comparison has been shown between low-income and high-income groups; minorities are also much more prone to food insecurity.
Experiences and Views on Death
The experiences of wealth inequality and being high-income vs. low-income can influence the perception of death. What’s more, racial inequality can cause food insecurity as well as changing cultural values. South Africa is the most notable example. Between 1948 and 1994, different racial groups became increasingly separated in ideology in what is now termed “apartheid”. In a few short years, discriminatory laws would be passed. This encompasses the Group Areas Act of 1950 and the Promotion of Bantu Self-Governing Act of 1959, requiring the removal of people of color from “white areas” to small, overcrowded rural areas [5]. These heinous acts left a lasting effect on the black population and dramatically decreased their upward mobility.
To illustrate, Cape Town has a deep imprint of apartheid shown through the masses of poverty-stricken people living in shanties, also known as slums. According to a research article titled “The Economics of Slums in the Developing World”, slums are a type of extreme urban poverty, characterized by overcrowded areas with poor-quality housing and inferior living circumstances, often associated with developing countries [6]. These areas have unsanitary conditions, often lacking necessities such as clean water, electricity, and plumbing. High rates of crime, disease, drug use, and suicide are also prevalent [7]. Furthermore, South Africa is not the only victim of this; many developing countries have the wealthy live in proximity to shanties.
Retrieved from U.N. Statistics [8].
Seeing two opposite sides certainly impacts views of life and death. For one, the affluent are more likely to have access to food and medical care. This makes dying less worrisome as they have stronger physical health, and their family will still be secure after death. On the other hand, dying for the poor is more traumatizing. Death rates are exceedingly higher, with the rich living ten or more years longer in many countries [9]. More often, their children are orphaned and become desperate to support themselves. After the wave of HIV deaths in Sub-Saharan Africa, for instance, dying parents reported that they felt guilty their children had no inheritance. Finally, an outsider is also affected when seeing this situation. It offers people a deeper sense of appreciation for their standard of living. Even destitute people from wealthier countries often make six to twelve times more than the impoverished people of developing countries, as said in “Poor People in Rich Nations: The United States in Comparative Perspective” [10]. All in all, the financial inequality gap between the rich and the poor leads to contrary views on life and death.
Factor in Health
As discussed, socioeconomic inequality drives food insecurity and malnutrition. However, there are solutions; these inequalities must be reduced. This should be done while people are healthy [9]. To accomplish that, citizens and governments must build communities to create grassroots political action. Hence, a healthy life starts with empathetic, cohesive communities.
In effect, biases must be curbed. For instance, white voters are less likely to support public assistance if they perceive that minorities will benefit [11]. On top of that, wealthier voters are less likely to vote for redistributive policies [12]. Additionally, turnout can exacerbate these discrepancies, as voting is not mandatory in the United States. Specifically, white voters and wealthier voters both have higher turnouts, according to political scientists Jan Leighley and Jonathan Nader. Basically, these groups vote more often [13].
On the whole, a key pattern is that people will vote in their self-interest. Consequently, the programs needed to ameliorate food insecurity will not be enacted in the first place. However, knock-on effects cannot be ignored. Beneficiaries of charitable food programs often have to choose between basic needs. In this case, 66% of people served by Feeding America reporting needing to choose between food and healthcare. As their health declines, medical expenditures increase. Then, families have even less income for food. Basically, food insecurity is a positive feedback loop and ergo, it must be slowed early on. To accomplish that, people must identify with the needs of their community instead of themselves. Therefore, welfare programs can be enacted [14]. Correspondingly, a critical factor in health is reinforcing communities to reduce food insecurity and improve life and death.
Retrieved from Feeding America [15].
Definition of Living Well
Already agreed is that factors like inequality, class, race, and culture can affect the exact art of living and dying well. However, there are basic concepts of living well across the majority of cultures, just as the majority of cultures perceive facial symmetry to be beautiful [16]. Living well is defined by the possession of both physical and mental health, which facilitate a longer and happier life. Said dynamics are intertwined, so both are necessary to living and dying well. Specifically, components like stress and loneliness can negatively impact blood pressure and immune response. According to the paper “The causes of happiness and misery”, physical fitness elevates happiness. In parallel, happiness boosts physical fitness [17]. Not to mention, factors like food insecurity can impair physical health. A study in Health Affairs did find that food-insecure children were 1.4 times more likely to have asthma. So, the art of living well starts with the art of eating well [18]. Therefore, the conclusion is that the definition of living well encompasses physical and mental health due to their effects on happiness.
Proposal for the Art of Dying
To improve the art of dying, the art of living must be improved as well. In essence, the basis for a healthy life—communities—need to be bolstered. A community may need to solve food insecurity on its own, as those outside of it are often not willing to help. For instance, community gardens have been shown to increase vegetable consumption. In a study from the Journal of Community Health, Hispanic farm workers planted and maintained an organic garden. While doing so, they were pre-surveyed and post-surveyed for vegetable intake. In the results, the frequency of adult vegetable intake of ‘Several times a day’ increased by 66.6%. Likewise, the frequency of children’s vegetable intake of ‘Several times a day’ increased by 40.0%. Additionally, the frequencies of “Sometimes” and “Frequently” worrying that food would run out before money was available declined by 28.1%. Finally, an analysis of open-ended responses revealed most felt that community gardens strengthened family relationships. So, families can improve their food security and art of living without outside intervention, but they require a strong community to take action [19].
Retrieved from Pew Research Center [20].
Nevertheless, communities do not have to be abandoned when they face difficulties like food insecurities. Instead, greater effort must also be taken to build relationships between disparate communities—or more specifically, voting blocs. To do this, political polarization must be mitigated so communities will be open to solutions. This proves to be a challenge, as Pew Research Center reports the highest polarization in the past two decades. Consequently, gridlock increases and food-insecure households cannot receive assistance [20]. The urban-rural divide has also grown substantially [21]. Regardless, these are still solutions to building a broader, national, and more diverse community. Case in point, some have suggested that different groups need more contact with each other. This manifests itself in Citizens’ Assemblies, which take representative citizens and allow them to deliberate. Its underlying principles are consensus-building and perspective-taking [22]. Despite partisan affiliation, a majority of Americans have similar opinions on issues like gun control and pathways to citizenship for children. Simply, these shared interests must be connected and focused on [23]. Altogether, there is action that can be taken to increase empathy, bolster communities, and reduce food insecurity. If those actions are taken, people can live longer, protect their family legacy, improve the art of living and thus, the art of dying.
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