Skip to main content
Log in

Global hunger: The methodologies underlying the official estimates

  • Published:
Population and Environment Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This paper examines the methodologies employed by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Bank, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to quantify the extent of global hunger during the past 50 years. The methodologies are shown to be less than perfect and to contain built-in biases favoring exaggeration. They have also proved amenable to manipulation by those with a political agenda to pursue. Other approaches to measuring world hunger should therefore be sought.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Boyd-Orr, Lord John (1950). The food problem.Scientific American, 183(2), 11–15.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ehrlich, Anne & Ehrlich, Paul (1975). Starvation: 1975.Penthouse,6(11).

  • Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) (5 July 1946).World food survey. Washington, D.C.

  • FAO (November 1952).Second world food survey. Rome.

  • FAO (1963).Third world food survey. Freedom from Hunger Basic Study 11. Rome.

  • FAO (1977).The fourth world food survey. Statistics Series 11. Rome.

  • FAO (1987).The fifth world food survey. Rome.

  • FAO (1992).World food supplies and prevalence of chronic undernutrition in developing regions as assessed in 1992. ESS/MISC/1/92. Rome.

  • FAO Food Policy and Nutrition Division (1973). Food and nutrition: A new view of an old problem.[FAO] Nutrition Newsletter, 11(4), 1–16.

    Google Scholar 

  • International Conference on Nutrition (1992).Nutrition and development—A global assessment. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization and World Health Organization.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jogaratnam, Thambapillai & Poleman, T. T. (1969).Food in the economy of Ceylon. Cornell International Agricultural Development Bulletin 11. Ithaca, N.Y.

  • Jones, P. P. & Poleman, T. T. (1962). Communes and the agricultural crisis in Communist China.Food Research Institute Studies, 3(1), 3–22.

    Google Scholar 

  • Paddock, William & Paddock, Paul (1967).Famine—1975! Boston: Little, Brown.

    Google Scholar 

  • Poleman, T. T. (1977). Mexican agricultural production, 1896–1953: An appraisal of official statistics. Cornell Agricultural Economics Staff Paper 77-30. Ithaca, N.Y.

  • Presidential Commission on World Hunger (1980).Overcoming world hunger: The challenge ahead. Washington, D.C.

  • Purvis, M. J. (1966). Evaluation and use of underdeveloped agricultural statistics: The food economy of Malaysia. Unpublished PhD dissertation. Cornell University. Ithaca, N.Y.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reutlinger Shlomo & Selowsky, Marcelo (1976).Malnutrition and poverty. World Bank Staff Occasional Paper 23. Washington, D.C.

  • Reutlingen Shlomo & Pellekaan, Jack (1986).Poverty and hunger. Washington, D.C: The World Bank.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sukhatme, P. V. (24 October 1984). Personal communication.

  • United Nations (April 1974a).Preliminary assessment of the world food situation, present and future. Preparatory Committee of the World Food Conference. Second Session. Rome.

  • United Nations (November 1974b).Assessment of the world food situation, present and future. World Food Conference. Item 8 of the Provisional Agenda. Rome.

  • United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) (October 1961).World food budget, 1962 and 1966. Foreign Agricultural Economic Report 4. Economic Research Service. Washington, D.C.

    Google Scholar 

  • USDA (October 1964).World food budget, 1970. Foreign Agricultural Economic Report 19. Economic Research Service. Washington, D.C.

    Google Scholar 

  • Working, Holbrook (1926). Wheat acreage and production in the United States since 1866: A revision of the official estimates.Wheat Studies of the Food Research Institute, 2(7), 237–264.

    Google Scholar 

  • World Food Council (June 1991). Hunger and malnutrition in the world: Situation and outlook. Seventeenth Ministerial Session. Agenda item 2(A). Helsingor, Denmark.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Poleman, T.T. Global hunger: The methodologies underlying the official estimates. Popul Environ 17, 545–564 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02208339

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02208339

Keywords

Navigation