روش مبتنی بر حقوق برای پرداختن به فقر غذایی و عدم امنیت غذایی در ایرلند و انگلستان

Food poverty is an important contributing factor to health inequalities in industrialised countries; it refers to the inability to acquire or eat an adequate quality or sufficient quantity of food in socially acceptable ways (or the uncertainty of being able to do so). Synonymous with household food insecurity, the issue needs to be located within a social justice framework. Recognising the clear interdependence between the right to food and the right to health, this paper explores how international human rights obligations could inform approaches to addressing food poverty and insecurity with specific reference to Ireland and the UK. Little attention has been paid to how countries should meet their obligations to respect, protect and fulfil the right to food in developed countries. The paper contributes by examining the social and policy circumstances which inhibit poor households from obtaining sufficient food to eat healthily, along with strategies and interventions from State and civil society actors in the two countries. In practice, problems and potential solutions have largely been directed towards the individual rather than at social determinants, particularly as research on environmental factors such as distance to shops has produced equivocal results. Other key structural aspects such as income sufficiency for food are broadly ignored by the State, and anti-poverty strategies are often implemented without monitoring for effects on food outcomes. Thus scant evidence exists for either Ireland or the UK meeting its rights to food obligations to date, in terms of roles and responsibilities in ensuring access to affordable, available and appropriate food for all.

Food and nutrition have long been recognised as critical to health; in recent years their contribution to health inequalities in richer, industrialised countries has been more widely acknowledged and better characterised (CSDH, 2008 and Robertson et al., 2004). Nevertheless, in terms of understanding and policy response, the relationship between social and economic circumstances and food and nutrition experiences is contested. Different framings, reflecting differences in meaning and problem formulation, further compounded by different disciplinary perspectives, lead to different understandings of the nature and causes of problems and thus to the formulation of appropriate response. So, for instance, research demonstrating inequalities in nutrient intakes and food patterns by socio-economic indicators (e.g. Dowler, 2001 and Irala-Estévez et al., 2000, among many) can generate assumptions about poor nutritional or household management, or social and cultural capital, with responses which seek to address those perceived deficits. Work which looks at foods and nutrient intakes consumed by those living in low income households (Anderson, 2007 and Nelson et al., 2007), potentially points towards more social welfare responses, although the ‘information deficit’ model is often invoked too.