A Study on the Uneven Distribution of Food Consumption and its Impact Factors in Taiwan
Date Issued
2010
Date
2010
Author(s)
Cheng, Jing-Ming
Abstract
FAO Food Insecurity Report(2009) indicated that food security problems could be more serious in the future after the world food and financial crisis happened during 2008~2009. With concerns of food security, Taiwan''s government implemented rice price support since 1960s. Generally speaking, most of the measurement of food security suggested by FAO measure the adequacy of caloric intake, and world''s total calories supply is greater than the total calories demand. However, undernourishment is still a problem in many regions. In addition, uneven distribution of dietary energy is also a problem cause social problems in many nations.
The objective of this study is to measure the populations of undernourishment and overeating in Taiwan, as well as to analyze the factors influence the uneven distribution of food consumption. Empirical study showed that the proportion of undernourished population increased from 1.53%, in 1997 to 3.67% in 2008, and there was a rising trend in the last decade. The ratio of overnutrited population, on the other hand, dropped from 43.65 % in 1997 to 28.57% in 2008, and showed a decreasing trend. The proportion of seriously overnutrited population also dtopped from 22.33% in 1997 to 12.04% in 2008.
The study also revealed that the ADEC(Average Dietary Energy Consumption) of undernourished families (Quantile 0-0.367) is 1,130 kcal, and seriously overnutrited families (Quantile 0.8796-1.00) is 4,585 kcal. People who are farmers, low income, less educated food planner, single-parent family, junior or senior, and people eat out often are more likely to be undernourishied.
This study applied OLS and QR to analyze factors influence the distribution of food consumption. Data of the Survey of Family Income and Expenditure in Taiwan 2008 were utilized for analyses. Empirical results showed that raising the frequency of eating out will significantly increase ADEC, but greater in overnutritied family. Increase the frequency of consuming fruit and staple foods can also decrease ADEC. Higher education level of food planner will increase ADEC, showing that improvement of education will enhance the calories intake.
Subjects
food security
undernourishment
overnutrition
household food expenditure
quantile regression model
Type
thesis
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