Impact of COVID-19 on Food Security in the Caribbean

Rasheed Perry¹, Lisa Reid¹ and Fitzroy Henry^1,

¹University of Technology, Jamaica, 237 Old Hope Road, Kingston 6, Jamaica

Cite this paper

Rasheed Perry, Lisa Reid and Fitzroy Henry. Impact of COVID-19 on Food Security in the Caribbean. Journal of Food Security. 2021; 9(3):101-105. doi: 10.12691/JFS-9-3-2

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has shaken the globe and remains a threat to the food and nutrition security of vulnerable communities due to the disruptions of the food system. This study assessed the impact of COVID-19 on food and nutrition security at the household level in eight Caribbean countries. The findings revealed that 16% of households reported that their diet was suboptimal during the crisis; among the households severely affected, rice and egg consumption increased whereas the utilization of meats, fish, chicken, vegetables, and fruit intake declined; 40% of households experienced some form of hunger and 42% of them reported that they were moderately to severely affected. As countries aim to recover and regain stability, households remain at risk and the situation on the ground may worsen and therefore the findings of this study may be modest. As such, food security should be an integral part of the policy framework to address immediate needs and the imperatives for long-term resilience.

Keywords

COVID-19, food security, nutrition, policy, Caribbean

Copyright

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

References

[1]	World Food Programme-WFP (2009). Emergency Food Security Handbook. https://documents.wfp.org/stellent/groups/public/documents/manual_guide_proced/wfp203246.pdf.
[2]	Espitia, A., Rocha, N. & Ruta, M. 2020. Covid-19 and Food Protectionism. Policy Research Working Paper 9253. Washington, DC, World Bank.
[3]	FAO. 2020c. Food Outlook - June 2020. (also available at http://www.fao.org/3/ca9509en/ca9509en.pdf).
[4]	Laborde, D., Martin, W., Swinnen, J. & Vos, R. (2020). COVID-19 Risks to Global Food Security. Science, 369(6503): 500-502. (also available at https://science.sciencemag.org/content/369/6503/500).
[5]	UNCTAD. (2020). The Covid-19 Shock to Developing Countries: Towards a ‘whatever it takes’ programme for two-thirds of the world’s population being left behind. March 2020. (also available at https://unctad.org/en/PublicationsLibrary/gds_tdr2019_covid2_en.pdf). United States Department of Agriculture-USDA. (2012). Survey Tools. https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/food-nutrition-assistance/food-security-in-the-us/survey-tools/#household.
[6]	FAO & CELAC. (2020). Food security under the COVID-19 pandemic. (also available at http://www.fao.org/3/ca8873en/CA8873EN.pdf).
[7]	Barrett, C. 2020. Actions now can curb food systems fallout from COVID-19. Nature Food. 1: 319-320.
[8]	Lewis, L. (2020). Coronavirus serves up a surplus of Wagyu beef. Financial Times. April 3, 2020. (also available at https://www.ft.com/content/bb540839-2f63-43bc-897c-b73b2d9f6dc7).
[9]	Terazono, E. & Munshi, N. (2020). Choc waves: how coronavirus shook the cocoa market. Financial Times, July 30. (also available at https://www.ft.com/content/37aa0ac8-e879-4dc2-b751-3eb862b12276).
[10]	Laborde, D., Martin W. & Vos, R. (2020). Estimating the poverty impact of COVID-19: The MIRAGRODEP and POVANA frameworks. IFPRI Technical Note, IFPRI. (also available at https://tinyurl.com/y9fazbzf).
[11]	Bracale, R. & Vaccaro, C.M. (2020). Changes in food choice following restrictive measures due to COVID-19. Nutrition, Metabolism and Cardiovascular Diseases. 30(9): 1423-1426.
[12]	Micha, R., Mannar, V., Afshin, A., Allemandi, L., Baker, P., Battersby, J., Bhutta, Z., Chen, K., Corvalan, C., Di Cesare, M. and Dolan, C. (2020). 2020 Global Nutrition Report: Action on Equity to End Malnutrition. Available at https://globalnutritionreport.org/reports/2020-global-nutrition-report/.
[13]	Torero, M. 2020. Prepare food systems for a long-haul fight against COVID-19. Washington, DC, IFPRI. [Cited 31 August 2020]. https://www.ifpri.org/blog/prepare-food-systems-long-haul-fight-against-covid-19).
[14]	Klassen, S. & Murphy, S. (2020). Equity as Both a Means and an End: Lessons for Resilient Food Systems from COVID-19. World Development, 136: 105104.
[15]	Clapp, J. & Moseley, W.G. (2020). This Food Crisis is Different: COVID-19 and the Fragility of the Neoliberal Food Security Order. The Journal of Peasant Studies.