The word “insecurity” conjures thoughts of anxiety about professional performance or interpersonal drama. Feelings best conquered through skill building, therapy, or grit. But add “food” to the phrase and you end up with an almost insurmountable and wicked problem. Food insecurity is defined as the experience of not having adequate access to enough nutritious food to support a healthy lifestyle. The multifaceted nature of food insecurity means it’s more than an access problem. It’s about human health, economics, resource management, cultural values, politics, infrastructure, inequality, and so much more.
We spoke with researchers from the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences (CFAES) and the College of Education and Human Ecology (EHE) who examine the causes and implications of food insecurity. Their areas of research range from community development and economics to health and wellness. As a result, they each bring a unique perspective to the issue of one day solving food insecurity. A common theme ties all their work together: their humanitarian aspirations. Scientists are real people, inspired to action to solve significant issues they see in the world around them. By focusing their energy and talents, they establish the facts, expose patterns, and hopefully emerge with an approach to address a complicated problem.
Associate Professor, College of Education and Human Ecology, Department of Human Sciences
Irene Hatsu adjusts her clip-on microphone as she sits down to film her interview. She asks us several questions about the process before we begin: will she be able to pause and change her answer if she recalls something important? Will the other researchers we’re interviewing address other aspects of the questions? She’s serious, pragmatic, wants to make sure that she’s giving us accurate and well-rounded answers about such a serious topic as food insecurity. But Irene is also amicable and quick to laugh. She jokes with us about how much she dislikes being on camera, but she pushes through anyway for the sake of helping us understand one facet of food insecurity.
Irene’s earnest intensity shines through as she’s telling us the story of her life and career. Now an associate professor of nutrition at Ohio State, Irene knew that she wanted to work on solving food insecurity early in her college career. While attending her undergraduate education in Ghana, Irene witnessed the effects of food insecurity and malnutrition firsthand while visiting an orphanage. A pre-med student at the time, Irene already had the desire to help others. But suddenly, her academic path was less straightforward. She knew that she wanted to pursue nutrition but was initially dissuaded by skeptical family members who wanted her to become a doctor. It wasn’t until graduate school that Irene started to forge her own path and study nutrition from a researcher point of view. She attained her master’s in foods and nutrition from the University of Georgia while studying maternal and child nutrition.
Not long after, Irene found herself back in graduate school studying for a PhD. This time, her focus was on the effect that nutrition can have on HIV. Though she initially intended to study the disease in children back home in Ghana, Irene found herself studying HIV in adults at Florida International University when the funding for her initial program ran out. While teaching a nutrition intervention class for low-income HIV-infected adults, a participant told Irene something that would change her perspective forever. He said: “Ma’am, everything you’re saying, I agree. I want to do it. But I do not have the means to purchase what you want me to purchase.” After scouring the literature and speaking with her advisor and colleagues, Irene realized that the man’s plight was known as food insecurity. Shortly thereafter, Irene began to incorporate this concept into her work. Eventually, Irene became a full-blown food insecurity researcher!
Irene’s most recent work focuses on the intersection between mental health and food insecurity among emancipated youth. Propelled by that same spirit she felt years ago at the orphanage, Irene continues to bring awareness to vulnerable youth experiencing food insecurity. She wants her research to reach the desks of stakeholders and decision-makers to help provide a foundation for real-world change.
If you want to learn more about Irene's work, check out her appearance on this podcast, and click here to find out more about her work with youth.
Associate Professor, CFAES Department of Agricultural Communication, Education, and Leadership
Mary Rodriguez is a force to behold. Like Irene, she’s driven, Type-A: engaged and passionate about her work. One of the first things you notice about her is how she channels that tenacity into her research. Her eyes light up each time a question touches on a topic she’s particularly eager to discuss—and that happens a lot during our interview.
The first time we see it is when she’s telling us about her oldest passion in life: food. Mary loves everything about food—eating it, cooking it, sharing it with others. Her interest in food began in childhood, but Mary couldn’t figure out how to incorporate that interest into her work or academics until college. During her undergraduate education, she studied to become an agricultural educator.
That was great for a while, she tells us. But ultimately, she wound up at Earth University in Costa Rica studying for a master’s degree while learning about sustainable agriculture and how it can aid in community development. Soon enough, this interest in community development led Mary to the Peace Corps. That’s where she decided that she wanted to make a positive impact on the lives on underserved community members across the globe.
Mary is a people person, an altruist, through and through. While living among rural communities in Cameroon, Mary, too, bore witness to how food insecurity can ravage individuals and communities. She saw difficult choices between food and resources being made. During that time, Mary dedicated herself to minimizing this kind of suffering. She knew she wouldn’t be the one to invent more efficient farming technologies or develop new seed varieties. Her true passion was people. Instead, Mary decided to approach the problem from a sociological perspective, focusing on communities and the structures that constitute them. She went back to school for her doctorate to learn more about community development. She explored the intersection between gender and development, focusing specifically on household units and the women and children within them.
Mary continues to do research work in community development. As always, she makes sure to consider the experiences of women and children in the communities she studies. She’s a proud humanitarian and feminist at her core. Nowadays, Mary employs concepts she learned from her international work in ways she thinks could be useful to American academics and decision-makers. She’s a strong advocate for examining patterns of behavior at the household level. Her recent work centers on household resiliency—a measure impacted by food insecurity. She hypothesizes that if decision-makers can strengthen household resilience, then we can also strengthen food security, and vice versa. Whatever the association may be, Mary is determined to shed light on the connections between insidious problems and the choices people make when faced with adversity.
If you're interested in Mary's work, click here if you want to learn more about emerging research into food insecurity, and here if you want to know more about food systems and household resilience.
Associate Professor and Field Specialist, CFAES Department of Extension
Dan Remley, meanwhile, is somewhat soft-spoken, but don’t let that fool you into thinking he isn’t passionate about his work. Like Mary and Irene (and indeed, most academics,) he is detail-oriented and likes to stick to the facts. He presents us with metrics and statistics, gives definitions, and explains academic jargon. But his inner enthusiasm seeps through at several points during the interview—starting with the time he’s telling us about how he got into his field.
At the age of 20, while attending his junior year at Miami University, Dan was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. This was his first expedition into the world of nutrition. Dan had to learn how to manage his condition with diet and lifestyle changes, and that naturally progressed into the public health path. He figured that if he had to learn how to take care of himself, why not make a career out of it and help others do the same? This isn’t uncommon for scientists and medical professionals, he tells us: lots of them go into their field because they’ve experienced or witnessed the same hardships they now work to prevent. This certainly rings true for our group.
Dan went on to earn his master’s in public health and later his doctorate in nutrition with a focus on nutrition education. He wrote his thesis about a summer camp that served as a nutrition intervention program for kids with diabetes. Since then, Dan has continued to work in nutrition education and research. Now an associate professor at Ohio State, Dan is heavily involved in Extension programming. His work continues to focus on the intersection between nutrition and chronic health conditions like diabetes. Dan works with a local food council (a group of food pantry directors and other representatives from different parts of the food system) in Butler County to come up with a system that would allow all their pantries to function as choice pantries—a model that helps individuals have more control over their diet and therefore health. We filmed Dan’s interview at the Buckeye Food Alliance—another group he is currently helping to coach toward a choice pantry model. Throughout all his work, Extension or otherwise, Dan’s inner drive to help others live healthier lives is evident.
Look no further to keep up with Dan's research. Follow these links to learn more about his research with food pantries, his diabetes prevention research, and his research into food deserts.
Cäzilia Liobl, an associate professor in the College of Education and Human Ecology, is also working to address food insecurity but from a different angle. After earning a dual graduate degree in human nutrition and consumer economics, Cäzilia went on to study the financial decisions of families in relation to food security. She’s a professor, teacher, and, as a state specialist for Ohio State University Extension, she provides guidance for county-based financial literacy programs. Her research explores the behavioral aspects of health and how financial decision-making impacts family well-being.
As much as food security is a health and nutrition issue, it is a financial issue as well. Government assistance programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, (SNAP), Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), and Meals on Wheels can help individuals in times of hardship secure food for their household. When older Americans and other vulnerable populations are experiencing financial hardships related to housing and careers, they can become food insecure in the process. Researchers like Cäzilia look for ways to help people utilize their financial resources to prevent or reduce food insecurity. Her most recent project examines the financial circumstances of older Americans and how reverse mortgages could enable housing stability.
Combined, research from Cäzilia, Dan, Mary, and Irene shows just how complex and multifaceted the issue of food security really is. The world needs more dedicated researchers like them to help figure out how we can ensure safe, equitable, and accessible foods for all Americans. If that’s you, or if it interests you, check out the links on this page to find out more about food security research.
