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Around 14 million people in Brazil live in constant hunger, and over 72 million Brazilians suffer from some type of food insecurity - that is, two in every five Brazilians don't have guaranteed access to food in adequate quantity or quality or with sufficient regularity.
This information, which was released Wednesday, May 17, by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), is part of an unprecedented study in Brazil on food security. According to the study, which utilizes data from the 2004 National Household Sample Survey (PNAD), children, blacks, and residents of the country's North and Northeast regions represent the groups that suffer the greatest food constraints. The survey shows, however, that 109 million individuals, around 60% of the Brazilian population, live in homes considered adequate in terms of food security. These are homes in which there is regular and permanent access to a sufficient quantity of quality food products without neglecting other basic needs, such as health and education. The study also found that around 18% of the population experiences conditions of Light Food Insecurity; 14.1%, Moderate Food Insecurity; and 7.7%, Serious Food Insecurity, which is characterized by the family's undergoing hunger at least once every 90 days. The gravity of the problem is manifested both by the large number of individuals who experience hunger - around 14 million Brazilians - and the even larger number of individuals, nearly 40% of the population, who are unsure whether they will have the money to replace their current stores. Agência Brasil
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