"food-insecure"

[Jonathan Lighter]

According to America's Second Harvest [http://www.secondharvest.org/who_we_help/hunger_facts.html]:

  "An estimated 38 million Americans, or 12%, are food insecure, meaning their access to enough food is limited by a lack of money and other resources.  (USDA/ERS, Household Food Security in the United States: 2004)"

  Now suppose you want to know the precise meaning of "food-insecure." With "food insecurity" affecting tens of millions of living Americans, you'd think our dictionaries would be tripping over each other to include the word.

  Not !  OneLook referred me solely to MedTerms.com Medical Dictionary [http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=32947] and the following amateurishly phrased def:

  "Food-insecure: Referring to the situation when people need to live with hunger and fear starvation."

  Am I the first professional lexicographer to define this critical concept professionally?

  Food-insecure  _adj._  facing dearth or shortage of obtainable food; unable to obtain adequate food by ordinary means.

  Meanwhile, our major news media keep their gaze fixed on Britney splits and TomKat "sightings."  ("Ooooh !  TomKat ! TomKat !" cried a TV "journalist" yesterday.)

  JL



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