European Countries Trapped in Food Poverty and Inequality: Agricultural Sustainability is the Promising Solution

This study examines the relationship between agricultural sustainability, food poverty and inequality from the panel of 20 European countries over the period 1990–2013. The study decomposed agricultural sustainability indicators into its four components including agricultural value added per worker, agricultural employment, agricultural raw material exports and forest area, while food poverty associated with the household final consumption expenditures coupled with the food inequality that represented by Gini coefficient and income share by lowest 20 % population respectively. The results show that agricultural employment, agricultural value added per worker, forest area, fossil fuel and GDP per capita significantly associated with the increasing household final consumption expenditures, while carbon dioxide emissions, industrial value added and inflation have a negative relationship with the household consumption expenditures in the panel of selected European countries. The results indicate that agricultural sustainability considerably decrease income inequality on the cost of fossil fuel energy consumption, while GDP per capita and industrial value added significantly decline income inequality during the study period. There is a significant increase in the income share of lowest 20 % population due to agricultural sustainability and growth reforms in the region. The study concludes that agricultural sustainability is the promising solution to reduce food poverty and inequality in the region