A new study finds a link between land rights, water, energy and hunger...Countries where people lack adequate access to land rights, water and energy – are among the worst performers in the annual Global Hunger Index (GHI). ?We find there is a definite correlation between these resources and food insecurity,? said Claudia Ringler, a co-author of this year?s GHI study, which was produced jointly by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the NGOs Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe. The GHI study compared data on people?s access to arable land, clean water and cheap energy to their countries GHI scores, which are calculated using three indicators: undernourishment, child mortality and child underweight data. Twenty countries have levels of hunger that are ?extremely alarming? or ?alarming? according to the index. Most countries with alarming GHI scores are in sub-Saharan Africa or South Asia; the three countries with extremely alarming GHI scores are Burundi and Eritrea and Haiti. Food security is inextricably linked to developments in the water, energy, and land sectors, as many experts have begun to show. "We are not saying anything people don?t know already, but drawing their attention to it again through this study," said Ringler. The study underscores the role of land grabs - the practice of leasing out land to international companies, often to grow export crops to produce biofuel - in food security. ?Rising energy prices affect farmers? costs for fuel and fertilizer, increase demand for biofuel crops relative to food crops, and raise the price of water use,? says the GHI report.