Food security
Food security refers to the condition in which all individuals have consistent access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs for a healthy, active lifestyle. Defined by the Rome Declaration on World Food Security, it emphasizes the importance of availability, accessibility, and safety of food. Globally, food security remains a pressing issue; as of 2020, approximately 720 to 811 million people experienced undernourishment, with the highest rates in Asia and Africa. Factors such as poverty, lack of resources, conflict, and inadequate infrastructure significantly hinder food access, leading to malnutrition and health problems, particularly among vulnerable populations like children.
In developed countries, even with overall food abundance, certain segments of the population struggle to secure nutritious food, as evidenced by various measures of household food security. Solutions to these challenges are multifaceted, involving emergency food provisions and long-term strategies to enhance food production and distribution. Initiatives include agricultural projects aimed at youth in developing regions and the potential use of genetically modified crops to improve yield and nutritional content. However, the deployment of such technologies raises ethical and safety concerns that need careful consideration. Addressing food security involves not only increasing food availability but also tackling underlying issues of poverty and inequality in food systems.
Food security
The term "food security" means having regular access to a sufficient quantity of safe, nutritious food, which allows a person to lead an active, healthy life. As defined in the Rome Declaration on World Food Security at the 1996 World Food Summit, convened by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), "food security" refers to conditions under which "all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life."
Overview
Governments throughout the world are concerned that their citizens have sufficient nutrition to promote good health. Food security exists in places where families have regular access to nutritious food from day to day. However, even in prosperous nations in Europe and North America, some people struggle to buy or gain access to nutritious foodstuffs.
Food Security Requirements
Food security exists in the presence of three necessary conditions. First, a variety of foods must be available to citizens year round. If the growing season is a poor one, or if a war causes food shortages, even people with financial resources may not have access to nutritious foods. Food shortages can also cause prices to spike, preventing poorer families from buying food in the necessary quantities.
Second, families must have the resources to produce or buy sufficient food to nourish all family members, and this food must meet each member’s nutritional needs. In other words, the family must be able to grow or buy a variety of foods—not just rice or corn, for example—that offers the appropriate nutrition to each family member, even those with specific nutritional concerns, such as children, pregnant women, and the elderly.
Third, available food products must be safe, wholesome, and able to be used appropriately. Families lack food security when their food is spoiled or contaminated, or when it offers only empty calories that lack nutritional value. They also lack food security when food items cannot be properly prepared in their living conditions.
Current Population Survey
In the United States, the Current Population Survey (CPS) measures a variety of labor-related statistics, such as unemployment, annual income, and poverty. As part of this survey, households are questioned about their food spending and use of programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP); the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC); and community food banks. This part of the survey seeks to determine if households have sufficient nutritious food at all times, as well as whether families are concerned about running out of food due to a lack of funds.
Since 2006 the US government has been measuring the food security of households on a continuum that ranges from high food security to very low food security. In households with high food security, families have no concerns about food. In the middle range, families with marginal food security generally have sufficient food but sometimes worry if they will continue to have access to adequate food. Their food tends to be unvarying in amount, quality, and variety. The next category is low food security. In this category, eating patterns and quantity of food remain consistent, but the quality, variety, and choice of foods have been reduced. The lowest measure on the continuum is very low food security. In these households, eating patterns for at least some members changed over the course of the year due to a lack of money or other resources to provide food. The most severe form of food insecurity shows family members going an entire day without food because the family did not have the economic resources to buy it.
Global Food Security
Worldwide, food security is an enormous problem. According to the FAO, in 2014, about 606 million people—8.3 percent of the global population—experienced undernourishment, a form of malnutrition. Two-thirds of this number lived in Asia, while chronic hunger was most prevalent in Africa, where an estimated one in four people was undernourished. Those numbers remained stable throughout the first decades of the twenty-first century, and grew even more dire with the advent of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. By 2020, the prevalence of undernourishment rose to about 9.9 percent, or an estimated 720 to 811 million people around the world. By 2024, the FAO projected that 582 million people will be undernourished by the end of the decade.
Although enough food is produced in the world to feed every person on the planet, poverty intervenes. Up to 50 percent of the population in some developing countries does not have the resources to buy adequate food. Other factors affect the distribution of available food, including lack of roads, wars, local conflicts, and corrupt governments. This lack has led to widespread malnutrition and poor health in some countries, which directly impacts employment, productivity, and health-care costs. Children are especially affected, as growth and the ability to learn are seriously impeded by malnutrition, leading to a continuing cycle of poverty, food insecurity, and poor health.
The World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations (UN), and other groups work not only to provide emergency food for areas in need but also to develop long-term plans to improve food security. For example, the FAO supports a gardening project for African youths. This project provides a sustainable system of food production and offers young people opportunities to learn, share, and connect with networks that will help to prepare them for future jobs and better lives.
Another possible solution to food security problems is the use of genetically engineered (GE) or genetically modified (GM) foods, particularly agricultural crops. GE and GM crops can yield significantly greater amounts of food compared to standard crops and can increase the nutrition value of plants for both large- and small-scale farms. For example, engineered corn, rice, canola, and mustard crops offer additional vitamins and minerals that can prevent common nutritional deficiencies and improve health among the poor. These crops can be used in place of supplements supplied by aid programs. They also have the potential to reach more people, preventing malnutrition as well as treating it.
GE crops are highly controversial, however, because most of the research and development on them is conducted by commercial companies with a profit motive. Additionally, ongoing questions exist about how to regulate such crops for safety and how they may affect the ecosystems in which they are grown. Other solutions to lowering rates of food insecurity, as proposed by the FAO, include improving climate resilience across food systems, addressing poverty and structural inequalities, and intervening in food supply chains to lower the cost of nutritious foods.
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