An Introduction to Food Security
We’d like to start our discussion of food security by defining food security, clarifying the individual elements that constitute food security and introducing some interrelated concepts.
Food security is defined by the United Nations as a “situation that exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.” On the other hand, food insecurity exists "whenever the availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods or the ability to acquire acceptable food in socially acceptable ways is limited or uncertain."
Food security is composed of three elements:
1. Food availability: adequate quantities of food are available consistently.
Proximity of food outlets
Availability of food within food outlets
Price, variety and quality of food available
2. Food access: having adequate resources to acquire foods for a nutritious diet.
Capacity to buy and prepare foods
Preparation, cooking and storage facilities for food in households
Education about proper food choices
Mobility and time to shop for and cook foods
3. Food use: knowledge of basic nutrition and care to enable appropriate food use
Adequate water and sanitation
Education about food preparation
These components can be arranged in a hierarchy, with availability required but not sufficient to ensure access, which in turn is required but not sufficient to ensure effective use.
For most of human history, a lack of food availability has led to shorter and unhealthy lives through insufficient macronutrient (carbohydrate, protein and fat) intake. During the 18th century, significant agricultural advances vastly improved food availability in several countries. However, food availability alone is not adequate to ensure appropriate food access.
Many people today still experience barriers to food access. Food access focuses more on what food a particular individual or household will choose based on their lifestyle. Firstly, an individual’s choice of food will be based on the prevailing tastes and values of the community in which they live. Secondly, the foods they are able to choose are limited based on their income and current food prices. This takes into account adverse shocks to households such as unemployment and spikes in food prices. These factors begin to highlight the close relationship of food security to poverty, and to changes in the social and economic climate.
Once food access is fulfilled, it is important that the food is used effectively. This involves considering whether the foods are prepared under sanitary conditions and in a way that maximises nutritional value. We must also consider whether the individual is able to absorb and metabolise essential nutrients – i.e. are they in a healthy state? Thus, food use also brings attention to micronutrient (vitamin and mineral) deficiencies that may occur in addition to macronutrient deficiencies.
Now that we have explored the overarching concepts of food security, we can examine how food security relates to hunger and malnutrition, and how it can be perpetuated in populations.
(Source: Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations)
Hunger and malnutrition are related concepts to food security. Hunger is the uncomfortable sensation caused by inadequate food consumption. All hungry people are food insecure, but not all food insecure people are hungry, because food insecurity may result from a lack of micronutrients rather than macronutrients. Malnutrition is a possible outcome of food insecurity, but it may also result from non-food related factors such as inadequate health services. Poverty is not only a cause of food insecurity and hunger, but also a possible result of ill health and productivity caused by food insecurity. Because food security and poverty are so closely linked, both issues must be considered together in the analysis of food security.
As food security is such a complex issue, assessing the status of global food security is very challenging. However, estimates of food security provide some perspective on the issue. In 2013, about 2 billion people (more than one quarter of the population) are food insecure because they fall short of one or more of the dimensions of food security: food availability, food access and food use.
Sources:
1. Australian Institute of Family Affairs. Food insecurity in Australia: What is it, who experiences it and how can child and family services support families experiencing it? [Internet]. Canberra: Australian Institute of Family Affairs; 2011 [cited 2016 Mar 28]. Available from: https://aifs.gov.au/cfca/publications/food-insecurity-australia-what-it-who-experiences-it
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3. FAO, IFAD, WFP. The state of food insecurity in the world 2015. Meeting the 2015 international hunger targets: taking stock of uneven progress [Internet]. Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations; 2015 [cited 2016 Mar 28]. Available from: http://www.fao.org/3/a-i4646e.pdf
4. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. An introduction to the basic concepts of food security [Internet]. Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations [cited 2016 Mar 28]. Available from: http://www.fao.org/3/a-al936e.pdf
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