- The name of the issue
Food security- A summary of the background of the issue
Food security is to have physical and economic access to enough safe and nutritious food. It is the guarantee that the people meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy lifestyle.
For the more than 800 million people who do not get enough regular, healthy food, ill health and a shorter life expectancy are real risks. Children, and especially very young children, who suffer from food insecurity will be less developed than children of the same age who have had sufficient food. They will most likely be shorter and weigh less, and be less able physically and intellectually, because of poor nutrition.
- Details about the issue/why the situation occurs
Food security is an issue as many factors contribute to the problem. Ideally all people should have access to healthy food; sadly this is not the case. Namely, the poorest suffer the greatest. Reasons for the huge disparity between food distribution and access that are manmade and outside of natural disasters and climate change (arguable) are:
Poverty and health- lack of income and resources restrict farmer’s abilities to improve their farming and lead them to struggle to feed themselves or sell any excess for income. This lack of money/resources also means lack of nutrient rich food and ill health furthering the problem of food production.
Land Degradation – farmland and the quality of the soil deteriorates overtime through over farming. The quality of the soil becomes very poor so food production is not possible. Poorer farmers have no resources to fertilise or improve the quality of neither their land nor the ability to access other land.
Land Deals / dictatorship/warlords dealing between countries or regions - Poor countries are producing food to sell/export to wealthy countries or areas at the expense of their own people. Often rural areas are discriminated against in order to feed urban areas. Governments can set the price of produce at very low rates to feed the cities but the farmer does not get ahead. Warlords can use food for their own end, depriving those who do not support their cause and using food access as a currency.
- What can be done about the issue (who is currently doing something)
Improving food production
Increasing the amount of food available is essential to feed the growing population. The Green Revolution of the 1970s and 1980s led to huge increases in production, largely due to the farming of high-yielding varieties of rice and wheat, the growth of land under production and irrigation, greater use of fertilisers and pesticides and greater availability of credit. Further increases in food production depend on better combination of traditional knowledge with research; improving farming practices through training and the use of technology to increase production from current land without further loss of productive land; land reform to provide secure access to land for more people; and the provision of low-cost finance to help farmers invest in higher quality seeds and fertilisers and small irrigation pumps.
While genetically modified seeds are being hailed as a means of improving crop production, there are also worries about the possession of seeds, adequate compensation for traditional knowledge and possible side effects.
Economic growth and trade liberalisation
Increasing food production leads to bigger availability of food and financial growth in the domestic and/or overseas markets. Producing income can provide access to more and varied foods and provide cash for use in other areas of the financial system, such as small enterprise and manufacturing, which in turn helps reduce poverty. Trade liberalisation is opening up markets slowly, but there are costly barriers to overcome. Work is underway through the Doha Round of multilateral trading negotiations in the World Trade Organisation to make trade rules fair, encourage trade liberalisation and assist developing countries to participate in the global trade environment.
Distribution
While there are adequate resources in the world to provide food security for all, policy and behavioural changes are necessary to guarantee a fair share for all people, especially the poor. Building on a series of global conferences, in particular the 1992 International Conference on Nutrition and the 1996 and 2002 World Food Summits, countries have developed national nutrition plans and policies in nine major strategic action areas that:
- include mainstream nutrition goals in development policies and programmes
- improve household food and nutrition security
- protect consumers through improved food quality and safety
- prevent and manage infectious diseases
- promote breastfeeding
- care for the socioeconomically deprived and nutritionally vulnerable
- prevent and control specific micronutrient deficiencies
- promote appropriate diets and healthy lifestyles
- assess, analyse and monitor nutrition situations.
The progress towards achieving these goals, however, has been much slower than intended.
Recognising the role of women
Gender equality is a prerequisite for the eradication of poverty and hunger. Many programs recognise the need for changes in access to food, land, credit, education, health and nutrition training and decision making in order to make effective use of women's roles in agricultural production and food preparation.
Food aid
The need for food during emergencies such as drought, disaster, population displacement and conflict is addressed by the distribution of basic food supplies and fuel. Early warning systems can predict problem areas, allowing action to be taken to keep people in their homes and help them back to food self-sufficiency as quickly as possible. Food sourced locally rather than internationally minimises the costs and disruption to local markets. In severe situations feeding may be necessary but often food aid is linked with work, health or education to avoid dependency and address the long-term causes of food insecurity.
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