Food & Hunger Security or is it Food & Hunger Insecurity?
In 2014 around 805 million people – about one in nine of the world’s population – were chronically undernourished. The vast majority (98 percent) lived in developing countries.
Some regions of the world are particularly at risk: in Sub-Saharan Africa, for example, more than one in four people were undernourished in 2014. Malnutrition increases the risk of disease and mortality, especially child mortality.
Food security and insecurity
Food security is having year-round access to nutritious, affordable and sustainable food for an active and healthy lifestyle.However, as the statistics above show, not everyone in the world enjoys secure access to food. The factors that can cause food insecurity are often multiple and interrelated, including:
Food Sovereignty
Food sovereignty as the list of issues above shows, the term 'food insecurity' does not always capture the complex factors that hinder people's access to nutrition. Proper nutrition is not always simply about access to food. It is also about economic, social and political participation. It is about systems of food production and distribution as much as farming techniques. It is about actions taken in the developed world as much as about issues experienced in the developing world. 'Food sovereignty' is a concept we use to ensure that our work covers these wider issues that impact on people's food security.
Food sovereignty covers both the right to food and the right of people and communities to have a say in the sources of their food. It's not just about having enough food, it's also about access resources such as land, water, seeds and biodiversity, as well as having a voice in the food economy.
Supporting food sovereignty doesn’t just mean standing up for a community’s right to food, but also their right to participate in and control their food production.
Food Scarcity - What is it?
“One of the reasons we talk about food scarcity and world hunger is that we recognize there are countries of the world, even today – where people for whatever reasons, cannot provide for themselves,” said Dennis Conley, professor of agricultural economics at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.
A shortage of food may happen when not enough food is produced, such as when crops fail due to drought, pests, or too much moisture. But the problem can also result from the uneven distribution of natural resource endowment for a country, and by human institutions, such as government and public policy, he said.
Food - calories and distribution
Food scarcity may exist at an individual level, a city level, state level, nation level, continent level, or even a global level, Conley said.
The World Trade Organization estimates that if total calories from all the food produced were divided among all the people on earth, there would be 2,750 calories per person per day. Since the recommended daily minimum per person is 2,100 calories a day, there are enough calories to feed everyone in the world. But not everyone is getting the need calories and food because it’s “not evenly distributed across the landscape of the world,” Conley said.
In 2014 around 805 million people – about one in nine of the world’s population – were chronically undernourished. The vast majority (98 percent) lived in developing countries.
Some regions of the world are particularly at risk: in Sub-Saharan Africa, for example, more than one in four people were undernourished in 2014. Malnutrition increases the risk of disease and mortality, especially child mortality.
Food security and insecurity
Food security is having year-round access to nutritious, affordable and sustainable food for an active and healthy lifestyle.However, as the statistics above show, not everyone in the world enjoys secure access to food. The factors that can cause food insecurity are often multiple and interrelated, including:
- The ‘financialisation’ of food
- Market dominance of multinational agribusinesses and exporters
- Access to farming land
- Land 'grabbing'
- Biofuels
- Natural disasters and climate change
- Conflict
- Unfair trade rules
- Food wastage
Food Sovereignty
Food sovereignty as the list of issues above shows, the term 'food insecurity' does not always capture the complex factors that hinder people's access to nutrition. Proper nutrition is not always simply about access to food. It is also about economic, social and political participation. It is about systems of food production and distribution as much as farming techniques. It is about actions taken in the developed world as much as about issues experienced in the developing world. 'Food sovereignty' is a concept we use to ensure that our work covers these wider issues that impact on people's food security.
Food sovereignty covers both the right to food and the right of people and communities to have a say in the sources of their food. It's not just about having enough food, it's also about access resources such as land, water, seeds and biodiversity, as well as having a voice in the food economy.
Supporting food sovereignty doesn’t just mean standing up for a community’s right to food, but also their right to participate in and control their food production.
Food Scarcity - What is it?
“One of the reasons we talk about food scarcity and world hunger is that we recognize there are countries of the world, even today – where people for whatever reasons, cannot provide for themselves,” said Dennis Conley, professor of agricultural economics at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.
A shortage of food may happen when not enough food is produced, such as when crops fail due to drought, pests, or too much moisture. But the problem can also result from the uneven distribution of natural resource endowment for a country, and by human institutions, such as government and public policy, he said.
Food - calories and distribution
Food scarcity may exist at an individual level, a city level, state level, nation level, continent level, or even a global level, Conley said.
The World Trade Organization estimates that if total calories from all the food produced were divided among all the people on earth, there would be 2,750 calories per person per day. Since the recommended daily minimum per person is 2,100 calories a day, there are enough calories to feed everyone in the world. But not everyone is getting the need calories and food because it’s “not evenly distributed across the landscape of the world,” Conley said.