BusinessHABFood Security Measures : Food security is a measure of the availability of food and individuals’ ability to access it.
Food security is defined as meaning that all people, at all times, have physical, social, and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food.
That meets their food preferences and dietary needs for an active and healthy life.
The availability of food irrespective of class, gender or region is another one.
There is evidence of food security being a concern many thousands of years ago.
With central authorities in ancient Egypt being known to release food from storage in times of famine.
Also, food security” is define with an emphasis on supply.
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Food Security Measures
Food security is defined as the “availability at all times of adequate.
Nourishing, diverse, balanced and moderate world food supplies of basic foodstuffs.
To sustain a steady expansion of food consumption and to offset fluctuations in production and prices”.
Later definitions added demand and access issues to the definition.
The first World Food Summit, held in 1996, stated that food security “exists when 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.
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Food Security Measures
Similarly, household food security is considered to exist when all members, at all times, have access to enough food for an active, healthy life.
Individuals who are food secure do not live in hunger or fear of starvation.
Food security incorporates a measure of resilience to future disruption.
Or unavailability of critical food supply due to various risk factors.
Including droughts, shipping disruptions, fuel shortages, economic instability, and wars.
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Food Security Measures
The Food and Agriculture Organization identified the four pillars of food security as availability, access, utilization, and stability.
The World Summit on Food Security declared that “food should not be used as an instrument for political and economic pressure”.
Since multiple different international agreements and mechanisms have been developed to address food security.
The main global policy to reduce hunger and poverty is in the Sustainable Development Goals.
In particular Goal 2: Zero Hunger sets globally agreed on targets to end hunger.
Achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture by 2030.
Food Security Measurement
Food security can be measured by calories to digest out to intake per person per day, available on a household budget.
In general, the objective of food security indicators and measurements is to capture some or all of the main components of food security in terms of food availability, accessibility, and utilization/adequacy.
While availability (production and supply) and utilization/adequacy (nutritional status/anthropometric measurement) are easier to estimate and, therefore, more popular, accessibility (the ability to acquire the sufficient quantity and quality of food) remains largely elusive.
The factors influencing household food accessibility are often context-specific.
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Food Security Measures
Several measurements have been developed to capture the access component of food security.
With some notable examples developed by the USAID-funded Food and Nutrition Technical Assistance (FANTA) project.
Collaborating with Cornell and Tufts University and Africare and World Vision.
These include:
- Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) – continuously measures the degree of food insecurity (inaccessibility) in the household in the previous month
- Household Dietary Diversity Scale (HDDS) – measures the number of different food groups consumed over a specific reference period (24hrs/48hrs/7days).
- Household Hunger Scale (HHS)- measures the experience of household food deprivation based on a set of predictable reactions, captured through a survey and summarized in a scale.
- Coping Strategies Index (CSI) – assesses household behaviors and rates them based on a set of varied established behaviors on how households cope with food shortages. The methodology for this research is based on collecting data on a single question: “What do you do when you do not have enough food, and do not have enough money to buy food?”
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Food Security Measures
Food insecurity is measured in the Country by questions in the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey.
The questions asked are about anxiety that the household budget is inadequate to buy enough food.
Inadequacy in the quantity or quality of food eaten by adults and children in the household.
And instances of reduced food intake or consequences of reduced food intake for adults and for children.
A National Academy of Sciences study commissioned by the USDA criticized this measurement and the relationship of “food security” to hunger.
Adding “it is not clear whether hunger is appropriately identified as the extreme end of the food security scale.
Food Security Measures
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the Nations (FAO).
The World Food Programme (WFP), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
The World Health Organization (WHO), and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) collaborate every year to produce The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World, or SOFI report (known as The State of Food Insecurity in the World).
Food Security Measures
The SOFI report measures hunger (or undernourishment) by means of two main indicators.
The Number of undernourished (NoU) and the Prevalence of undernourishment (PoU).
Beginning in the early 2010s, FAO incorporated more complex metrics into its calculations.
Including estimates of food losses in retail distribution for each country and the volatility in agri-food systems.
Food Security Measures
Recent editions of the SOFI report present evidence that the decades-long decline in hunger in the world, as measured by the Number of undernourished (NoU), has ended.
Examples of food insecurity
Famines have been frequent in world history.
Some have killed millions and substantially diminished the population of a large area.
The most common causes have been drought and war, but the greatest famines in history were caused by economic policy.
A variety of reasons lies behind the increase in hunger over the past few years.
Slowdowns and downturns since the 2008-9 financial crisis have conspired to degrade social conditions, making undernourishment more prevalent.
Structural imbalances and a lack of inclusive policies have combined with extreme weather events.
Altered environmental conditions; and the spread of pests and diseases to trigger stubborn cycles of poverty and hunger.
Food Security Measures
Inequality in the distributions of assets, resources and income, compounded by the absence or scarcity of welfare provisions in the poorest countries, are further undermining access to food.
High import and export dependence ratios are meanwhile making many countries more vulnerable to external shocks.
In many low-income economies, debt has swollen to levels far exceeding GDP, eroding growth prospects.
Pillars of food security
The WHO states that there are three pillars that determine food security: food availability, food access, and food use and misuse.
The FAO adds a fourth pillar: the stability of the first three dimensions of food security over time.
In 2009, the World Summit on Food Security stated that the “four pillars of food security are availability, access, utilization, and stability”.
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Global partnerships to achieve food security and end hunger
In April 2012, the Food Assistance Convention was signed, the world’s first legally binding international agreement on food aid.
The May 2012 Copenhagen Consensus recommended that efforts to combat hunger.
And malnutrition should be the first priority for politicians and private sector philanthropists.
Looking to maximize the effectiveness of aid spending.
They put this ahead of other priorities, like the fight against malaria and AIDS.
The main global policy to reduce hunger and poverty are the recently approved Sustainable Development Goals. In particular Goal 2: Zero Hunger sets globally agreed targets to end hunger.
Achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture by 2030.
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A number of organizations have formed initiatives with the more ambitious goal to achieve this outcome in only 10 years, by 2025.
- The States Agency for International Development (USAID) proposes several key steps to increasing agricultural productivity, which is in turn key to increasing rural income and reducing food insecurity.
- They include:
- Boosting agricultural science and technology. Current agricultural yields are insufficient to feed the growing populations. Eventually, the rising agricultural productivity drives economic growth.
- Securing property rights and access to finance
- Enhancing human capital through education and improved health
- Conflict prevention and resolution mechanisms and democracy and governance based on principles of accountability and transparency in public institutions and the rule of law are basic to reducing vulnerable members of society.
There is another food stamp program (now called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) to directly target consumers who lack the income to purchase food.
- Food stamps or other methods of distribution of purchasing power directly to consumers might fit into the range of international programs under consideration to tackle food insecurity.
October 16 has been chosen as World Food Day, in honour of the date FAO was founded in 1945.
On this day, FAO hosts a variety of events at its headquarters in Rome and around the world, as well as seminars with some officials.
Bees and other pollinating insects help sustain food security by contributing to a variety of crops.
And are estimated to improve the food output of some 2 billion small farmers.
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Model
An example of a city that has overcome challenges and achieved improved sustainability practices while immensely decreasing food insecurity is Lisbon.
Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, was awarded as the 2020 European Green Leaf Award Winner for its notable sustainable land use, transport, green growth and eco and waste innovations.
The 2010 to 2014 Portuguese financial crisis, a prominent obstacle for Portugal caused by factors.
Such as the global recession, resulted in increased unemployment rates and reduced household budgets.
As a product, adequate food intake was evidently inhibited.
However, Lisbon demonstrated that sustainability and economic growth can go hand in hand.
Measures were taken place such as the ReFood Movement.
A food waste prevention initiative, and the Municipal Plan Against Food Wastage program.
Conclusion
Finally, the world is facing ever greater threats to institutional stability, protracted violence and mass displacement.
Between 2010 and 2018, the number of displaced people grew by 70 percent to reach 70.8 million.
Most of whom were being hosted in developing countries
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