Global Food Security

The Challenge of Feeding the World

Learning Outcomes:

The students are expected to:

 Discuss the meaning of global food security and its

four pillars
 Critique key trends in global food security
 Propose concrete actions to address problems and
challenges on global food security

Introduction
Global food security has become one of the challenges of
the 21st century.
 increase of global food prices
 vulnerability of food systems to a number of
demographic, socio-economic, environmental and
policy-related factors.
 population – food supply – insecurity
palay – ulan/bumagyo

An Evolving Concept of Food Security

■The prevalence of food insecurity is manifested by the

presence of hunger and malnourishment.

Starbucks – global divide

pagpasok – well-fed –
labas – bata/matanda – namamalimos

■Food security is associated with the availability of food at the

local, national and global levels (McDonald, 2010).
■1974 UN World Food Conference defined food security as the
‘availability at all times of adequate world food supplies of
basic foodstuffs to sustain a steady expansion of food
consumption and to offset fluctuations in production and
prices'
- adequate – just enough/sufficient (doesn’t have to be
excessive)
- sustained – not hampered /not barred/
x buffet double rice x over-fed

Paradigm Shifts
■ Maxwell (1996) mentioned that in subsequent decades, three
distinct paradigm shifts took place to significantly influence the
food security discourse and international agenda.

FIRST Paradigm Shift - limited focus -

availability/supply
 the academic and policy discourse on food security
witnessed a shift away from the rather limiting focus on
 food availability and supply as the core concerns of food
security.
 availability - as long as food is available – then there is
food security

Second Paradigm Shift – livelihood security

 highlighted the importance of livelihood security as a key
household priority and component of food security, shaping
decisions around whether or not to go hungry in the short
term.
 it is not enough that we have foods = availability is not
enough
 daily supply - long term security - sustain
 food availability - livelihood
 THIRD Paradigm Shift- access to preferable food

 A shift away from a purely calorie-counting approach to

food security, to one that incorporates subjective measures
of what it means to be food-secure, including access to
food that is preferable (Maxwell, 1988,1996:158-60.)

MEAL PLAN – bf, snacks, lunch, snacks, dinner – 1500

number of calories

 Meal plan? 1500/day = quantitative approach

 SHIFTED TO QUALITATIVE/SUBJECTIVE
APPROACH = qualitative approach  understanding what
your body prefers

protein

NEW DEF’N – third paradigm shifts

 Food security 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 (FAO, 2002).
 STANDARDIZING DIET – SUBJECTIVE – WHAT
DOES YOUR BODY NEED
 Four Pillars of Food Security

Four key pillars of

Food Security
Availability

Utilization

Stability
Access

availability – resources exist – supply-

accessibility – get hold of it WHEN NEEDED –
utilization – distributed properly / used –
stability – long-term – emergencies – not subject to
whims/abuse by the gov’t – reliability
 Global Food Security- Key Trends

A. Rising Food Prices and Poverty

• In the mid 2000’s, global food prices began to climb.

• The prices of key staples such as wheat, rice, maize, and soy
bean as well as edible oils all soared.
• The impact of food prices spikes has been most devastating
to those who are in the poverty level.

150-160pesos manok

10pesos/day

poverty level – 10pesos – allotted water / soap

• The growth of the world population is proportionate to the
demand for food and rising incomes and growing per capita food
consumption.
 B. Population Growth and Urbanization

• The increase of demands for food comes from developing

countries in Asia and Africa.
• The demographic trends in Asia have serious implications
for food systems in the region and elsewhere.
 India and China, for example, are the fastest growing
countries in the Asian region.
• As the youth move from rural areas to urban areas to look for
better livelihoods, there are fewer people of working age left
behind to produce the growing quantities of food required to
meet rising demand in urban areas.
• The mass movement of people from rural to urban areas has
also been accompanied by a rapid and ongoing expansion of
cities and slums in parts of Asia.
• Slums are characterized by lack of access to clean drinking
water, inadequate sanitation and waste disposal mechanism,
making resident population highly vulnerable to quick-spreading
diseases and chronic food insecurity (CISS, 2013).
 C. Rising Incomes and Changing Diets
• As incomes in developing countries continue to grow, more
and more people are able to access food in greater quantities.
• There is a substitution phase in which the cereals are
replaced by more energy-rich foods such as meat and those with
a high concentration of vegetable oils and sugar.
• Global consumption of meat increased by around 62 per cent
between 1963 and 2005.
• Much of the growth of meat consumption took place in Asia
in general and in China in particular.
• However, not all developing countries have experienced this
phenomenon of nutrition transition equally.
• In India, for example, the consumption of meat continues to
lag behind when compared to Brazil and China for people at
similar income levels.
 D. Bio-fuel Production, Land Use Change and
Access to Land
• The global surge in bio-fuel production was triggered in
2004-2005.
• It happened when the United States and the European Union
adopted a number of policies and incentives to boost bio-fuel
consumption (USAID, 2009).
• Biofuels are seen to be significant in reducing dependence of
fossil fuels in a number of countries around the globe.
• First generation biofuels are produced from plant starch, oils,
animal fats and sugars.
 Bio-ethanol, for example, is produced from food crops
such as sugarcane, maize, wheat, sugar beets and sweet
sorghum, and is currently the most widely used form of
biofuel.
 ph - access to land
 E. Climate Change
• Climate change affects all four dimensions of food security:
food availability, food accessibility, food utilization, and food
systems stability.

AAUS

• Agriculture is highly-sensitive to climate, and food

production is affected directly by variations in agro-ecological
conditions for growing crops.
• Overall studies show that the impacts of climate change will
be mixed and uneven across regions.
• For countries located at lower latitudes, the productivity of
major crops like rice, wheat, and maize, is projected to drop with
just small increases in local average temperature. This is
particularly the case for countries that are located in seasonally
dry and tropical regions.
• Climate change will bring the developing countries ‘high
costs and few benefits’ (Stern, 2006:vii).
• Both sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, with the highest
levels of hunger and malnourishment worldwide, are set to
suffer from the negative impacts of climate change on crop
production.
ACTIONS TO ADDRESS PROBLEMS AND CHALLENGES ON
GLOBAL FOOD SECURITY

1. Reduce food waste – equal utilization/distribution

2. Improve existing infrastructural programs-
- transportation
- tomatoes –
- market
3. Improve trade policies
- foreigners / big family corporation
- farmers – education/ inform / equip
- include all people – expand trading system
4. Promote diversification
- other sources -
5. Work to defeat climate change
- to avoid gap time
- maulan – affect food production
- ways – land management
6. agricultural training
- farmers
- citizens - control our nutrition