GLOBAL FOOD SECURITY

Introduction
For centuries food security was interpreted as the possibility of providing food
produced in a given country in full or in the majority to satisfy the demands of all inhabitants.
This meaning of food security has changed, along with development of trade and
international specialty. The rapid growth in the worldwide food production and free
international trade has enabled the countries with disadvantageous conditions to purchase
the necessary food from other markets. Access to food depended on incomes, and not
national production. Financial security prevailed over food security. This perspective was
influenced by economists who wanted to treat food and agrarian products just like other
goods, and make the volume and structure of domestic food production subordinate to
market regulations and the comparative costs rule.
Food security may be achieved only with the simultaneous provision of economic
and social security, as well as maintenance of domestic production at a level ensuring food
accessibility and foreign trade or food reserves and the correct functioning and processing
and distribution. Food security results mainly from systematic and institutional solutions in
the fields of politics, economy and society.

Learning Outcomes

1. Define global food security

2. Know the importance of global food security
3. Enumerate the five components of food security and the different ways to improve global
food security
4. Identify some problems and main threats to food security
5. Critique existing models of global food security

Content
Food Security refers to conditions in which “all people”, at all times, have physical and
economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food
preference for an active and healthy life. (FAO, 1996)
Importance of Global Food Security
Growth in the agriculture sector has been found, on average, to be at least twice as
effective in reducing poverty as growth on other sectors. Food security often rooted in poverty –
decreases the ability of countries to develop their agricultural markets and economies.
Access to quality, nutritious food is fundamental to human existence. Secure access to
food can produce wide ranging positive impacts, including:
1. Economic growth and job creation
2. Poverty reduction
3. Trade opportunities
4. Increased global security and stability
5. Improved health and healthcare
5 Components of Food Security
1. Availability of food
2. Access to food
3. Utilization of food
4. Stability
5. Malnutrition
5 Ways to Improve Global Food Security
 1. Close the yield gap
2. Use fertilizer more effectively
3. Raise low water productivity
4. Target food for direct consumption
5. Reduce food waste
Biggest threats to food security
The main threats to food security are:
1. World population growth
2. The increase demand for food
3. Food price
4. The disappearance of the variety of agricultural plant species
5. The increase in the area of scarcity of water and the limitation of the availability of
land
6. The food losses and food waste

Existing Models of Global Food Security

Contemporary models in use for long-run projections of agriculture and the food system can be
classified into two broad categories:
a.) Economy- wide compatible general equilibrium (CGE) models
b.) Partial equilibrium (PE) multi-market models that focus only on agricultural sectors

CGE models consider all production sectors in an economy simultaneously and take full
account of macroeconomic constraints, and inter sectorial linkages. With respect to the
representation of the food system, their strength is that they include the entire value chain from
agricultural production to food processing and distribution and finally to food consumption
households.
In contrast, PE models focus on just one aspect of the value chain – unprocessed or first
stage processed agricultural products – and ignore macroeconomic constraints and linkages
between agricultural production and aggregate income. This limits the domain of applicability of
these partial analytic models to scenarios in which the feedback effects of shocks to agriculture
on aggregate income are small. On the other hand, PE models support a more detailed
commodity disaggregation than CGE models and a finer spatial resolution on the supply side.

Recommended learning materials and resources for supplementary reading.

Flexible Teaching Learning Modality (FTLM) adopted
Online (synchronous) - SeDi LMS
Remote (asynchronous) - Module

References
Claudio, Lisandro E. et al. 2018. The Contemporary World, C & E Publishing Inc.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.goo>book
https://caes.ucdavis.edu>2017/05
https://www.treehugger.com>5ways

Prepared by :
Cheryl Camero