Food security

Food security is a term used in development and humanitarian aid. It does not have one agreed definition; but is often used broadly to mean a situation in which people have continuity of food supply, or the methods by which this aim is achieved. Around 828 million men, women and children are chronically hungry while 2 billion people lack food security because of poverty (source: FAO, 1998).

World Food Production

Today 370 kg of cereals (carbohydrate sources) per person are harvested versus 275 kg in the mid-20th century, which is a per capita gain of more than a 33%. Other crops (protein and vitamin sources) gained 20% since the early 1960s. Globally there is enough food (in the form of cereals) to take up 3500 kcal/day/per person. A famous quote in this respect is therefore: "The true source of world hunger is not scarcity but policy; not inevitability but politics.? (Peter Rosset, Executive Director of Food First). The four most important reasons of food scarcity are stated as (Singer, 1997):

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• National deficit, political and social instability resulting in deteriorating terms of trade
• More cash crops are harvested than food crops due to agricultural globalisation. In this case, cash crops are crops planted in the (sub)tropics for sale in the North. Cash crops require more surface, and thus more fertilizer and pesticides, and the general effect of this is that smaller farmers have to fight for every square kilometer.
• Population increase. Farmer families tend to have more children to work on the field. Children are an investment (sexual contraception methods are not even considered). The problem arises when those children move to the cities to leave their poor lives behind. In general, they meet even more poverty.
• Subsidies and food donations (giving away excess food) generally undermine local economy. Prices of the same or comparable local crops will drop, giving local farmers less money.