Global Economy

Table of content

1.0 Definition 2

2.0 Issues and Solutions on Food Security 3

2.1 In the case of the United States 3

2.2 Soil Degradation 5

2.3 The Fishery Sector 7

2.4 Grain issues 8

2.5 Other issues 10

3.0 Possible Solutions 11

4.0 Conclusion 12

5.0 References 13

1.0 Definition

Food security is defined as assured on every member in a household to have economic access at all times to sufficient safe nutritious food for an active diet and healthy life (U.S. Department of Agriculture 2009, FAO 1996). In other words, food security is about the safeguarding of consumable food from exploitation (Jallow 2009). It includes the availability of safe and adequate food and the ability to acquire appropriate foods in socially acceptable manner (e.g. without resorting to emergency food aids or stealing) (U.S. Department of Agriculture 2008). Previously, food security was more focused on food production, price stability, the demand and supply of food until the derivation of the widely accepted definition above during the 1996 World Food Summit (FAO 2006). Recently, world food security has raised concerns from international bodies and issues pertaining to food insecurity include hunger, famine, malnutrition, poverty and food exploitation. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimated that US $83 billion is required to expand world agricultural output to cater a 9.1 billion world population by 2050 (FAO 2009). It is recorded that around 850 million people are undernourished worldwide (FAO 2006). Though a significant issue, there are still a lot of governments, particularly in Asia and Africa that do not develop explicit and holistic policies on food security. With merely six years remaining to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), having the first goal to halve the number of people living in hunger by 2015, countries are seen far behind in achieving this target, causing a pandemic fear on future food security (Mukherjee 2008).

Source: FAO (2006)

Based on FAO's findings (2006), the number of countries facing food emergencies is increasing in an average of more than 30 per year since 2000 (See figure 1).

2.0 Issues and Solutions on Food Security

Among the main reasons people suffer food insecurity include poverty, climate change (e.g. global warming causing higher temperature, frequent extreme weather changes such as the recent typhoon in the Philippines and droughts in Australia.), pollution, rural community disintegration, lack of agriculture incentives, rapid population growth, suburban developments (especially in China) and more factors which are to be discussed below.

2.1 In the case of the United States

Poverty is a major cause of food insecurity, not only in third world nations but also in developed countries like the United States. A survey conducted in 2007 revealed that 11.1% of households in the United States are in the stake of being food insecure (See Figure 2). The lower-income community made up a large proportion of these households and poverty was the main reason of this scenario (Nord, Andrews and Carlson 2007).

Source: Nord, Andrews, and Carlson (2007)

According to Nord, Andrews and Carlson (2007), apart from the food pantries and emergency kitchens founded by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) which responded to food insecurity issues in America, the United States federal government too had provided three main federal food and nutrition assistance programs:

1. The Food Stamp Program (FSP) where 26.5 million United States low-income household benefited in purchasing approved food items at selected stores monthly. Total expenditures for this programme were $33 billion.

2. The National School Lunch Program. Free or subsidized meals were served in 100, 000 public schools and child-care institutions to low-income students which sees 31 million children benefiting in 2007.

3. The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) meanwhile provides grants to support distribution of health supplements, health-care support and nutrition education for low-income pregnant women, infants and children under 5 years old and found to be at nutritional risk. This group of people were entitled to supplement food vouchers at authorized stores. An average 8.3 million participants per month were recorded in 2007.

The food scenario in the United States is not as severe as compared to third world nations that not only faces poverty and famine, but are also lack of expertise, land and technology for agriculture development, which prompted then United States president George W. Bush to offer $770 million with $620 million as direct food aid shipments mainly to African nations and $150 million in long-term projects to help farming in developing countries. However, knowing that direct aid is not sufficient in the long run, United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon addressed that further investments should be made for long-term beneficial in agriculture developments (BBC News 2008).

2.2 Soil Degradation

Around 40% of the world's agriculture land are seriously degraded with Central America and Africa regions seriously affected (Sample 2007). Soil is the capital for agriculture yet erosions were often caused by flooding, deforestation, poor irrigation, intensive farming practices and droughts, leaving soils with lack of carbon nutrients.

The Argentina government had employed soil experts from Italy to work with native food crops to restore the micro-region's carbon amounts in soil quality through a slowly-planned process of re-vegetation. A recent report by Meribe (2009) posit that soil carbon sequestration technology would increase the levels of organic matter in soil, increase water retention capacity for higher yielding which benefits food security as a whole. The project is currently on-going with crops growing at a slow pace but at least soil degradation