Objective 2: To understand what it means to be food secure

Materials

Country Case Studies:

• Asia
• Latin America and the Caribbean
• Near East and North Africa
• West Africa

Concept: To be food-secure means to have access at all times to the food we need for an active and healthy life

Content:

• Food security is defined as access by all people at all times to enough nutritionally adequate and safe food (quality, quantity and variety) for an active and healthy life
• We must create the conditions in which all people can secure the food they need and be well nourished in a dignified and sustainable way.
• Food security is affected by a number of factor including, primarily, the food supply and access to jobs and such basic services as education, health facilities, sanitation, clean water and safe housing.
• Poverty, social inequality and lack of education are primary causes of hunger and malnutrition and are major obstacles to obtaining food security.

Concept: Food security has three fundamental pillars: availability, accessibility and use of food

Content

• Although the global supply of food has increased, the global population continues to grow at a rapid rate. To keep pace, food security for all can only be achieved by producing more food.
• Food security, however, cannot be ensured solely by producing more food. If, for example, people cannot afford the food that is available, if their diets lack essential vitamins and minerals or if poor handling during processing and distribution makes their food unsafe to eat, they will not have food security.
• To have food security depends on three pillars, or legs of support:
  
  
  • Food must be Available, meaning that adequate amounts of good-quality, safe food must be produced or imported at the national and local levels.
  • Food must be Accessible, meaning that it must be distributed and available locally and it must be affordable to all people.
  • Food must be Used in the best way possible for each person to be healthy and well nourished (sufficient in quantity, quality and variety for each individual's needs).
  
  
• To achieve national food security, a country must be able to produce or import the food it needs, and be able to store it, distribute it and ensure equitable access to it.
• For families to achieve food security, they must have the means to produce or purchase the food that they need and they must have the time and knowledge to ensure that the nutritional needs of all family members are met.
• Building on an understanding of the complexity of the food system, students can analyse specific situations faced by countries in order to determine whether existing hunger issues relate to availability, accessibility or use of food. Understanding the associated factors is a first step in developing solutions.
• Valuable lessons can be learned by looking at the countries that have been able to reduce hunger and by contrasting their situations with those of countries that have declined in nutritional status. Contrasting the situations and looking for patterns can illustrate the factors that contribute to the problems and solutions of hunger around the world. Case studies of countries with declining and increasing problems with hunger are given in the fact sheets.

Activities

• Discuss how conditions are vastly different from one place to another, and how certain combinations of situations create problems of food security. By analysing countries with varying degrees of change in their food security, status and contrasting the situations that exist in each country, trends can be identified that indicate the future of food security in each country.
• Case studies are provided that contrast past and present conditions in selected countries where changes in hunger and food security have taken place over the past few decades. The case studies are presented in pairs, by region, contrasting a country that has made an impact on hunger with a country that has faced setbacks in feeding its people. Assign individual students or groups of students to read one pair of case studies, or discuss selected cases in class as a group discussion. With input from the teacher, as appropriate, have students consider the factors causing the current situation related to hunger in each country. Have students discuss the conditions related to hunger in terms of availability, accessibility and use of food.
• Building on the discussion of the food system, discuss how a similar case study would apply to their local situation.

Summary

Our goal is to be sure that all people are food-secure. Getting our food involves many steps. We must understand where our food originates in order to make the right decisions about how to feed everyone in the world. Lesson 2 illustrated the complexity of food systems to explain the many reasons that people may be hungry, and explored the pillars of food security. After completion of Lesson 2, students should be able to list:

• The steps in the food supply system.
• For each step in the food supply system, factors that can put people at risk of hunger and food insecurity.
• The three pillars of food security.
• Factors that lead to either an improvement or a worsening of food security as shown in the case studies.

We can work together to reduce hunger. Lesson 3 will explore what we can each do to help reduce hunger in our world.

To join the Feeding Minds Fighting Hunger interactive Forum, click HERE.