Essay on Food Supply

Food security means that all individuals get both economic and physical access to sufficiently nutritious, culturally appropriate, and safe foods at all times. Notably, these foods are often produced in a socially just and environmentally sustainable manner, and that individuals can make sound decisions in their choices about food. Additionally, food security implies that all individuals involved in food production can attain a decent and plausible food production process. Food security significantly centers on access to optimal nutrition and healthy food for all populations. Therefore, global food security would broadly mean the efforts individuals in the food production sectors make to ensure that all global people achieve healthy nutrition. Primary sustainable food systems must always be in place to ascertain that global food security is achieved. The systems include economic vitality, environmental health, and finally, human health and social fairness.

Global food security plays a significant role in ensuring that all populations achieve healthy and nutritious foods that are sustainable. Arguably, food production is the primary step to achieving food security, and the production lies in agricultural activities. Agricultural activities, on the other hand, are more sustainable and significantly rely on land use. The rapid increase in the human population has necessitated the need to improve food production while at the same time balancing the settlement and creating space for land-based agricultural production. Additionally, biodiversity and its conservation come in as a significant challenge to food security systems, and this factor may act as a substantial impediment to global food security. An argument by, Tscharntke et al. (2012) evaluates that there is no direct connection between global food security and global food production. Instead, global food security is guided by several significant indicators. In a further argument, these researchers evaluate adequate global food production; however, the food produced is often insufficient for the growing hungry population who can barely afford it.

These arguments bring us to a question as to whether an improvement to global food security through consumption reduction will be attainable. Consumers promote food security in numerous ways, and responsible consumption of food may help improve food security. There is a continuous increase in the world’s population that demands an increased sustainable food production that must promote sustainability and the health of all people. Notably, food sustainability lies on three pillars: society, ecology, and economy, according to Aiking (2014). Additionally, there is an argument that there is a significant gap between consumption and production, estimated to be 30% that is evidenced in waste food and food for pets. There are estimates that by the year 2050, there will be a 70% increase in demand for world food and a further evaluation that some socioeconomic aspects such as sex and poverty may significantly affect access to food. Well, reducing consumption of food boils down to the roles of consumers in food safety, which centers primarily on their rights to air out their views on procedures for food control. Also, they have a right over the activities and standards adopted by industries and governments to ensure that the food supply has all the features required by consumers.

Food production industries also play a role in ensuring food security by considering the needs of consumers and government regulations for food production. In the production process, industries must comply with the regulations that surround sustainable food production. For instance, food production industries must follow dietary guidelines that ensure safe, healthy, and nutritious food. Additionally, governments also play a role in improving global food security by enacting policies that help ensure that the environment is conserved even in food production processes. According to, Ahteensuu, and Siipi (2016), the nation-states have been considered the primary duty bearers of the necessary changes in food systems. The argument focuses on the significant roles that government heads play to promote food security.

Additionally, the researchers evaluate that food security also centers on an ethical dimension where states have the powers to protect food security for their citizens. Further, states must engage in policies and strategies to ensure that citizens have access to sources and means that would ascertain plausible livelihood and food security. Arguably, the government plays no role in physically feeding its citizens; however, it plays a role in providing conditions that would enable all people to feed themselves in their various households. Therefore, governments must ensure food security at community and household levels by promoting food sustainability and safety. Besides, an evaluation by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2020) notes that there has been progress in food security with high prevalence in child stiltedness in Africa or Asia.

In conclusion, all these findings evaluate that food security relies on numerous indicators, and the attempts to improve food security globally may not be based on consumer factors. Every nation plays a role in shaping the approaches of nutrition at various levels based on the ease of access concerning the income levels of every state. Therefore, reducing food consumption may not be an effective strategy to improve global food security, and achieving it may be less possible. Alternatively, certain consumer aspects such as the right to healthy nutrition, which is culturally accepted, the ability of an individual to consume what is right in their perspective also stand in like a fortress for promoting global food security,

References

Tscharntke, T., Clough, Y., Wanger, T. C., Jackson, L., Motzke, I., Perfecto, I., … & Whitbread, A. (2012). Global food security, biodiversity conservation and the future of agricultural intensification. Biological conservation, 151(1), 53-59.

Aiking, H. (2014). Protein production: planet, profit, plus people?. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 100(suppl_1), 483S-489S.

Ahteensuu, M., & Siipi, H. (2016). Food security and ethics. In The Routledge Handbook of Food Ethics (pp. 425-434). Routledge.

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, (2020). THE STATE OF FOOD SECURITY AND NUTRITION IN THE WORLD. Transforming food systems for affordable healthy diets