Food Security : A Human Right And An Important Determinant Of Health

While most people know that eating well is important to staying healthy and for prolonging life, poverty makes it difficult to access good nutritious food. Easy access to abundant food is not

Approximately 13.6 people live in these areas, and are suffering from food insecurity (Wright, Donley, Gualtieri, & Strickhouser, 2016). Food insecurity is when there is still food available, but the problem is that the food available is not nutritionally capable of supporting a healthy diet and is still overpriced (Wright et al,

Food insecurity causes health issues such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and early mortality among young single mothers. According to author Christine A. Stevens young single mothers are affected by food insecurity in two ways “first, the stress of food insecurity can lead to compounding issues of depression for this mother, second, food choice.” Factors that assist these problems are socioeconomic status and the ability to obtain adequate nutrition. These young single mothers do not have enough money to give nutritional food to their families. With limited money they do not have a choice for nutritional food and according to Stevens are forced to buy “inexpensive, high fat, high carbohydrates food” (Stevens 163). In

Food security is a factor that is often a risk for indigenous groups as many groups fall into a bracket that holds 5% of the population that have food security issues.[8] Proper nutrition is vital for good health and wellbeing as well as a better quality of life. Therefore, it is imperative that proper nutrition through foods is readily available to the entire population. If the food security situation continues to worsen then there will be an increasing number of health issues that arise throughout the indigenous community continuously.

Food security has three core components. These are food availability, accessibility and use of food (FAO, 2015, Welsh, 1998). 12.5% of household in Canada are suffering from food insecurity (Boddy and Roblin, 2017). Food insecurity is higher in immigrants compare to the Canadians (Health Canada, 2012, Welsh, 1998, Toronto Food Policy Council, 2013). Moreover, the food desert is another factor of food security where there is a lack of access to the food stores, fruit, and vegetables (Center for Disease control, 2012). Ethnic vegetables play an important role in the food security and nutrition of the South Asian immigrants (Quadir and Danesh,

As the world is becoming more industrialized, processed foods are becoming cheaper and easier to purchase. This shift in natural food availability is becoming a growing health concern for people around the world; however, Canadian aboriginal communities are feeling greater negative effects of food insecurity (FI). When people in a community do not have “physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life”, they are considered food insecure (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, 1998). While FI affects the health of all Canadians, the Aboriginal Peoples have been reported to have consistently lower health than other Canadians due to the extreme

World Food Summit defines food security as: “Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life”. (World Food Summit, 1996) On the contrary, the food insecurity means the situation people who are lack of food or nutrition. A person who lives in such situation for a very long time cannot access enough nutritious food to be healthy. Additionally, food insecurity can be chronic, seasonal or transitory (FAO, 2000). At present, the

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (2012), defines food security as “when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life” (para. 1). The human right to have access to food is fundamental. There are many meal assistance services within Australia that aim to improve food security and fight hunger. FairShare is a food charity organisation that rescues and accepts donated food to cook nutritious meals each week for those in need. FairShare’s vision is “a society where food is not wasted and hunger is minimised” (FairShare, 2014).

Record-high levels of food inequality are being felt most prominently in the world's cities. Since the year 2000, New York City food costs have increased by 59 percent, while the average income of working adults has only increased by 17 percent. (Breggin 1) rising food costs and lack of food availability in urban areas has created effects that are felt by millions of people around the world. The USDA defines Food insecurity as a household-level economic and social condition of limited or uncertain access to adequate food, and it is plaguing our nation. Characterized by inability to find healthy food and not having enough to sustain a household are problems that an estimated 12.3 % of American households experience regularly (USDA 1).chart food sec..png

Food insecurity refers to “the lack of adequate, nutritious, and safe foods, typically due to financial resource constraints” (Bickel, et al. 43). Food insecurity is not associated with the overall diet quality. Envision not knowing when or where the next meal will be coming from. “Improving household food security is a chance for society to help enhance the outcome of families that struggle with food insecurities.”

Food and nutrition monitoring activities would execute specific focus group food activities and measuring prevalence of food security amongst Aboriginal and Torres Islander population. Alternative factors of importance that affect food access and supply are the methods of assessing the various determinants of food security, which can lead to improving food availability and access. Some examples of such methods and programs that record the food access and supply related factors

United Nations (1974) defined ‘Food Security’ as availability at all times of adequate world food supplies of basic foodstuffs to sustain a steady expansion of food consumption and to offset fluctuations in production and prices. Food insecurity means insufficient food, experiencing hunger due to food shortage and being unable to afford more, eating poor diet quality due to limited food options. Insufficient, unreliable or low quality food intake leads to ill health and poor nutrition and hence food security is very important for everyone. While Australia is considered as ‘food secured’ this is not the case amongst disadvantaged and low income groups. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2008) mentioned that in 2004-05, 24% of Indigenous Australians aged 15 years and over reported that they ran out of food in the last twelve

Scientists continually study the issue of food wasting in America. It can have implications for both the environment and global food security. Food loss is usually considered unfit for human consumption. Meaning there is a decrease in the food’s quality and quantity (Parfitt et. al., 2010). Food Policy should help eradicate extreme poverty and malnutrition (Hanjra et al., 2010). By doing so, it would help reach humane goals our country has set in place, which in turn serves humanity in a positive way. Food security and health are often intertwined. People need the basic nutritional components of a healthy diet to survive (Godfray et al., 2010). Today, people still don’t have the access to the sufficient food while others are over-fed. New research gives us more reasons to clean our plates.

The underprivileged rely on food banks for nourishment, but to prevent cardiovascular disease it’s suggested that everyone has five to ten servings of fruits and vegetables which aren't widely available in such places. In developing countries, poorer socioeconomic groups have higher rates of risk factors, and higher occurrences of disease and high mortality rates. In developing countries as the cardiovascular disease epidemic matures the load will modify to the lower socioeconomic groups.

Food security is historically defined as the overall regional, national as well as global food supply and shortfalls in supply as associated to requirements (Foster, 1992). The same author contended that, even though, the increased observation of differences in the sufficiency of food intake by certain groups despite overall adequacy of supply, the term has been applied recently at a local, household, or individual level and it has been widened beyond notions of food supply to include elements of access (Sen, 1981), vulnerability (Watts and Bohle, 1993), and sustainability (Chambers, 1989). Different organizations, scholars and institutions define food security differently. However, basic concept remains the same.