The Importance Of Food Security

Feeding a world population that is projected to increase by over 2 billion, will be a challenge when there is an extreme amount of food loss and waste occurring daily. Most of the consumers in the world are unaware that “roughly one third of the food produced in the world for human consumption” is wasted (FAO). If food loss and waste was substantially decreased, the amount of available food would significantly increase. Global food loss and waste per year are roughly “30% for cereals, 40-50% for root crops, fruits and vegetables, 20% for oil seeds, meat and dairy plus 35% for fish” (Megatrends in Food). By creating limits on food waste, the top contributors such as North America, Europe, Asia, and Latin America would create a more efficient transportation system to deliver produce quickly, increase shelf life, and reuse food waste. Creating a more efficient transportation system, will allow produce to arrive at the desired destination faster which will increase the products’ shelf life. This will create less food loss from spoiling on the transportation vehicles or on store’s shelves. Another important factor is reusing

There is enough food waste in America to fill up 730 football stadiums. Yet, ironically there were almost 50 million people who live in households that are food-insecure in 2013. Thus, it is critically important to help reduce (or at the very least reevaluate) the amount of food that is wasted so it can be used to help those who can’t always afford it, or, help to reduce the impact of methane released by landfills, or, help to use less resources gone into making the produce.

From farm to table getting our food and produce to the consumer is a tricky task. Even with all the planning millions of food ends up wasted a year. Many steps are already taken to reduce the amount of food being wasted but are they enough? In America alone 200 to 250 pounds is wasted per person per year! According the world resources institute “32 percent of the world’s food was never consumed in 2009”.

Our future goals are to provide the society with a sustainable source of food. We hope to provide and educate everyone with a modern way of farming. Our project hopes to bring down the food desserts, and start a domino effect of positive outcomes, and result in healthy and prepared to go into their future. Not only does our project have a direct effect on individual’s health and energy levels, but it will revolutionize urban

When asked the question "who in the United states is food-insecure?" one must first answer the question of what it means to have food security in America. Food security is defined by Edelstein (2010) as "assured access at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life, as well as access to enough food that is safe, nutritious, and acquired in a socially acceptable way." (pg. 71). Hunger would then be considered the absence of food. According to statistics by the Feeding America Organization, in 2014 they reported that 48.1 million Americans where considered to be food-insecure, with 32.8 of them being adults while 15.3 were children (2014). I believe that is also important to characterize where exactly Americans are more likely to be in this category. These same statistics also showed that there was a correlation of region when it came to Americans being more food-insecure. This region was shown to be the southern states of the US, as states like Texas, Kentucky and Louisiana all were in the top

Food insecurity, or the lack of access to enough food for all members of a household, is something that exists in every part of America. In fact, some 49 million Americans struggle to provide regular meals for their families. This isn't due to lack of food available as it might be in more improvised countries. No, in the land of plenty, it is instead due to a prevalence of poverty, resulting in the inability for many families to afford to purchase the available food. One Virginia church witnessed this need in their community and decided to do something about the problem.

When tackling the subject of food insecurity, uncertainty is the key notion. Many of us live our lives fleeing from the term; however, some Americans know this awareness as their existence. Food insecurity simply means the lack of the ability to provide food and sustain a healthy lifestyle. The USDA explains, “It is a household-level economic and social condition of limited or uncertain access to adequate food;” adequate food being the key word. The USDA further goes on to categorize it into two sub categories; low and very low food security. “Low food security” is explained as “reduced quality, variety of diet; little or no indication of reduced food intake.” “Very low food security is multiple indications of disrupted eating patterns

There are billions of people struggling every day to have enough to eat, and billions of tons of food being tossed in the garbage, food waste is gaining increasing awareness as a serious environmental and economic issue. Research shows that about 60 million metric tons of food is wasted a year in the United States, with an estimated value of $162 billion. About 32 million tons of it end up in landfills, at a cost of about $1.5 billion a year to local government this economic crisis is worldwide! My research estimates that a third of all the food produced in the world is never consumed, and the total cost of that food waste could be as high as $400 billion a year. The food discarded by retailers and consumers in the most developed countries would be more than enough to feed all of the world’s hungry people, but it is not just those countries that have problems with food waste, it is also an issue in African countries like South Africa. The problem is expected to grow worse as the world’s population increases, unless actions are taken to reduce the waste. Food waste is not only a social cost, but it contributes to growing environmental problems like global warming, experts say, with the production of food consuming vast quantities of water, fertilizer and land. The fuel that is burned to process, refrigerate and transport it also adds to the environmental cost. Most food waste is thrown away in landfills, where it decomposes and emits methane, a potent greenhouse gas.

As mentioned in Wiskerke’s Urban Food Systems, there are currently enough food to feed 10 billion people at the global scale, and yet 40% of it went to disposal due to harvest and postharvest losses (which includes industrial, commercial, and household wastes). This opens up a larger issues of over purchasing, supermarket’s quality control (in which products that do not match the company’s standard will get thrown away instead of being sold at the store), over production of food at commercial level, and the food expiry date system that cause more waste than safety. These are issues that many

Food security is to have availability to food, whether it be for basic nutritional needs, special dietary needs, for example, lactose-free, or personal preferences. For a household to be considered food secure, the tenants must not be living in hunger.  In recent years land degradation, climate change, global water crisis, and greedy land deals, are the main causes of food insecurity.  From a global report in 2006, there are more overweight people (over one billion) than undernourished people (an estimated 800 million).  There are up to 2 billion people in the world, that have a shortage of food security due to several levels of poverty.  The population increases and people desire new and different foods, even though there is already enough, however, this cannot happen because the requirements needed to do this are not available. This leads to challenges in the world, such as accommodating the growing population with food at all times.

1.3 billion tons of food is wasted every year on the planet, which means that almost half of the food production in the entire world is wasted each year. Food waste appears when food products are being thrown away without having been consumed by anyone. Thus, food wastes can arise directly from the consumer’s house, whenever people forget to eat the food and it starts to rot and they are obliged to throw it, or it may be a result of food losses during the production and transportation processes. In addition, over 30% of the fruits and vegetables in North America are not even displayed in grocery stores because they are not pretty enough. Food waste represents a major issue in today’s world where, inter alia, climate changes are noticeable and

The tragedy of hunger and food insecurity is the vast amount of food waste that takes places all around the country. May it be over production of food for a college or university or buying fresh fruits and veggies and letting them go bad before consumption. In order to combat the ongoing issue of food waste, as it relates directly to hunger, we first need to be informed to what is happening. Wasting food may be a habit that many people do not know they take part in. In all reality how many college students do you think worry about the amount of food they let go to waste after every meal? Not many, that is for sure. Dining halls should monitor how much of a typical food item is used on a daily basis. This is specifically relating to those foods that are offered every day. I know that students do not eat the same exact thing every day, however, this could be a gage as to about how much they should make. If there is a large amount of it that is let over, next time make less and if it runs out or barely lasts for the day, I would recommend making about the same amount in the future. It may also help to give the students a survey to see what they like and what they do not like, and as this data is gathered the food could be produced to meet the wants of the majority. I can also imagine that college dining halls face the dilemma of making sure that everyone that is a vegetarian, gluten free, allergic to certain food, etc. are accommodated for just as well as those that are not.

In July 2013 a report issued by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs[31] warned that with 2.4 billion more people by 2050, the amount of food produced will have to increase by 70%, straining food resources, especially in countries already facing food insecurity due to changing environmental conditions. The mix of changing environmental conditions and the growing population of urban regions, according to UN experts, will strain basic sanitation systems and health care, and potentially cause a humanitarian and environmental

Food insecurity is an ongoing issue all over the world; as of 2012 1 billion people are suffering from starvation and malnutrition. (Sasson, 2012, pg.1, paragraph 1) Why has food insecurity become such a problem not just locally, but globally? Olivier de Schutter, special rapporteur of the United Nations on the right to food says, “If most poor countries are still very vulnerable it is because their food security depends too much on food imports whose process are increasingly high an volatile.” (Sasson, 2012, pg. 3, Hunger: A Global Shame, paragraph 4)

The concept of food security is dynamic, that is continuously incorporated new dimensions and levels of analysis overtime. This ongoing evolution of food security concept indicates the wider recognition of the difficulties of concept in different areas of research and public policy, for the reason that food security issue has long history starting from time when global food crisis take place in the first half of the 1970s (Clay, E. 2002).