Food Security (AQA A Level Geography)

Food Security & Strategies

What is Food Security?

• Refers to humans’ ability to access a diet of sufficient quantity and quality to meet their daily health needs and lead an active life

• To assess food security, various dimensions should be considered

  • Peoples’ physical availability of food

  • Peoples’ physical and economic access to food

  • The quality of the available food and how it is stored and prepared

• Large spatial variations exist in food security

  • North America, Europe, Japan and Australasia are the regions considered most food secure

  • The greatest risk of food insecurity is in sub-Saharan Africa, Afghanistan and Haiti

• Climate change and growing population is increasing the risk to food security in many regions of the world

Strategies to Ensure Food Security

• Increasing the supply of food

  • Improving agricultural productivity through technology

    • Green revolutions since 1960 have introduced new crop varieties with higher yields, more mechanisation, better irrigation techniques, and new fertilisers and pesticides

    • Global rice yields have tripled since 1961

    • Development of hydroponics to allow food to be grown in new places

    • Genetic modification of plants to make them more resistant to drought, pests and disease

    • Sustainable farming practices introduced and encouraged by NGOs and governments to improve longevity of food supply in vulnerable areas

• Reducing food consumption and waste

  • Improving storage, packaging and refrigeration facilities to make food last longer

  • Educating farmers about crop loss prevention

  • Encouraging consumers to cook and buy only what they need and to donate leftovers to food banks

  • Better education about diet to tackle growing obesity crisis in the developed world

• Increasing access to food

  • Free and fair trade rules to allow poorer countries to import food at fair prices

  • Improving infrastructure to allow food to be transported to markets more efficiently and cheaply

  • Social protection measures from governments and NGOs to reduce food poverty

    • Grants and food vouchers to vulnerable households

    • Free school meals for the most disadvantaged children