Food security

Food security is the state of having reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious <a href="/facts/Human_food/RgNq6NAK">food</a>. The availability of food for people of any class and state, gender or religion is another element of food security. Similarly, <a href="/facts/Household/snEgg9vP">household</a> food security is considered to exist when all the members of a family, at all times, have access to enough food for an active, <a href="/facts/Health/yzPVrjTs">healthy</a> life. Individuals who are food-secure do not live in <a href="/facts/Hunger/7EJxmrXn">hunger</a> or fear of <a href="/facts/Starvation/xXxdp2CM">starvation</a>. Food security includes resilience to future disruptions of food supply. Such a disruption could occur due to various risk factors such as <a href="/facts/Drought/LVW0rfuV">droughts</a> and <a href="/facts/Flood/FDQjJeXW">floods</a>, shipping disruptions, fuel shortages, economic instability, and wars. Food insecurity is the opposite of food security: a state where there is only limited or uncertain availability of suitable food.
The concept of food security has evolved over time. The four pillars of food security include availability, access, utilization, and stability. In addition, there are two more dimensions that are important: <a href="/facts/Agency_(philosophy)/CyWNFzm1">agency</a> and <a href="/facts/Sustainability/9oYH9mAs">sustainability</a>. These six dimensions of food security are reinforced in conceptual and legal understandings of the <a href="/facts/Right_to_food/8EWAn55L">right to food</a>. The <a href="/facts/World_Food_Summit/QJ1Ybmdf">World Food Summit</a> in 1996 declared that "food should not be used as an instrument for political and economic pressure."
There are many causes of food insecurity. The most important ones are <a href="/facts/World_food_crises_(2022%E2%80%93present)/90ImsucB">high food prices</a> and disruptions in global food supplies for example due to war. There is also <a href="/facts/Climate_change/rEN4BDE7">climate change</a>, <a href="/facts/Water_scarcity/YN3qIwmv">water scarcity</a>, <a href="/facts/Land_degradation/e6xbPpFl">land degradation</a>, agricultural diseases, <a href="/facts/Pandemic/KaJe9rTu">pandemics</a> and disease outbreaks that can all lead to food insecurity.
The effects of food insecurity can include <a href="/facts/Hunger/7EJxmrXn">hunger</a> and even <a href="/facts/Famine/EUEEuh4h">famines</a>. Chronic food insecurity translates into a high degree of vulnerability to hunger and famine. Chronic hunger and <a href="/facts/Malnutrition/KasQy5MR">malnutrition</a> in childhood can lead to <a href="/facts/Stunted_growth/weqcWEBT">stunted growth</a> of children. Once stunting has occurred, improved nutritional intake after the age of about two years is unable to reverse the damage. Severe malnutrition in early childhood often leads to defects in <a href="/facts/Cognitive_development/EfY2fWLR">cognitive development</a>.

Food security open-in-new

Food security