Food (in)Security

abumpus@unimelb.edu.au
Tw: @adambumpus
Dr. Adam Bumpus

Senior Lecturer
School of Geography
Faculty of Science
Insecurity access?
Australia
Many of our customers
queue outside our doors 90
minutes before we
open. This gives you some
idea of the necessity for the
service Foodbank provides.

We have customers cry on

our shoulders and hug us
when they see what help they
can receive via free food,
veggies, fruit and a box of
groceries for a few dollars.

End the Hunger Report, 2013

 1 1 th2 th
Nation 0 20.0% China
s
11.7%
Japan 1.9%
17.1%
Pak
ista
n
zil es
ia India
Nigeria 2.1% Bra on
Ind
USA

Where does food security fit? Russia 2.1% 2.5%

2.9% 3.6% 4.6%

Bangladesh
2.3%
World s 228 nations 6.6 billion people CIA an
3

Macro trends

World Populat ion Project ion!

Estimated to peak at 11 billion in 2200

[Hoekstra & Chapagain, 2008]

 Accumulating problems and their consequences
diminished with each may overwhelm more and more governments,
trophic level accelerating spread of state failure
The amount of energy needed to produce a single
! hamburger is enough to power a small car 30 kilometers !
P hoto Cr edit: iStoc kP hoto / Stev en
Allan !

Where does food security fit? Where will the Resources come from ?

Peak Oil !
Food vs. Fuel! Looming St resses!
U.S. Corn Used for Fuel Etha nol, 1980- 2009 !
The 20 largest oil fields were discovered between 1917 and 1979 Rising price of oil
has made it
protable to turn
Since 1981, oil extraction has exceeded new discoveries by a grain into f uel!
widening margin Peak Oil! Water Shortages! Climate Cha
U.S. ethanol
euphoria quickly
Most of the easily recovered oil is already pumped doubled annual
growth in global
Once oil pr oduction turns down ward, countries will grain demand,
compete f or a shrink ing supply. It will be f ar mor e raising food prices foreshadow f urther food production constr aints,
dif cult to expand ener gy- intensi ve agricultural worldwide! price rises, and increased political unr est unless
production when the price of oil is rising and the The grain needed to ll an SUV s 25- gallon tank with
ethanol once could f eed one per son f or an entir e year.! dealt with.!
supply is declining. !
P hoto Cr edit: iStoc kP hoto / Br asil2 !
! P hoto Cr edit: iStoc kP hoto / Da ve
Huss!

Price spikes are already happening

8!

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emigrate&or&they&die.&&None&of&these&are&acceptab
op>ons &

FAO!
Where does food security fit?

Now we will move from the macro

(global) trends influencing food, to
how this affects people at the micro
(local) scale.
i.e. what really happens when people
become food insecure
 Today, some of the definitions and
conceptual issues for understanding
food security.
Next time, some examples to apply
these
 Overview
1. The origins of the concept
2. A definition
3. Four core concepts
4. Trajectories
5. Some key conceptual issues
6. Conclusions
 1. The origins of the concept
Universal Declaration on Human Rights
1948
World Food Crisis 1972-74
African Famines of the 1980s
2007-8 world food price spike
 2. A changing definition
1974 - 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 (UN
1974)

1983 - ensuring that all people at all times have

both physical and economic access to the basic
food that they need (FAO 1983)

1986 - access of all people at all times to

enough food for an active, healthy life. (World
Bank, 1986)
 2. A definition
1996 (World Food Summit) and then 2002
Food security [is] a situation that exists 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 (FAO 2002)
 2. A definition
Food security means a shift in the scale of analysis from
the global scale assessments, to national scale
assessments, to now, mostly, household level assessments
Large scale still important, but main unit is household
This is not unproblematic, as well cover later
 2. A definition
Food insecurity:
whenever the availability of
nutritionally adequate and safe foods
or the ability to acquire acceptable
food in socially acceptable ways is
limited or uncertain" (Radimer, 2002)
2. A definition

Source: Feed the Future Guide, USAID, May 2010

 3. Four core concepts
1. Sufficiency & Availability
Scale of analysis
Unit of measurement
Deviations from standards
 3. Four core concepts
2. Access and entitlements
Food availability vs. food entitlements

Endowments that can be transferred into

food or goods and services that can be
exchanged for food
Productive capital
Non-productive capital
Human capital
Income
Claims
 3. Four core concepts
3. Utlization
The way the body makes use of nutrients

Good care and feeding practices, food

preparation, diversity of diet, intra-
household distribution
Nutritional status
 3. Four core concepts
4. Security/Stability
Reliability

Risks:
Natural
State
Market
Community
War
 4. Trajectories
Reduction in hunger has happened
MDG 1 eradicate extreme poverty and
hunger:
The target of reducing extreme poverty
rates by half was met five years ahead of
the 2015 deadline, but halving proportion
who suffer from hunger not met
Slowed since 2008
4. Trajectories
 4. Trajectories
Reduction in hunger has happened
So, developing world in reach of
Millennium Development Goal target of
reducing by half the % of people suffering
chronic hunger by 2015
But slowed since 2008
and considerable differences
between regions.
Africa continues a large and
rising deviation from target
(world share of undernourished
people gone from 17% to 27% in
Sub Saharan Africa)
 5. Conceptual issues
1. What is a household?
Men, women, boys, girls:
May not be equally food secure
May not have equal food preferences
Have different capacities in household food
strategies
May manage household
affairs in different ways
 5. Conceptual Issues
2. Time

FAO 2008: www.foodsec.org

 5. Conceptual issues

3. Poverty and
Development
Food security is inherently
linked to processes of
development
The cyclical nature of
poverty (or poverty traps)
Economic growth does
not necessarily mean
improvements in food
security
 5. Conceptual issues
4. Food security vs livelihood security
Food is a subset of livelihood issues, not
the highest goal
Households may choose hunger to avoid a
reduction in endowments
Diverse coping strategies during crises
 5. Conceptual issues
5. Cultural acceptability
Food is culturally important

Issues of dignity, social acceptability,

freedom of choice
Who decides who is food insecure, what
the measures are, and what the responses
should be?
 5. Conceptual issues
6. Gender Equality
Gender inequality is major cause and effect of hunger
and poverty
Women have less access than men to productive
resources and opportunities.
When women control additional income, they spend
more of it than men do on food, health, clothing and
education for their children.
World Bank report concluded that reducing gender
inequality leads to falling infant and child mortality,
improved nutrition, higher economic productivity and
faster growth.
Good interview here: http://www.fao.org/gender/gender-home/gender-
insight/gender-insightdet/en/c/386973/
 5. Conceptual issues
7. Human rights
Legal claims

State responsibilities

Problems of enforcement
 Quickpoll
https://qp.e.unimelb.edu.au/abumpus/

Food security will be improved most

by:
A. Less population
B. More economic growth
C. More equity (less gap in rich and poor)
D. Better technology for food production
E. Gender equality
 6. Conclusions
1. Food security is not just about food
production: it is as much about
development, which includes issues of
income, gender, health, cultural values
2. Food insecurity is not equally distributed:
between countries, regions, communities,
villages, households.
3. Households are not passive, they act in
rational and complex ways to sustain
their livelihoods and their food security
 Insecurity system?

Red Cross: Food Insecurity

 Food (in)Security
Further information and ideas:
Feeding Nine Billion: A Solution to the Global
Food Crisis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raSHAq
V8K9c

abumpus@unimelb.edu.au
Tw: @adambumpus