Food (in)security
What is food security?
Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to enough safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy lifestyle.
To be food secure means that:
Food is available: The amount available can be affected by: climate, disasters, war, civil unrest, population size and growth, agricultural practices, social status and trade.
Food is affordable: If prices increase and while richer people will likely still be able to feed themselves, poorer people may have difficulty obtaining sufficient safe and nutritious food without assistance.
Food is utilised: Sufficient food needs to be prepared safely so that people can grow and develop normally, meet their energy needs and avoid disease.
Part 1. Introduction to food insecurity
1. A brief introduction to food insecurity.
Food insecurity is the lack of reliable access to sufficient, affordable, and nutritious food. It affects individuals and communities, leading to hunger, poor health, and reduced life opportunities. Causes include poverty, conflict, climate change, and economic instability. Addressing food insecurity is essential for improving well-being and achieving global development goals.
Food insecurity occurs when people do not have reliable access to enough safe, nutritious and affordable food to live a healthy life. It may result from poverty, conflict, environmental problems, poor infrastructure or rising food prices. Food insecurity can be temporary or long term and may lead to hunger, malnutrition and reduced physical and economic development.
What is the impact of food insecurity?
According to Unicef ‘for the 842 million people in the world who do not get enough healthy food regularly, ill health and a shorter life expectancy are real risks. Children, and especially very young children, who suffer from food insecurity will most likely be smaller and be less able physically and intellectually.
The demand for food is increasing faster than the ability to produce food. There is a danger that this will lead to increased damage to soils and overuse of water, which in turn would lead to reduced capacity of agricultural land.’
To do: Introduction to food insecurity
Define food security in your own words using examples.
What are the four main causes of food insecurity?
What is the percentage of the world population experiencing chronic hunger?
Briefly explain the causes of food insecurity in MEDC’s.
Discuss: Why do urban areas have lower rates of food insecurity?
2. Graph analysis. Number of severely food insecure people by region.
To do: Interactive graph questions.
How many people are experiencing food insecurity globally ?
Which world regions have the highest rates of food insecurity?
Extra: use the animation to watch the trend in the number of people experiencing food insecurity.
Food insecurity has major human impacts, especially in LEDCs. It can lead to malnutrition, illness and higher child mortality, as people lack essential nutrients. Hunger reduces energy, productivity and school attendance, limiting economic development. In severe cases, food shortages can cause migration, social unrest and conflict, making it harder for communities to escape poverty.
3. Graph analysis. Share of people who are undernourished
Hunger, also known as undernourishment, is defined as not consuming enough calories to maintain a normal, active, healthy life.
The world has made much progress in reducing global hunger in recent decades.
But we are still far away from an end to hunger. Tragically, nearly one in ten people still do not get enough food to eat.
The share of the undernourished population is shown globally and by region in the map.
To do: questions
List the 5 countries experiencing the highest rates of hunger, including the percentage of the population.
Suggest reasons for the high rates of hunger in these countries.
Extra: use the animation to watch the trend in the percentage of people experiencing undernourishment.
Part 2. Environmental causes of food insecurity
4. Environmental causes of food insecurity. Water scarcity
Environmental causes of food insecurity occur when natural conditions reduce the ability to grow or produce food.
Drought, floods and extreme weather can destroy crops, while climate change makes rainfall less predictable. Soil degradation, desertification and water scarcity reduce agricultural productivity. These factors lower food production and make communities that depend on farming more vulnerable to hunger.
To do: Water scarcity questions
List the environmental causes of food insecurity.
How will predicted climate change increase the impact of these environmental factors?
Refer to the interactive map. Which regions of the world show the highest levels of water stress?
Identify two countries with very high water stress. Compare this with 2 countries you have identified as being food insecure.
How could water stress increase food prices or food insecurity
If agriculture uses about 70% of the world’s freshwater, what might happen to global food supply if water stress continues to increase?
Case study: Drought in Ethiopia
Many Ethiopian farmers rely on rain fed agriculture. When rainfall is low or unpredictable, crops fail and food production drops. Limited irrigation and poor transport infrastructure make it difficult for farmers to respond to these challenges.
To do: questions
How does drought lead to food insecurity in rural communities.
What are the factors that would increase the impact of drought in these communities?
How do infrastructure and climate together influence food security?
5. Environmental causes of food insecurity. Soil degradation
Soil degradation occurs when soil loses nutrients, structure and fertility through erosion, overuse, deforestation or poor farming practices.
Degraded soil produces lower crop yields and makes farming less reliable. This reduces food production and farmers’ incomes, increasing the risk of food insecurity. Soil degradation has a major impact on regions where communities depend heavily on local agriculture.
To do: Soil degradation questions
List the causes of food insecurity.
Refer to the interactive map. Which regions of the world show the highest levels of soil degradation?
Identify two countries with very high soil degradation. Compare this with 2 countries you have identified as being food insecure.
How can over farming or poor agricultural practices lead to soil degradation?
How could soil degradation increase food prices and food insecurity
If agriculture uses about 70% of the world’s freshwater, what might happen to global food supply if water stress continues to increase?
6. Farming and food insecurity
In addition to human factors such as conflict, the main causes of food insecurity are linked to agriculture.
Amount of arable land: The availability and quality of farmland, impacts food production.
Low fertiliser use: In low income regions low fertiliser use results in poor crop yields and low food availability.
Water as a limiting factor: Agriculture is dependent on water, scarcity due to drought, overuse, pollution reduces crop yields. Inadequate irrigation and unreliable water access especially affect small-scale farmers, leading to lower food production and heightened vulnerability to food insecurity.
To do: Farming questions
How does water limit agricultural production?
Geographers use fertiliser consumption to estimate a countries level of farming technology and possible food insecurity.
What is the fertiliser consumption rate in Australia, China and France?
What is the fertiliser consumption rate in Chad and Sudan?
Identify two countries with very high soil degradation. Compare this with 2 countries you have identified as being food insecure.
Part 3. The human impacts of food insecurity
7. Graph analysis. The human impact of food insecurity
Food insecurity negatively affects key human development indicators:
Health indicators: Food insecurity increases malnutrition, stunting, and child mortality.
Education indicators : Leads to poor concentration, lower attendance, and early school dropout.
Life Expectancy: Can shorten lifespan due to related health issues.
To do: Human impact questions
What does the child mortality rate measure?
What does life expectancy measure?
Use two country examples to explain how hunger (food insecurity) impact these two indicators?
Compare the rate of child mortality and life expectancy for the five countries identified in the the previous section (Share of people who are undernourished).
8. Build your own Gapminder graphs. Human impacts
In this activity we will use development indicators to create visual examples of the human impacts of food (in)security.
These four annotated graphs are going into your report to show the human impact of food insecurity
Select five LEDC’s (You can highlight the countries you would like to examine in the right side menu) and screenshot the graph for your report.
Next. Use the drop down menus to change the indicators for more graph possibilities.
Y axis - Food supply. X axis - Life expectancy
Y axis - Child mortality rate under 5. X axis - malnutrition, weight for age
Y axis - Food supply. X axis - child mortality
To do: Describing your results.
Annotate your Scatter graphs.
Explain the relationship in the graphs.
For example lower food supply leads to an increase in Child malnutrition.
Part 4. Solutions to food insecurity
“The world already produces enough food to feed everyone on the planet.”. FAO
Possible solutions to food insecurity.
Choose one of the following possible solutions to food insecurity and evaluate the advantages and disadvantages.
Improved irrigation
Improved agricultural technology (Seeds, chemical fertilisers and machinery)
Food aid
Sustainable farming practices
Reducing food waste
Discuss. Solutions to food insecurity
Can technology solve global hunger?
Is food insecurity mainly a development problem or a political problem?
How will climate change affect future food supply?
