Food Insecurity Essay

Introduction

Food security refers to a situation where food is available for a continuous period of time. This applies to various classes of grouping, whether it is at a home level, a national or world level. a unit is considered food secure when its supply of food is sufficient to cater for consumption. Food security, or lack of, has been a major concern for several countries and in the world as a whole. The Food and Agriculture Organization describes food security as a state in which “all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.” (Patel 2013). Food insecurity refers to a situation where supply of food is limited and there is inability to acquire nutritional foods through credible ways.

The inability to easily access food, or in other terms, food insecurity brings with it a number of negative effects to those affected, be it at individual, national or international level. Countries that have recorded a high rate of food insecurity for a long time start have citizens who exhibit signs of starvation and stunted growth. Individuals with stunted growth are prone to several diseases since starvation lowers their bodies’ capability to fight disease. Children who are exposed to starvation at an early age develop complications with their development. There are various causes of food insecurity varying from one country to the other. Some of the most common natural causes of food insecurity are water crises, climate change and degradation of land. Man made causes of food insecurity in the world include rapid population growth, dependence on fossil fuels and poor governance. This paper focuses on the effe...

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...wasting resources in the meantime.

Mercy Corps advises that governments should stop trying to solve the food insecurity crisis in smaller units such as homes by just finding ways to ensure that families do not go hungry. This is because it recognizes that the issues is way more deep rooted than that and encompasses other issues of national concern such as humanitarian response, poverty reduction, agriculture, health and nutrition. (Mercy Corps, 2011). This report states that the farmers the world over are producing food that is capable of feeding and sustaining all populations in the world, yet over a billion of this same population are having problems accessing sufficient and healthy food. This has been brought about by inequitable allocation of resources and lack of effective governance that should provide improvements in production of food and health services.