Factors affecting food security

Global food supply is not even. Some places produce more food than others.

Physical factors (such as climate, soil quality and gradient) and human factors (such as
technology) have historically controlled the quantity and type of food produced in any location.
Today, there are many other factors that explain why some countries produce more food than
others:

 Climate - global warming is increasing temperatures by around 0.2°C every 10 years. Rainfall
is increasing in some places, but decreasing in others. Higher temperatures and unreliable
rainfall make farming difficult, especially for those farming marginal lands, who already
struggle to survive. Even advanced countries (ACs) can be affected by drought. Countries
such as Russia and Australia are huge exporters of wheat and barley respectively. When they
suffer drought there is less food available globally and global food prices increase, leaving the
poor most vulnerable.
 Technology - improvements in technology have increased the amount of food available.
Technology can overcome temperature, water and nutrient deficiencies in the form of
greenhouses, irrigation and fertilizers. This can incur an economic or environmental cost. ACs
import food from across the globe, all year round.
 Loss of farmland - the growth of the biofuel market is taking up valuable farmland which is
then not used for food.
 Pests and diseases - pesticides have increased crop yields. Farmers in ACs can afford
pesticides, whereas most farmers in low income developing countries (LIDCs) cannot afford
them.
 Water stress - irrigation systems provide water for countries with unreliable or low rainfall.
Irrigation can double crop yields, but it is expensive to put these systems in place. Water can
be taken either from underground aquifers or directly from rivers. Both have environmental
consequences.
 Conflict - war forces farmers to flee their land or to fight in conflict. Food can be used as a
weapon, with enemies cutting off food supplies in order to gain ground. Crops can also be
destroyed during fighting. Food shortages have caused riots and conflict. The South Sudan
region has faced conflict for years, with 4 million people facing food insecurity. In the Darfur
area conflict has lasted years because of disagreement over land and grazing rights.
 Poverty - when people have less money, they cannot afford food and they become unable to
work. Families in developing countries spend much of their income on food.
 Impact of food insecurity
Food security is when the entire population of a country has access to enough safe and nutritious
food to maintain an active life. The opposite is food insecurity, which is a problem for lots of
different countries. Countries that do not have enough food to feed everyone usually have other
associated issues to overcome. Some impacts of food insecurity include:

 Famine - the World Food Programme classifies three hunger conditions:

1. Undernourishment is when people do not consume enough calories. Over 800 million
people in the world are undernourished.
2. Malnutrition is when people do not eat enough of the right kind of foods to keep them
healthy.
3. Wasting is the most serious type of hunger. It is severe weight loss due to acute
malnutrition resulting from starvation.
 Soil erosion - the removal of soil occurs more rapidly in areas that are very dry. Food
insecurity can lead to soil erosion as farmers try to get more out of their land.
 Deforestation, overgrazing and over-cultivation expose the soil and make it vulnerable to wind
and water erosion.
 Rising prices - when there is less food available, the prices of food increase - since the year
2000 prices have risen. Poorer countries are more vulnerable to increasing food prices.
 Debt - food prices can be set by speculators in ACs. This can cause great swings in the prices
offered to farmers for their crops from year to year. Farmers may incur debts by borrowing to
buy seeds and equipment and then find they cannot sell their crops at a high enough price to
repay the loan.
 Social unrest - everyone needs to eat and so when food supplies are low people have to fight
for their survival. Riots in Algeria in 2011 were caused by high food costs. The prices of
cooking oil, sugar and flour doubled within the space of a few months.
 6 major threats to food security
We’re talking global food security here. Since 1981, when World Food Day was first celebrated, that has
always been the concern. Every year, the event is given a theme (Food for All, Trees for Life, Youth Against
Hunger, Fight Hunger to Reduce Poverty, Harvesting Nature’s Diversity, etc.). But whatever they’re called,
they’re more or less a variation of that same big concern—food security all over the world.

Food Issues
We see our supermarkets and groceries all filled up with various foods each time we visit, so it’s rather hard to
imagine there is such a food crisis going on. But know that there is. In impoverished countries—men, women,
children, the elderly—subsist on just one meal a day, and a nutritionally-barren meal at that. Farmers who toil
on the fields don’t get the compensation they deserve for all their back-breaking efforts. As population
continues to rise, demand for food will increase too.
This year’s World Food Day theme is Family Farming: Feeding the World, Caring for the Earth, a theme
that’s very optimistic and action-oriented. We’ll need that optimism and action plan, so we can tackle the
various threats to global food security right now.
These are:

Climate change.
Inarguably, this is food security’s biggest challenge. Climate change is a clear indication that nature’s balance
is messed up. Weather patterns become erratic and more intense. Temperatures either go up or dip. Sea levels
rise. And landscapes drastically change. Sadly, plants, trees, and wildlife simply don’t have enough time to
evolve to adapt to the new conditions. Obviously, agriculture takes a hit too because it depends so much on
nature—on water, air, soil, and the weather. When plants refuse to flower because it’s too humid, when pests
abound because of hot temperatures, when supertyphoons destroy crops such as rice, and when too-cold
weather freezes our vegetables, we’re screwed.

Aging farmers
We have a lot to thank farmers for. Without them, who would grow our food? That’s why the rapid decline of
farmers—old farmers ageing out, with few young ones to replace them—is a big concern. The next generation
is hesitant to go into farming because of lack of capital or own land. Others are drawn to careers that are more
financially-rewarding, easier, and prestigious. And with climate change around, this poses uncertain problems
for the unprepared, aspiring farmer.

Massive bee die-offs

It might be an exaggeration to say that when the bees go extinct, we die too—because after all, bees are
responsible for pollinating majority of the food crops we depend on. Yes, food production will be significantly
affected, but not to a point that we’ll die too. Other insect pollinators will take over the bees, they say, and life
will go on for us.
But a species snuffed out of this planet is still a death to mourn. Especially if the reason for their death is
something as preventable as the use of pesticides. Whether the dwindling bee population will affect food
security or not, the more serious matter to think about is that once again a species is in danger of being wiped
out all because of us.

Genetic engineering
Plant genetic engineering has always prided itself as a well-meaning solution to many of agriculture’s
problems: how to resist pests, how to get better, faster yield, how to have vitamin-fortified crops, how to fare
in extreme weather conditions, etc. If done correctly and morally, genetically modified food (GMO food) just
might be able to address the global food insecurity problem we have. Still, there are ethical and health safety
issues to consider. As a rule, nature does not like being messed around with, and our interventions may have
unintended, unforeseeable effects.

Soil erosion
According to the WWF, we’ve lost half of the topsoil on our planet in the last 150 years. That’s pretty serious
because the topsoil happens to be where plants get most of their nutrients. Deforestation and incorrect
agricultural practices such as overgrazing and use of pesticides are to blame. The topsoil gets washed into our
rivers and lakes, polluting them and affecting aquatic life, or else they clog our waterways, and contribute to
flooding.
Because we’re left with barren earth, we depend on chemical fertilizers to enrich the land. Often though these
fertilizers destroy nature’s balance—polluting the soil, killing the soil’s biodiversity, and eventually
contaminating our food.

Land “development”
Agricultural land turned into developed land is another serious threat to food security. Once that land is
“developed” for buildings, we forever lose one more patch of land that could have been purposed for food
production.