Terminology
Context
What is food security?
Food security is the ability of all people at all times to access
enough food for an active and healthy life. Three conditions must
be fulfilled to ensure food security: food must be available, each
person must have access to it, and the food utilized must fulfill
nutritional requirements.
- Availability. Global food security requires
sufficient food production to provide the world's people
with the amount of food they need to lead active and
healthy lives. On a national level, food can be produced
domestically or imported. Domestic production depends
on the size of the area harvested and the yields achieved
and is heavily influenced by weather, especially where
irrigation is nonexistent. Imports depend on a country's
ability to finance them and are determined by export
earnings and international food prices. Domestic production
and import activity are affected by domestic policies
and international prices.
- Access. Access to food is mainly determined
by household income. Lack of access is therefore closely
linked with poverty. Where incomes are insufficient,
transfer or food assistance programs (such as feeding
programs or food subsidies) are a means to ensuring
access to food.
- Utilization. Adequate food utilization is a
key component of food security. Access to safe water,
good sanitation, and basic health care make a difference
in nutritional well-being as they have an impact on
the body's ability to utilize consumed foods. Inadequate
knowledge of basic nutritional facts may also prevent
the best use of available food.
How is food security assessed?
The ERS food security model projects food consumption and access
in 70 lower income developing countries—37 in Sub-Saharan Africa,
4 in North Africa, 11 in Latin America and the Caribbean, 10 in
Asia, and 8 in the Commonwealth of Independent States. Commodity
coverage in the model includes grains, root crops, and a group called
"other." The three commodity groups in total account for 100 percent
of all calories consumed in the study countries. The projections
are based on the most recently available 3-year average of data
and go out 10 years. Projections of food gaps for the countries
are based on differences between consumption targets and estimates
of food availability, which is domestic food supply (production
plus commercial imports) minus nonfood use. The estimated food gaps
(status quo gap, nutrition
gap, and distribution gap)
are used to evaluate food security of the countries. Finally, based
on projected population, the number of people unable to meet their
nutritional requirements is projected. The methodology appendix
in the Food Security Assessment report describes the ERS approach
in more detail.
What is the World Food Summit?
In November 1996, world leaders assembled in Rome for the World
Food Summit to renew global commitment to the fight against hunger.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
called the Summit in response to widespread undernutrition and growing
concern about the capacity of agriculture to meet future food needs.
Participants at the summit pledged by 2015 to reduce the current number
of hungry people by half.
The World Food
Summit: Five Years Later was held in June 2002. Participants
reviewed progress towards the goal of the 1996 World Food Summit
and considered ways to accelerate the process.
Do ERS and the Food and Agricultural
Organization (FAO) use different measurements to assess
global food security?
To estimate the number of hungry people at the country level, both
ERS and FAO start by calculating the total amount of food
(food availability), taking into account food production,
changes in stocks, and imports as presented in the food
balance sheet. While FAO uses the number of calories as
a unit of measurement, ERS converts the calories to kilograms
of grain equivalent.
To establish the number of people consuming less than the nutritional
requirement, it is first necessary to determine consumption inequality
due to inequality in purchasing power, i.e., access to food. FAO
uses the estimate of per capita calorie consumption of a country
as its mean, while consumption/income variance is estimated based
on household survey data; it assumes the consumption/income relationship
to be log-normal. ERS estimates of the consumption/income relationship
are based on cross-country data on per capita calorie consumption
and per capita income, using a semi-log regression functional form.
ERS uses the estimated coefficients to determine consumption/income
elasticity for each country. Income distribution data from the World
Bank and the estimated income elasticity coefficients are then used
to determine food consumption for each income group by country.
Once consumption inequality has been determined, a food level has
to be established below which people are considered undernourished,
i.e., suffer from hunger. FAO bases its cutoff food level on a minimum
calorie requirement of approximately 1,800 calories on average per
capita per day for all countries. ERS uses a higher level of roughly
2,100 calories per day as the average per capita requirement for
all countries. Once the threshold level is established, the number
of people living in hunger is calculated.
For further information, The Sixth World Food Survey,
1996, Appendix 3, describes FAO methodology in detail.
ERS publishes its methodology in its annual Food Security
Assessment report.
How does ERS research on global
food security differ from its research on food security in the United
States?
ERS research on global food security is based on measurable components
of food supply at the national level. In developing countries, a large
part of the population lives in poverty, which is sometimes grave
enough to cause death by starvation. National food supplies are at
times insufficient to feed the entire population, even if the food
available were distributed evenly among all citizens. ERS research
focuses on food availability and access by using food production,
trade, and macroeconomic data.
ERS research on Food Security
in the United States is based on household surveys that capture
householders' subjective evaluations of their food security. In
wealthier countries such as the United States, where total food
supplies are more than sufficient to feed the entire population,
famine or starvation is not a threat. However, even in the United
States, a large number of people are poor and suffer from hunger
due to inadequate incomes. Research on food security tries to understand
the true extent of the problem, as well as the underlying causes.
The focus is on access to food and food utilization, while in the
United States general food availability is of little concern.
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