Food Security is the term that refers to the situation in which every person in a given area has daily access to enough nutritious food to have an active and healthy life. Developing countries do not produce enough food for feeding their people and are too poor to import enough food to provide national food security. Food security also depends on gently reducing the harmful environment effects of agriculture, not only at local, but also at national and global levels.
In order to maintain good health, the human body needs macronutrients, micronutrients and minerals.
When people cannot grow or buy enough food to meet their basic needs, they suffer from chronic undernutrition or hunger. Children who suffer undernutrition often live in developing countries. The consequences of this are mental retardation, stunted growth and death caused by infectious diseases such as measles and diarrhea.
Malnutrition results from deficiencies of protein, calories and other key nutrients. This is because many of the world’s poor can afford only to live on a low-protein, high-carbohydrate, vegetarian diet. Overnutrition occurs when food energy intake exceeds energy use and causes excess body fat. Too many calories, too many exercise or both can cause overnutrition.
One of every three people has a deficiency of one or more vitamins and minerals, especially vitamin A, iron and iodine. Iron, is a component of the hemoglobin that transports oxygen in the blood. Too little iron, may cause fatigue, makes infection more likely and increases a woman’s chances of dying from hemorrhage in childbirth. It also causes anemia.
A famine occurs when there is a severe shortage of food in an area accompanied by mass starvation, many deaths, economic chaos, and social disruption. Famines often lead to mass migration of starving people to other areas or to refugee camps in a frantic search food, water and medical help. Famines are usually caused by crop failures from drought, flooding, war and other catastrophic events.
There are three main systems which provide most of the world’s food:
- Croplands: Mostly produce grains, and provides 77% if the world’s food using 11% of the world’s land area.
- Rangelands and pastures: produce meat, mostly from grazing livestock and supply about 16% of the world’s food using about 29% the world’s land area.
- Oceanic fisheries: Supply about 7% of the world’s food.
Traditional agriculture consists of two main types which together are practiced by the 42% of the world’s people and provides one-fifth of the world’s food supply:
- Traditional Subsistence Agriculture: Uses mostly human labor and draft animals to produce only enough crops or livestock for a farm’s family survival.
- Traditional Intensive Agriculture: Farmers increase their inputs of human and draft-animal labor, fertilizer and water to obtain a higher yield per area of cultivated land. They produce enough food to feed their families and to sell.
