Mohammed Rashid Al-Sulaiti
While world population growth poses a grand challenge, food security issue became an important article in each national development plan. Knowing our current variables can help us to address food security issues. I will begin this article by reminding you of very important readings and speculations that have driven us to consider food security as a grand challenge. The current world population of 7.3 billion is expected to reach 8.5 billion by 2030, while world population projected to reach 9.7 billion by 2050 according to demographic reports. So, in front of this vast population growth, it is imperative to expand the food availability network.
There is no doubt that it is our responsibility dealing with food security issues centralise in our duty to study the whole food systems wisely. The most important elements in the food security lie on: availability, accessibility, utilization and stability.
Availability is the first element in food security. If we put this element in a clearer context, we can abstract that availability in food security means the amount of food that is present in a country or area through all forms of domestic production, imports, food stocks and food aid, in fact, this is exactly how world food program has defined availability as an important element of food security. As for me, I have replaced this term with the word “assets” of each country. In order to address food secu-rity issue, it is highly important to seek how to increase assets, more importantly, to diversify assets as the second can faster the first. As nations, our way of thinking should be shifted to how countries can be the sustainable source of food. In this context, certainly there are ideas should be diminished and excluded such as food import. I do not criticise here the idea of food import, as sometimes food import can be the ideal solution. I here insist on change our way of thinking to achieve the food sovereignty.
Secondly, accessibility is a controversial term in food security. Despite the introduction of accessibility concept by Amaryta Sen in the early 1980s, unfortunately, accessibility is still not commonly accepted as an influencing element of food security. Generally speaking, accessibility is seen from three different dimensions including physical, economic and social access.
Physical dimension can be illustrated if food is available in one part of a country with limited transport where that food cannot be delivered to some areas suffering from a lack of food. While the economic dimension can be summarised in a situation when people can afford sufficient food, nevertheless, the idea that food insecurity arises when food is available but people are unable to afford it.
The last part in the accessibility element is the socio-cultural dimension which arises if we suppose that the food is physically available and the potential costumer has enough money to buy the food while conversely a member of a particular social group or gender is prevented from having this food due to religious and cultural reasons. The ethical element of equality is important too when we address food security issues.
The third element of food security is utilization. Utilization in food security is defined in the World Food Summit’s as the safe and nutritious food which meets peoples’ dietary needs. The previous two elements on their own are not enough to consider when think about food sovereignty, people have the right to be assured of safe and nutritious food.
An important criterion of nutritious food is to provide sufficient energy to enable individuals to carry out routine physical activities. Utilization also lies on ensuring safe water and adequate sanitary facilities to avoid epidemic as well as aware-ness of food preparation and storage procedures.
The last element in food security is stability. The stability is the important timeline in food security where the food must present at all times in terms of availability, accessibility and utilization. Regardless of condition, it is the most important right for the individual to have a stable market.
To conclude, the cost of shifting to food sovereignty is by fully understanding the previous elements and deal with them consciously. Here I suggest some recommendations which may hold an amount of accuracy.
The logo of “Food Sovereignty” should be promoted as same as “Food Security” while the first has the strength to ignite the aspiration of nations. I think achieving balance is the key solving for several environmental issues; balancing in food production while conserving the environment, as the ecology itself means the balance between different environmental bodies.
Utilization is important factor in food security that covers a range of aspects that lie on individual’s understanding of what foods to choose and how to prepare and store them. Unfortunately, the political power is important player in this issue, as social conflict and civil strife can seriously affect food production and lead to the loss of livestock which threats the global food security. Therefore, mixing social conflicts and using the food production as a political power can lead to a dangerous path with dire consequences for a future food security.
The writer is Environmental Scientist graduated from the University of Nottingham
