The World Food Summit of 1996 defined food security as when 'all people at all times have access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life.'
Find out more about food security and related concepts from this World Health Organization web page.
Full Planet, Empty Plates by
With food scarcity driven by falling water tables, eroding soils, and rising temperatures, control of arable land and water resources is moving to center stage in the global struggle for food security. "In this era of tightening world food supplies, the ability to grow food is fast becoming a new form of geopolitical leverage. Food is the new oil," Lester R. Brown writes.What will the geopolitics of food look like in a new era dominated by scarcity and food nationalism? Brown outlines the political implications of land acquisitions by grain-importing countries in Africa and elsewhere as well as the world's shrinking buffers against poor harvests. With wisdom accumulated over decades of tracking agricultural issues, Brown exposes the increasingly volatile food situation the world is facing.
Global Food Crisis by
1. Global hunger and food supply -- 2. Australia's food security -- Exploring issues - worksheets and activities -- Fast facts -- Glossary -- Web links -- Index.
Currently, a billion undernourished people experience hunger on a regular basis. Global food production will have to rise 70% by 2050 as the world population expands to 9.1 billion from about 6.8 billion. Global food prices in December 2010 were the highest on record, exceeding 2008 levels that sparked deadly riots across the world. Causal factors include population growth, climate change and weather-related crop problems, diminishing water supplies, oil prices and diversion of food crops to biofuel production, damaging farming practices, and land shortages. Is an ongoing world food crisis inevitable? What is Australia's role in global food security and how are we managing our own domestic food challenges in relation to environmental sustainability, rising food prices and declining productivity? There is plenty of food for thought in this book.
World on the Edge by
1. On the edge -- Part I. A deteriorating foundation -- 2. Falling water tables and shrinking harvests -- 3. Eroding soils and expanding deserts -- 4. Rising temperatures, melting ice and food security -- Part II. The consequences -- 5. The emerging politics of food scarcity -- 6. Environmental refugees: the rising tide -- 7. Mounting stresses, failing states -- Part III. The response: plan B -- 8. Building an energy-efficient global economy -- 9. Harnessing wind, solar and geothermal energy -- 10. Restoring the economy's natural support systems -- 11. Eradicating poverty, stabilizing population, and rescuing failing states -- 12. Feeding eight billion -- Part IV. Watching the clock -- 13. Saving civilization.
We are in a race between political and natural tipping points. Can we close coal-fired power plants fast enough to save the Greenland ice sheet and avoid catastrophic sea level rise? Can we raise water productivity fast enough to halt the depletion of aquifers and avoid water-driven food shortages? Can we cope with peak water and peak oil at the same time? These are some of the issues skilfully distilled in World on the Edge. Bringing decades of research and analysis into play, it provides the responses needed to reclaim our future.
