Diverse definitions

As with ‘sustainable development’ there is no precise, universally accepted definition of‘food security’. In broad principle a state of food security exists where all individuals, families and communities enjoy consistent access to foods that in quantity, quality and biochemical composition provide hygienic, nutritional adequacy. The Brundtland Panel states: “Food security requires secure ownership of, or access to, food resources and income earning activities, including reserves and assets to offset risks, to ease shocks and meet all contingencies”. This may be interpreted as all people having access to stocks and flows of food and cash sufficient to satisfy their basic nutritional needs. Everyone in the world need not be a subsistence farmer, but those who do not produce foods in quantities sufficient to satisfy their families' needs, must possess the means to acquire foods nutritionally adequate, readily accessible and affordable [Brundtland 1987b; ICSU-CASAFA 1991].

The report of the 1992 FAO/WHO international conference on nutrition states: “Food security is defined in its most basic form as access by all people at all times to the food needed for a healthy life. Food security has three dimensions: assurance of a safe, nutritionally adequate food supply at national and household levels; a reasonable degree of stability in the supply of food throughout each year and from one year to the next; every household having physical, social and economic access to food sufficient to meet its needs.”

While there is agreement in broad principle on requirements for food security, concepts diverge significantly in semasiological and biological specifics, they change over time, and differ among specialists and agencies as to what constitutes a nutritionally adequate diet.