Other Ways to Contribute to Food Security Other Than Farming.
When it comes to food security, the first thing that comes to mind for many is farming. Farming is well-known for both its historical and potential implications on food security. According to Stewart, Korth, et al (2013), farming contributes to food security in two ways: boosting access to food and increasing income.
However, in this piece, we will discuss other ways to contribute to food security other than farming.
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Food security is defined by USAID as the availability, accessibility, and utilization of food (1995). Food and Agriculture Organization goes on to explain that “Food availability is achieved when sufficient quantities of food are consistently available to all individuals within a country. Such food can be supplied through household production, other domestic outputs, commercial imports or food assistance.
Food access is ensured when households and all individuals within them have adequate resources to obtain appropriate food for a nutritional diet. Access depends upon income available to the household, on the distribution of income within the household and on the price of food. Food utilization is the proper biological use of food, requiring a diet providing sufficient energy and essential nutrients, portable water, and adequate sanitation. Effective food utilization depends in large measure on knowledge within the household of food storage and processing techniques, basic principles of nutrition and proper childcare.” (n.d.).
According to a 2017 United Nations projection, the world’s population will exceed 9.8 billion people by 2050, resulting in an increased need for food, feed, and fibre. This could result in higher food prices, malnourished livestock, and a lack of other basics such as clothing and paper. You can rest assured that farming alone will not solve this problem.
Some of the other ways to contribute to food security other than farming are not so far-off from farming, to be honest, but will have immense contribution to food security when widely adopted.
So let’s get started…
Food loss and waste reduction
Food loss as defined by Lipinski refers to “food that spills, spoils, incurs an abnormal reduction in quality such as bruising or wilting, or otherwise gets lost before it reaches the consumer” (2013). While food waste, on the other hand, is “food that is of good quality and fit for consumption, but does not get consumed because it is discarded―either before or after it is left to spoil” (Lipinski, 2013). Simply put, food loss happens at the earlier stages of the food chain before the food reaches the consumer while food waste happens much later in the chain typically at the retail or consumption stage.
Actions such as throwing away leftovers, neglecting “ugly” fruit and vegetable while grocery shopping or letting untouched food items go bad in your pantry or refrigerator all widen the food security gap thus contributing to the food waste problem. You can avoid this by repurposing or saving leftovers, learning to store food for longer periods of time, buying only what you need, among others.
According to estimates, around one-quarter of food grown for human consumption goes unused. Measuring food waste, establishing reduction goals, and improving food depots in developing countries (it’s also worth noting that food waste is more prevalent in developed countries) are all ways to help with food security. “Reducing food loss and waste by 25 percent by 2050 would close the food gap by 12 percent, the land gap by 27 percent and the GHG mitigation gap by 15 percent” (Ranganathan, Waite, et al, 2018).
Image from World Resources Institute
Start consuming a more healthy and sustainable diet
It’s simple, food from animals is more resource-intensive than food from plants. It doesn’t mean you have to give up eating meat, but cutting by half the amount of meat you eat is thought to drastically minimize diet-related environmental impacts.
As a result, switching to a more plant-based diet will considerably aid in bridging the food security gap, as evidenced by the chart below:
Image from World Research Institute
Aiming for a progressive replacement level fertility rate
The demand for food is obviously driven by the increase in the number of humans on the planet. If the world’s population is reduced, the food security gap would dramatically be narrowed. The world’s fertility rate is falling, and by 2050, it will be substantially lower to help further narrow the food security gap.
Sub-saharan Africa is the anomaly. With a standing average of five kids per woman and a little above three per an estimate by 2050. This means that if Sub-Saharan Africa maintains the same replacement level fertility rate, the number of mouths to feed and demand for food in some other aspects would be reduced on average, but not significantly, thereby lingering the fight against food security. However, “if sub-Saharan Africa achieves replacement-level fertility rates along with all other regions by 2050, it would close the land gap by one quarter and the GHG mitigation gap by 17% while reducing hunger” (Ranganathan, Waite, et al, 2018).
How to achieve this can be mimicking certain measures that have proven to work in other regions like providing higher education opportunities to more women. According to research by Kim (2016) on Institute of Labour Economics “educated women are more physically capable of giving birth than uneducated women but want fewer children and control birth better. They provide better care at home, thus increasing the value of their children’s human capital and reducing the need for more children. Also, at relatively early stages of a country’s development, educated women adopt modern birth control methods more often than uneducated women”
Another measure to help with the progressive replacement level fertility rate is expanding reach to services related to reproductive health like family planning which will provide a broader scope of the benefits of such services and dismiss myths that prevent utilization of it.
Enhance Aquaculture
Wild fishing is said to decline and as a result causing a deficit resulting in more pressure on livestock and other forms of food. With a substantial improvement in aquaculture, consumer demand can be met and help reduce the same demand in other food sectors.
“Actions to take include selective breeding to improve growth rates of fish, improving feeds and disease control, adoption of water recirculation and other pollution controls, better spatial planning to guide new farms and expansion of marine-based fish farms” (Ranganathan, Waite, et al, 2018).
Improving soil and water management
It is anticipated that Africa’s drylands will be responsible for the loss of one-quarter of the world’s cropland. Farmers understanding this and practising better soil and water management activities can help contribute to food security.
“Agroforestry, or planting trees on farms and pastures, has been shown to help revitalize damaged land and increase production” (Ranganathan, Waite, et al, 2018). Education of farmers to broaden their scope on such issues would also be vital to understanding the extent of the issues and getting ready with recommended actions.
Image from World Resources Institute
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Closing the world food security gap wouldn’t be an easy task, and farming and its close-related measures cannot do it alone. With the adoption and rigorous implementation of these other ways to contribute to food security other than farming by you and I, the government, and society at large, the world should be ready by 2050 for everyone to have easy access to food more sufficiently.
References
https://environmentalevidencejournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/2047-2382-2-7
https://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/Pnacg170.pdf
https://www.un.org/development/desa/en/news/population/world-population-prospects-2017.html
http://www.fao.org/3/y5061e/y5061e08.htm
https://www.wri.org/insights/how-sustainably-feed-10-billion-people-2050-21-charts
https://www.wri.org/insights/numbers-reducing-food-loss-and-waste
https://wol.iza.org/uploads/articles/228/pdfs/female-education-and-its-impact-on-fertility.pdf
