Food Security and Starvation

By: Aayushi Srivastava

“Innovations that are guided by smallholder farmers, adapted to local circumstances, and sustainable for the economy and environment will be necessary to ensure food security in the future.” -Bill Gates

What is food Security?

Food security as defined by the FAO is when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. Food security is extremely vital for a country as it is directly linked to the progress of the agricultural sector of the country. It leads to the stabilization of a country economics and assists in boosting the growth of the country.

Food security has three dimensions or sub-structures to it: 

1. Availability of sufficient quantities of food of appropriate quality 
2. Access by households and individuals to adequate resources to acquire appropriate foods for a nutritious diet 
3. Utilization of food through adequate diet, water, sanitation, and health care

Issues with food Security

There are various threats revolving around food security and among the various challenges, some are: 

1. Regular climate change: Frequent changes in the climate of an area leads to change in the farming techniques and equipment used. This in turn leads to both economic disruptions and disruption in food availability. They alternate and affect the trade and the farming practices which subsequently misbalancing the access aspect/dimension of food security. 
2. Migration of rural population: As the nations are progressing and advancing, the rural population is getting more and more inclined towards migrating towards the urban domains of the country. This springs up the issue of the unmanaged and unplanned urban city plan with reference to the increased population, sparse job opportunities, leading to a rise in food insecurity.
3. Lack of Education & poverty: Most of the rural and slum population don’t have access to basic education which constraints their domain to job opportunities, they are uninformed about the pressing world issues and this leads to social ,economic challenges which can be attributed with overpopulation, knowledge about parenting, breast- feeding. Poverty is a major hindrance to achieve food security as it expedites malnutrition.
4. Inadequate distribution of food through PDS: The Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) has the disadvantage in the sense that those people who are the right candidates for deserving the subsidy are excluded on the basis of non-ownership of below poverty line (BPL) status, as the criterion for identifying a household as BPL is arbitrary and varies from state to state. Apart from that, low quality of grains and the poor service at PDS shops has further extended to be the cause of this problem.

Threats to Food Security

The food system is dealing with a lot of challenges, some of which can lead to a huge setback and pitfall on the food security aspects across the globe. The increased demand for good quality food and disproportion in the quantity of food available to the number of people around is the biggest threat. The increased population all over the globe over the last few decades shows an uneven distribution in the quantity in which food is produced to the population of the region. An area with the highest demand for food may not be the region producing the quantity of food sufficient for the region. The growth of wealth in developing countries will result in increase demand for food, including animal products.

The higher demand for animal products is particularly disturbing based mainly on cereals meat. If global meat consumption is not reduced in the next several decades, we shall be faced with a global food crisis threatening food security.

Global food crisis that began with the sudden increase in food prices all over the world resulted in an increase in the costs of food product imports (especially in developing countries dependent on import), and had catastrophic effects on the household budgets in turn affecting food security of those countries.

Starvation: what and why

Starvation is when an individual takes severely low caloric energy intake, below the level needed to maintain an organism’s life. It can be called the most extreme form of malnutrition. Irrespective of any cause, starvation consists of three phases. The events of the first two phases happen even during fairly short periods of dieting or fasting. The third phase happens only in prolonged starvation and may end in the person’s death. 

During the first stage of starvation, blood glucose levels are maintained through the production of glucose from proteins, glycogen and fats. 

In the second phase, which might last for several weeks, fats are the main energy source. 

The third phase of starvation starts when a person’s fat reserves are depleted and there is a switch to proteins as the major source of the person’s energy. Muscles, the largest source of protein in the body, are quickly depleted. At the end of this phase, proteins — essential for cellular functions, are broken down and cell function degenerates.

The section of the society mostly affected by malnutrition and in turn starvation are the daily wage earners and the farmers and the laborers .They are the worse affected of all the economic fall-outs as it might lead to the loss of their jobs or the hike in the prices of the basic food and nutritional items consequently constraining the amount of food and quantity of food that they can buy. Hence, they are not able to eat a full balanced diet or sometimes in so little amount that could lead to malnutrition. Another thing that we need to focus on is why people get affect by starvation which in turn leads to food insecurity, the various causes that lead up to this are as mentioned the hike in the necessary basic nutritional food items as well as the quantity in which food is produced in a country. The number of people to consume a food is much higher with respect to the amount of food being produced. One more major reason for this fallout is that a large quantity gets wasted and dumped daily which could otherwise be at least a onetime meal for a man.

Achievable solutions to curb starvation

There is no denying the fact the starvation and malnutrition is one of the most major and pressing issue and undeniably we need to be find plausible solutions so that food insecurity doesn’t increase. Some of the most simplest solutions to curb starvation are:

1. Food donation drives: One of the simplest ways to combat world hunger is to initiate more food collection drives. A can of food may seem like a small step, but even a small step can make a huge difference in someone’s life and provide a onetime meal to that person. 
2. Urban farming: Agricultural researchers believe that building rooftop/indoor farms in the middle of cities could help solve the world’s hunger problem. Experts say that vertical farming could help a lot of people and make agriculture independent of the need for land. 
3. Birth Control Education: As many people are not educated on topics like reproduction or do not have access to contraceptives, high birthrates pose a problem. Gaining access to contraceptives allows for family planning, economic freedom and reduces world hunger. 
4. Access to basic education: A better education system is the answer to most of the world’s problems. In the context of world hunger, education can provide better opportunities and more access to income and in turn food. Additionally, some countries have food-for-education programs where students are given free food for coming to school.