World Food Policy Volume 2, Number 1, Spring 2015 | Page 111

World Food Policy

security focused on national capacity
to deliver sufficient dietary energy
requirements rather than nutritional
security based on adequate micro-nutrient
and energy intake. The two earliest
criteria of food security were “availability”
(what is present in the food supply) and
“access” (financial and physical ability of
consumers to obtain what is present).

However, studies from the 1950s
onwards revealed that availability does
not guarantee access, and meeting
energy (calorie) requirements does not
guarantee adequate micro-nutrient intake.
Therefore, in the mid-1970s, food security
was re-defined as “access by all people to
live a healthy and productive life”, and the
definition was amended to incorporate
nutritional adequacy or “appropriateness”
(nutritional composition and food safety),
and food preferences or “acceptability”
(cultural suitability). Since that time,
the widely accepted pillars of food
security have included food availability,
accessibility, affordability, utilization, and
acceptability6.
When
meeting
energy
requirements is deployed as the chief
metric of food security, the emphasis is
on macro-nutrients such as carbohydrate,
fat, and protein. When the nutritional
adequacy of a diet becomes the chief metric
of food security, emphasis is placed on the
consumption of a greater range of foods to
meet micro-nutrient requirements, such
as fruits and vegetables.

Further complicating the data
management issues is the fact that the
nutritional and environmental data
required for food and nutrition security
planning is the distinct separation in
spheres of action. Development and
government agencies collect national
nutrient stocks and household dietary
intake data while environmental agencies
focus on collecting data on bio-sphere
resources: soil and water nutrients, biodiversity, carbon release and capture,
waste and other factors important to food
production.
3.2 - A narrow productionist approach to
food systems

Tomlinson (2011, 8) has argued
that framing of food security around an
emphasis on production “does not address
problems of climate change, diet-related ill
health and does not substantially reduce
absolute levels of hunger …[rather it]
legitimises particular economic and political
food sys tem structures and technological
solutions”. In particular, it legitimizes
a particular food system model—a
corporate/industrial
model—which
is based on the corporate control of a
narrow band of commodity chains, rather
than small holder/peasant/ pastoralist/
fisherperson production systems which
might engage not in international, or
even national, commodity markets
but with cash and barter food markets

6

Other definitions emphasize the utilization of food, or the ability of people to consume and benefit
from food and its nutrients. This is influenced by the nutritional benefit and food quality, as well as
access to cooking facilities, clean water, safe food storage facilities.
In some definitions too, less emphasis is put on acceptability and more on stability which relates to the
continuity of access to food. Factors include seasonal variations in food supply or income, price fluctuations, and political and economic factors (Ziervogel and Ericksen 2010).
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