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Pearson, Craig --- "A fresh look at the roots of food insecurity" [2012] ELECD 1049; in Rayfuse, Rosemary; Weisfelt, Nicole (eds), "The Challenge of Food Security" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2012) 19

Book Title: The Challenge of Food Security

Editor(s): Rayfuse, Rosemary; Weisfelt, Nicole

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9780857939371

Section: Chapter 2

Section Title: A fresh look at the roots of food insecurity

Author(s): Pearson, Craig

Number of pages: 25

Abstract/Description:

Our food systems are complex. They are built on relatively few grains, vegetables and animal products that have been domesticated over millennia and, arising from these, a vast array of fresh, packaged and processed products. These products are transported, stored, transformed and traded around the world as the most obvious daily example of our ‘global economy’. What is not complex, though, is food insecurity. The reason we have food insecurity is simple: food production and its distribution do not meet the needs of the world’s population. This chapter first deconstructs this simplicity. It then uses an image or model of the food system as two connected cycles. Revealing the potentially cyclical nature of our global food system makes it easier to identify foci where interventions could improve production and distribution. These improvements, when located within a fresh strategic perspective, which addresses the need to re-orient our thinking about closed systems and the minimization of waste or leakage, can tackle food insecurity.