Food Security and Safety

Off print (e-copy) People, Planet and Progress Beyond 2015 Editor: P G Dhar Charkrabarti © The Energy and Resources Institute Food Security and Safety by Nutan Kaushik, Shilpanjali Deshpande Sarma, Harpreet Kaur, Swati Mitechelle Dsouza, Swati Tomar, and Anjali Parasnis pp 149-180

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Food Security and Safety Overcoming hunger and poverty is not a task of charity; it is an act of justice. Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings. Nelson Mandela

8.1 INTRODUCTION According to the World Food Summit of 1996, food security is defined as a situation that exists “when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life” (FAO 1996). At the World Summit on Food Security in 2009, this definition was reconfirmed, and the concept was expanded and specified by adding that the “four pillars of food security are availability, access, utilization, and stability” and stating that “the nutritional dimension is integral to the concept” (FAO 2009a). Household food security is the application of this concept to the family level, with individuals within households as the focus of concern (FAO 2003). The right to food is not a right to a minimum amount of calories, proteins, and other specific nutrients or a right to be fed. It is about being guaranteed the right to feed oneself, which requires not only that food is available—that the ratio of production to the population is sufficient—but also that it is accessible; that is, each household has the means to produce or buy its own food. However, if individuals are deprived of access to food for reasons beyond their control, for instance, because of an armed conflict, natural disaster, detention, or poverty, recognition of the right to life obliges States to provide them with sufficient food for their survival. Another aspect of Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) food security definition ‘‘SAFE’’ deserves an immediate and equal attention as most of the food security reports explain only the ‘‘sufficiency’’ aspect of food security and very less

about food safety. The fact that food safety is a parallel issue with food security was highlighted as early as 1983 when a conference convened jointly by the FAO and the World Health Organization (WHO) concluded that illness due to contaminated food was perhaps the most widespread health problem in the contemporary world (Kaferstein 2003). The FAO defines food safety as handling, storing, and preparing food to prevent infection such that the food keeps enough nutrients to ensure a healthy diet (FAO 2004). The issue of food safety risk has also recently become severe owing to the growing movement of people, live animals and food products across borders, rapid urbanization in developing countries, increasing number of immune compromised people, changes in food handling and consumption, and the emergence of new antibiotic-resistant pathogens (Unnevehr 2003). As food security cannot be ensured without taking adequate measures, this chapter deals with the issues of both food security (with its three key pillars of availability, access, and utilization) and food safety. A number of factors affect food and nutritional security (FNS) system on the macro and micro levels, which are intricately linked to each other (Figure 8.1). The factors that affect FNS at the macro level include economic stability, growth and distribution, public spending, and governance. The key sectors linked with these factors that play important roles in ensuring food security include agriculture, trade, health, and education. These factors are in turn regulated by economic policies of a nation and are prone to external stress of economic crisis and climate change. At the micro

150 People, planet, and progress beyond 2015

Figure 8.1 Overview of the FNS system Source: Adapted from Ecker and Breisinger (2012)

level, nutrition of all members of a household is equally subject to the household’s economic (and physical) access to food and to basic household assets and public services that can promote individuals’ good health and nutritional conditions. In most cases, limited access is due to inadequate financial resources, perpetuating the vicious cycle of poverty, malnutrition, and illness (Ecker and Breisinger 2012). According to Ziegler (2012), the three dimensions of right to food are availability, accessibility, and adequacy. • Availability refers to the possibilities either for feeding oneself directly from productive land or other natural resources, or for effective distribution, processing, and marketing systems that can move food from the production site to the utilization site in accordance with demand. • Accessibility implies that there is guaranteed economic and physical access to food, where economic access means that food should be affordable for sufficient diet without compromising other basic needs and physically vulnerable, such as sick, children, disabled or elderly should also have access to food. • Adequacy implies that the food must satisfy the dietary needs of every individual, of any age, living conditions, health, occupation, sex, culture, and religion. The food must be safe and both public and private means must take sufficient protective measures so as prevent contamination of foodstuffs through adulteration and poor environmental

hygiene or inappropriate handling at various stages throughout the food chain; naturally occurring toxins must be identified and removed. Food security is still a big question after two decades of World Food Summit. According to FAO (2015a), about 795 million people are still undernourished globally. Although this number of people is down 167 million over the last decade and 216 million less than that in 1990–92, it is still significant. The vast majority of the hungry people live in the developing regions, where, according to the FAO estimate, 780 million people were undernourished in 2014–16. As the monitoring period for the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets set by United Nations has already ended in 2015, it is time to assess the progress. As per FAO studies, the share of undernourished people in the total population for the developing regions decreased from 23.3% in 1990–92 to 12.9% in 2014–16. The prevalence of undernourishment (PoU) in these countries, which was 12.9% in 2014–16, has fallen by 44.5% since 1990–92 (FAO 2015b). FAO report on the State of Food Insecurity in the World (FAO 2015a) also stated that some regions, such as Latin America, the east and southeastern parts of Asia, the Caucasus and Central Asia, and the northern and western parts of Africa, have made rapid progress. Progress was also recorded in Southern Asia, Oceania, the Caribbean and Southern and Eastern Africa, but it was too slow a pace to reach the MDG1c target of halving the proportion of the chronically undernourished. According to FAO data, a total of 72 developing countries

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Box 8.1 Indicators for food availability • Share of calories derived from cereals, roots, and tubers • Average protein supply • Average supply of protein derived from animal sources • Average dietary energy supply adequacy • Average value of food production

out of 129 have reached the target of halving the hungry population as per MDG1c. In the developing regions as a whole, the two indicators of MDG1c, that is, the prevalence of undernourishment and the proportion of underweight children under 5 years of age, have declined (FAO 2015b). In some regions, including Western Africa, Southeastern Asia and South America, undernourishment declined faster than the rate for child underweight, which means there is a need to improve the quality of diets, hygiene conditions, and access to clean water, particularly for poorer population groups (FAO 2015b). As food safety holds an equal importance as food security, the following sections discuss both aspects. The first three sections deal with the three aspects of food security, that is, food availability, access, and utilization. Food availability covers production, distribution, and exchange, along with new initiatives like genetically modified (GM) crops. Food access and utilization deals with undernourishment, malnutrition, prevalence of nutritional deficiencies, and so on. The final section focuses on food safety, its relation with food security, global regulatory trends in food safety, risk analysis, and impact of food safety.

8.2 FOOD AVAILABILITY Food availability is defined as the supply of food that involves three major aspects: production, distribution, and exchange (see Box 8.1). Food production is the net result of interaction of a variety of factors, including land availability, nature of land use, soil conditions, weather and climatic conditions such as rainfall and temperature, crop selection, livestock breeding and management, and harvesting and status of farm technology. The use of land, water, and energy to grow food often competes with other uses that can affect food production (Godfray, Beddington, Crute, et al. 2010). Some of the factors responsible for the decline of the agricultural/cultivable land area include the use of land for the construction of buildings, urbanization, and some other kinds of losses resulting from soil erosion, desertification, pH imbalance, waterlogging, and so on. Good crop production is not always a measure of a nation’s food security. Countries do not have to produce crops to achieve food security, as exemplified by Singapore

and many other countries that hardly produce food adequate to feed their population (Luther 1999). Kuwait and United Arab Emirates (UAE) are examples of such nations whose average value of food production per capita (in US$) is as less as 91 and 46, respectively, and yet the prevalence of undernourishment in both these countries is less than 5%. The main strategies that worked for these MENA (Middle East and North African) countries included investments in integrated supply chain, trade with foreign food producers, and increased strategic reserves and efforts to reduce food wastage. As the producers of food (farming community) are always less than the consumers (non-farming community), food distribution systems must be efficient and effective to meet the demands of food for different sections of human population. Food distribution itself is a complex process involving various steps, such as processing, storage, transportation, packaging, and marketing. If it is not done efficiently, there could be a lot of food waste in this distribution chain that can increase the level of food insecurity. Food deficit countries or regions within countries have to depend on import of food grains from outside or markets within, which requires an efficient and reliable trade system and is regulated and has accessible market structure and distribution networks.

8.2.1 Food Production According to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment report (MEA 2005), the most important and direct driver of terrestrial ecosystem change during the past 50 years has been land cover change, especially the conversion of various ecosystems to agricultural land. The expansion of agricultural land due to adoption of new technologies and increased agricultural inputs has led to extraordinary progress in nutrition levels and food security. However, in low- and medium-income regions there are still 795 million people who are undernourished (FAO 2015b). Besides intensification of cropland use, there are other options that can play an important role; however, these are less emphasized and inadequately investigated. These options include (i) increasing the efficiency of the entire food chain from ‘‘field to fork,” (ii) changing diet towards food commodities requiring less land, and (iii) increasing yield and nutritive quality of permanent pastures, which globally amount to 3.5 billion ha—more than twice the area of the global croplands. These options become more important as providing food security to the world population and sustaining this security over the years is a big challenge (Wirsenius, Azar, and Berndes 2010). Although food production in all the major regions of the world has increased over the past decade (Figure 8.2), FAO projections show that even with decreasing consumption, agricultural production still needs to increase


Figure 8.2 Average value of food production (constant 1US$ per person) (3-year average)

by 60% (and nearly 80% in developing countries) in the next four decades or so in order to cope with a 39% increase in the world population and increase global dietary energy supply beyond 3000 kcal/person/day. This translates into additional production of almost 1 billion tonnes of cereals and less than 200 million tonnes of meat annually by 2050 (FAO 2014).

8.2.1.1 Major food commodities and their production scenario at global, national and regional levels Production of food crops, especially cereals, pulses, and roots and tubers, is one of the basic indicators of food security scenarios as these crops are the source of a major

part of nutrition. Figure 8.3 shows that America and Africa are at the lowest end of production, whereas Europe and Oceania are at the highest end, Asia being second in the rank. Considerable progress has been made in the Asian and African regions (Figure 8.4) in the production of roots and tubers, whereas a sharp decline was observed in the European region, especially after 1991. Asia and Oceania made good progress in the production of pulses from 2001 onwards (Figure 8.5). Oil crop production in all the three regions, that is, Asia, America, and Europe, has sharply risen after 1991, making these regions self-sufficient. Gross production index of various food crops has increased by considerable percentage from 1961 and a

Figure 8.3 Total production of cereals (MT)


Figure 8.4 Total production of roots and tubers (MT)

Figure 8.5 Total production of pulses (MT)

rapid increase has been observed since the 1990s. Gross per capita production for America and Asia is almost the same (Figure 8.6), but still the number of hungry people in Asia is considerably higher than that of America. Western Asia has the lowest per capita production, and yet the percentage of undernourished in this region is also quite low, which was around 8.7% in 2012–14 (FAO 2014). Compared to other regions of Asia, Southern Asia has the highest number of hungry people, which is 10.3%, although the per capita production of food crops in this region is not that low. These facts reveal that not only production but also distribution and access are also major factors which influence food insecurity. Asia has done reasonably well in the net per capita food production and shown a real commitment to increasing the same, especially after 1991. It is the only region in which there has been a continuous increase in per capita production.

In many countries, there has been a shift in diets towards meat and dairy products. The meat consumption in the developing countries has been growing at a rate of 2.7% per annum over the past decades. The consumption of milk and dairy products is also growing at 3.5%–4.0% per annum (FAO 2014). Milk and meat are two major nutrition sources. They are also a good protein source for humans. Again, Asia is the leading producer of both milk and meat, whereas Oceania is the lowest producer (Figures 8.7 and 8.8). There is a great disparity among various regions of countries in terms of dietary energy supply adequacy (Figure 8.12). Protein supply from animal sources such as meat, milk, and eggs is also one of the indicators of food security as per the World Food Summit convened by FAO in 1996. FAO data on this parameter is available from 1961 to 2011. Africa and Asia have shown a constant


Figure 8.6 Gross per capita production index number (2004–2006 = 100) (US$)

Figure 8.7 Total milk production in various regions of the world (in tonnes)

Figure 8.8 Total meat production in various regions of the world (in tonnes)


growth in the average protein supply from animal sources since 1960 (Figure 8.9) and similar trend has been seen in the case of India (Figure 8.10). When we look at two indicators of food availability, that is, average protein supply (g/capita/day) (Figure 8.11) and average supply of protein of animal origin (g/capita/day) (Figure 8.9), it is quite evident that almost half of the protein supply in developed countries comes from animal sources, whereas in developing countries animal sources provide a little more than onethird of dietary protein (Figures 8.10 and 8.12). In developed countries, 30%–35% of dietary energy supply is derived from agricultural crops (cereals, roots, and tubers), whereas in developing and least developed countries the share of crops in dietary energy supply is 55%–65% and 65%–75%, respectively (Figure 8.13). This implies that a major reason of food insecurity in developing and least developed countries

is the heavy reliance on agricultural crop production, which in turn is affected by various climatic, geographical, and weather conditions as well as pests and diseases.

Figure 8.9 Protein supply from animal sources (g/capita/day)

Figure 8.10 Protein supply in India from animal sources (g/capita/day)

Figure 8.11 Average protein supply (g/capita/day) (3-year average)

Figure 8.12 Average dietary energy supply adequacy (%) (3-year average)

8.2.2 Genetically Modified Crops and their Status in the World, and Role in Food Security Decreasing agricultural land and increasing population have put pressure on food production and, hence, on food security of the world. The stakeholders are forced to think of methods to reduce wastage of crop produce. Also, in the efforts to achieve food security, it becomes necessary to provide safer products for human consumption. Clive (2014) stated that “a safer product and decreased wastage in a vegetative propagated and perishable crop can contribute to higher productivity and food security.” About 30% of crop losses are attributed to pest and disease attacks. To


Figure 8.13 Share of dietary energy supply derived from cereals, roots, and tubers (%) (3-year average)

reduce these losses, efforts have been made to develop GM crops. In a meta-analysis, Klumper and Qaim (2014) reported that, on an average, GM technology adoption has reduced chemical pesticide use by 37%, increased crop yields by 22%, and increased farmer profits by 68%. They also claimed that yield and profit gains are higher in developing countries than in developed countries. According to the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA), “18 million farmers in 28 countries planted more than 181 million hectares in 2014, up from 175 million in 27 countries in 2013” (Figure 8.14). The developing countries are keener at adopting GM crops is evident from the fact that Bangladesh approved Bt brinjal for the first time on 30 October 2013, and in less than 100 days after approval, it was commercialized by small farmers (Clive 2014). Vietnam and Indonesia moved towards planting their first biotech crops in 2015 for a total of 9 biotech countries in Asia. Although it is evident that biotech crops contributed to food security, sustainability, and climate change by increasing crop production, providing a better environment, and helping alleviate poverty, their role in food security is still a far-sighted thing. When we consider the meta-analysis of Klumper and Qaim (2014), it becomes obvious that GM crops have a long way to go in playing a significant role in the world food security. As of now, most of the GM crops grown are oil crops, such as cotton, soybean, and canola. Maize is the only GM cereal crop that is widely accepted.

8.2.3 Distribution The annual food production is enough to feed the 6.9 billion people in the world today. However, access and

distribution of food are the key challenges to food security (Kattumuri 2011). Food production in the world is not evenly distributed, and so it becomes the responsibility of distribution systems to connect producers and consumers and also to ensure a fair allocation. The establishment of markets in which producers directly sell their food products to consumers is the most traditional method of distribution. These activities are performed by different economic agents, such as food producers, importers, transporters, wholesalers, retailers, processors, shopkeepers, vendors, service providers, public institutions, and consumers. They all need infrastructure, facilities, services, and laws as well as formal and informal regulations to govern their decisions (Argenti and Marocchino 2005). However, the current distribution system lacks proper transportation systems and regulated markets, and it is also unable to afford the costs of production and consumption, especially in the developing regions. About 16% of the rural populations in developing countries lack convenient access to a market, and so farmers are unable to sell their crops. In fact, it is estimated that at most 40% of any crop is marketed and only one-third of farmers sell to markets (EarthScan 2009). Inefficiency and inadequacy of distribution systems also aggravate the problem of food wastage as most food crops are perishable and prone to other losses by bacteria, fungus, and insects. According to FAO estimates, food in low-income countries is lost mostly during the early and middle stages of the food supply chain, and much less food is wasted at the consumer level. As per FAO infographics, on an average, 30% cereals, 20% dairy, 20% meat, and 45% roots and tubers are wasted worldwide. The studies also revealed that

Food Security and Safety 157 #1 USA*

#5 Canada*

Maize, soya bean, cotton, canola, sugar beet, alfalfa, papaya, squash

Canola, maize, soya bean, sugar beet

73.1 million has:

11.6 million has:

#22 Portugal

#17 Spain*

Maize

Maize