Food Security

Food security at the individual or household level means access to enough nutritious food to sustain an active and healthy life. The Community Food Securition Coalition defines community food security as a "condition in which all community residents obtain a safe, culturally acceptable, nutritionally adequate diet through a sustainable food system that maximizes community self-reliance and social justice," which covers six basic principles:

• Low Income Food Needs - Focusing on meeting the food needs of low income communities, reducing hunger and improving individual health.
• Broad Goals - Addressing a broad issues, such as increasing poverty and hunger, disappearing family farms, urban food deserts, rural communities, suburban sprawl, and ag- and food-related air and water pollution.
• Community focus - Building up a community's food resources to meet its own needs, through farmers' markets, gardens, community-based food processing ventures and urban farms, for example.
• Self-reliance/empowerment - Building individuals' abilities to provide for their food needs.
• Local agriculture - Building stronger ties between farmers and consumers.
• Systems-oriented - Crossing many boundaries and incorporating collaborations with multiple agencies.

Blogs that address food security include World Watch Institute and U.S. Food Policy.

by Liz Marr, MS, RD Are you a writer, passionate about this or any other topic? Join Blogcritics!

Latest blogosphere posts tagged “Food Security”

• Five Reasons Why We Can Defeat Hunger (WFP)

  
  Desertification — Authority: 149
  Read at :http://www.wfp.org/stories/five-reasons-why-we-can-defeat-hunger?msource=NEWS&tr=y&auid=5628996Five Reasons Why We Can Defeat HungerThe world is better positioned than ever before to fight and defeat global hunger, WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran told delegates at the World Food Summit in Rome, ...
  7 hours ago

• Malnutrition is typically everyone’s business but no one’s responsibility (IRIN /

  
  Desertification — Authority: 149
  Read at : IRIN $8.8 billion the magic malnutrition number?DAKAR, 24 November 2009 (IRIN) – It would take US$8.8 billion annually over several years to halve the number of malnourished children worldwide, currently at some 178 million, says Save the Children in a new eight-point action plan.In its report, Hungry for ...
  7 hours ago

• UN BOOSTS FOOD AID TO THOUSANDS UPROOTED BY TRIBAL VIOLENCE IN DR CONGO (UNNews / WFP)

  
  Desertification — Authority: 149
  Read at : UNNewsUN BOOSTS FOOD AID TO THOUSANDS UPROOTED BY TRIBAL VIOLENCE IN DR CONGONew York, Nov 25 2009  2:05PMThe United Nations World Food Programme (<”http://www.wfp.org/news/news-release/wfp-boosts-assistance-displaced-people-roc-and-drc”>WFP) said today it is ramping up efforts to feed tens of ...
  7 hours ago

• synthetic fertilisers polluting Punjab groundwater: Greenpeace

  
  Thaindian News — Authority: 726
  Bathinda (Punjab), Nov 26 (IANS) The excessive use of chemical fertilisers in Punjab has led to high levels of nitrate contamination in the groundwater, Greenpeace has said in a study conducted across some Punjab districts. Nitrate contamination in water can cause health hazards, including stomach cancer. The Indian ...
  14 hours ago

• Will the GMO Debate Ensnare Biomass?

  
  CleanTechies Blog - CleanTechies.com — Authority: 433
  Share Climate change not only presents difficult challenges for the energy industry, but also raises serious concerns about food security as loss of topsoil and desertification reduce arable land around the world.  Within this climate, genetically-modified crops (GMOs) will play a crucial role in supporting ...
  15 hours ago

• Climate action without farming action? No way.

  
  Sheepdrove's Weblog — Authority: 114
  “Unless we are successful in tackling climate change, we won’t be able to feed the world’s growing population, however we farm. This report shows that agriculture can reduce greenhouse gas emissions while producing food sustainably.” Patrick Holden, Soil Association director ‘Organic farming may counter ...
  16 hours ago

• SCHOOL MEALS KEY TO FEEDING AND EDUCATING MOST VULNERABLE CHILDREN (UNNews)

  
  Desertification — Authority: 149
  Read at : UNNewsSCHOOL MEALS KEY TO FEEDING AND EDUCATING MOST VULNERABLE CHILDREN – UN REPORTNew York, Nov 24 2009  3:05PMThe introduction of  free meal programmes not only ensures children are fed, but are crucial to keeping the poorest and most vulnerable in school while providing a boost to learning and ...
  21 hours ago

• India-US relationship to focus on five Es

  
  Thaindian News — Authority: 726
  By Arun KumarWashington, Nov 26 (IANS) Economy, energy, environment, education and empowerment — the India-US relationship will accord new emphasis to these areas, says Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, adding that ties in defence, security and counter-terrorism will be consolidated.Addressing the Indian American ...
  23 hours ago

• Bread Launches Hunger 2010 Report

  
  ONE — Authority: 491
  This week our partner organization Bread for the World, launched their 2010 Hunger Report A Just and Sustainable Recovery. “To blunt the surge of hunger, unemployment, and the long-term effects of climate change, we need a just and sustainable economic recovery,” said Rev. David Beckmann, president of Bread for ...
  1 day ago

• A Thanksgiving Reflection on Food

  
  God's Politics Blog — Authority: 659
  The United States is a country that is at once overweight and hungry.  There are those among us who are overweight and obese.  There are those among us who live with food insecurity.  There are those among us who are…
  1 day ago

• The Kel Word: Chew on This

  
  Velvetpark | Dyke Culture in Bloom — Authority: 143
  After spending two months on an organic farm and lots more time than that mulling the matter, I have come to regard food security and sustainable agriculture as two incredibly under-valued initiati
  2 days ago

• SYRIA: Drought response faces funding shortfall (IRIN)

  
  Desertification — Authority: 149
  Read at : IRINSYRIA: Drought response faces funding shortfall DAMASCUS, 24 November 2009 (IRIN) – With a few weeks left before the end of this year’s planting season, UN officials have raised concerns over the lack of funds to help drought-hit farmers and herders in northeastern Syria.“The situation is worrying. ...
  2 days ago

• ETHIOPIA: Gov’t rejects politicized food aid claims (IRIN)

  
  Desertification — Authority: 149
  Read at : IRINETHIOPIA: Gov’t rejects politicized food aid claimsADDIS ABABA, 24 November 2009 (IRIN) – The Ethiopian government has vehemently rejected accusations that it has excluded some opposition supporters from a food-for-work programme, charges that are the focus of growing international concern in the ...
  2 days ago

• Rally for food security in Delhi Thursday

  
  Thaindian News — Authority: 726
  New Delhi, Nov 24 (IANS) Hundreds of people are expected for a rally in Delhi Thursday to demand change of government policies to ensure food security for all.Announcing the initiative at a press conference in the capital Tuesday, Colin Gonsalves of the Right to Food Campaign said: “Much of the present food crisis ...
  2 days ago

• The Mountain comes to Merriwether

  
  Merriwether's Journal — Authority: 110
  About a year ago assorted powerful members of the Houston city council began talking to each other and discovered they are all very concerned about what is happening in the world. One fear in particular was shared by all of them, "What happens if fuel prices sky rocket making it impossible to ship food to Houston?". ...
  3 days ago

• Mixed Results from World Summit on Food Security

  
  Friends of the World Food Program: Uniting to End Hunger — Authority: 134
  Last week I wrote a post about the beginning of the World Summit on Food Security, hosted by the United Nations.  At the end of the summit several countries promised to increase their funding to agricultural programs to help developing countries become more independent.  They also agreed to five principles ...
  3 days ago

• Can jatropha growers deliver?

  
  Oxfam America Blog — Authority: 415
  Violeta Sithole, with her son on her back, prepares her field to plant beans. Photo by Chris Hufstader/Oxfam America. When the lights went out at 9pm last Wednesday with a loud click, I was just finishing up in the shower and was a little late getting out in time to find my flashlight. I was in a comfortable ...
  3 days ago

• The Human Face of Hunger Demands Climate Action at Copenhagen

  
  TreeHugger — Authority: 716
  Photo credit: IRRI Images via Flickr As I prepare to attend the United Nations conference on climate change in Copenhagen , I am reminded of the people Ive met while working in 85 countries around the world. Ive seen global suffering first-hand, and it shapes the way I approach the challenge of global climate ...
  3 days ago

• Chemical spiders, agriculture and the next generation of bioscientists

  
  Professor Douglas Kell's blog — Authority: 108
  I blog fairly regularly about the scientific opportunities opened up by the online digital availability of huge amounts of interesting stuff. One very useful set of stuff concerns the properties of small molecules, that may be of interest in general or, more particularly, because of their possible use in chemical ...
  3 days ago

• Surviving Without Sacrificing Values

  
  Ha Ha Ha! — Authority: 120
  A couple years ago I gave a speech to the graduating class of the Hawai‘i Community College. I talked about survival. I told them stories that my Pop told me when I was a small kid. And how they could make short-term decisions without sacrificing their long-term core values. It was very well received and it was ...
  3 days ago

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