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”

• 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
  1 day 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. ...
  1 day 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 ...
  1 day ago

• Rally for food security in Delhi Thursday

  
  Thaindian News — Authority: 719
  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 ...
  1 day 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?". ...
  1 day ago

• Mixed Results from World Summit on Food Security

  
  Friends of the World Food Program: Uniting to End Hunger — Authority: 133
  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 ...
  1 day ago

• Can jatropha growers deliver?

  
  Oxfam America Blog — Authority: 413
  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 ...
  2 days ago

• The Human Face of Hunger Demands Climate Action at Copenhagen

  
  TreeHugger — Authority: 719
  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 ...
  2 days ago

• Chemical spiders, agriculture and the next generation of bioscientists

  
  Professor Douglas Kell's blog — Authority: 107
  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 ...
  2 days ago

• Surviving Without Sacrificing Values

  
  Ha Ha Ha! — Authority: 119
  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 ...
  2 days ago

• Manmohan Singh hopes to build enduring partnership with Obama

  
  Thaindian News — Authority: 719
  By Arun KumarWashington, Nov 22 (IANS) Ahead of his Tuesday summit with President Barack Obama, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has expressed the hope that the two sides can work together to build an enduring partnership based on equality and mutual understanding.“We are strategic partners. We have good relations. But ...
  3 days ago

• Attapeu villagers benefit from food security project

  
  Lao Voices — Authority: 451
  Health Unlimited is working to improve access to wetland resources including agriculture and non-timber forest products, and to improve health and nutrition services for communities in Attapeu province.The project is called Food Security: Healthy Wetlands for Healthy Women, Children and Men. It was supported by the ...
  4 days ago

• Schoolchildren, let them eat snail: Nutritional Giant Snails Could Address Malnutrition (Science Daily / Inderscience Publishers)

  
  Desertification — Authority: 149
  Read at : Science Dailyhttp://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091119101207.htmLet Them Eat Snail: Nutritional Giant Snails Could Address MalnutritionScienceDaily (Nov. 20, 2009) — A nutritionist in Nigeria says that malnutrition and iron deficiency in schoolchildren could be reduced in her country by baking up ...
  4 days ago

• “The hungry cannot wait” (ENB / IISD)

  
  Desertification — Authority: 149
  Read at :World Summit on Food Security Bulletin· · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · ·A Daily Report from the World Summit [...]
  4 days ago

• Food : How to store and sell more stuff (The Economist)

  
  Desertification — Authority: 149
  Read at : The Economisthttp://www.economist.com/world/international/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14926122Food marketsHow to store and sell more stuffNov 19th 2009From The Economist print editionPoor places need more than seeds, fertiliser or even food scienceIF FOOD aid is epitomised by a single image, it is that of neat ...
  4 days ago

• Displaced Zimbabwean Farmers Set Down Roots in Nigeria

  
  Circle of Blue | WaterNews — Authority: 533
  Importing technical knowledge from Zimbabwean migrants is part of the Nigerian government’s plan to increase food self-sufficiency. The Nigerian government is inviting foreign farmers and giving them 1,000 hectares of land with 25-year leases in the agricultural hub of Shonga in order to improve food production, ...
  4 days ago

• News Feed — November 20, 2009

  
  Green Fork Blog — Authority: 492
  Fund Good Food The Kellogg Foundation announced $32 million worth of grants in the local food arena last week, to be spent over the next three years in nine communities across the country. Or Not Many are disappointed by the results of the World Hunger Summit in Rome this week, where few leaders from wealthier ...
  4 days ago

• World Food Summit Wraps

  
  ONE — Authority: 535
  Wednesday wrapped up the World Summit on Food Security in Rome. Just to recap in case you missed the last post, the Summit was intended to bring together heads of state and food security institutions, like the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Program (WFP), to further the global agenda on ...
  4 days ago

• US should be ‘more liberal’ in transferring technologies: Manmohan Singh (Lead)

  
  Thaindian News — Authority: 719
  By Arun KumarWashington, Nov 20 (IANS) Ahead of his upcoming summit with President Barack Obama, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has expressed the hope that the the US will be “more liberal” in transferring technologies to India to make their landmark civil nuclear fully operational.“We have a landmark agreement ...
  5 days ago

• Next Briefing on food crisis and food insecurity

  
  euforic blog — Authority: 110
  The next Brussels Development Briefing will be held on 9th December and will discuss “From Global Food Crisis to Local Food Insecurity” in the context of the new EC policy on Food security to be released. The Briefing will be looking at the domino effects of increased speculation in food markets (How has the ...
  5 days ago

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