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!

Original Technorati articles tagged “food security”

• in Finance
  Arable Land Shortage and the Case for Agriculture and Farmland Investing
  The Investing Implications of Shrinking Arable Farmland
  by greenworldbvi / on Feb 28, 2012

Latest blogosphere posts tagged “food security”

 

• Yemen must not be allowed to become another Somalia | David Hearst

  
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  http://www.guardian.co.uk Yemen must not be allowed to become another Somalia | David Hearst Bringing the fight to al-Qaida is one thing; having to shoulder the burden of a country in a state of collapse is quite anotherIf there is one constant in a crisis-strewn world, it is that the humanitarian ...
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• Yemen must not be allowed to become another Somalia | David Hearst

  
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  Bringing the fight to al-Qaida is one thing; having to shoulder the burden of a country in a state of collapse is quite another If there is one constant in a crisis-strewn world, it is that the humanitarian situation in Yemen just gets worse. This time last year, Yemens dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh was beating a ...
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• Goulburn Valley Food Co-Operative: Open for membership

  
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  Photo by angelanoel via flickr CCIn late May 2011, Heinz Australia announced what it termed “productivity initiatives to accelerate future growth”. Translated, that meant it was shifting production from plants in Girgarre, Brisbane and Wagga Wagga to New Zealand – 344 jobs would disappear, including all 146 ...
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• Bottle or pot towers to combat malnutrition in the drylands (Willem Van Cotthem)

  
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  Only two photos to show that it is possible to combat malnutrition everywhere on earth, even in the driest places :  teach people how to set up their own bottle or pot towers and have them growing fresh vegetables and … Continue reading →
  2 days ago

• Drought and resulting hunger crisis have hit southern Mali particularly hard (Google / Rescue)

  
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  Read at : Google Alert – images of the Africa Drought http://www.rescue.org/blog/photos-drought-mali Photos: Drought in Mali May 21, 2012 By The IRC Hanna Taylor, an environmental health expert with the International Rescue Committee’s Emergency Response Team, took these photos as … Continue reading →
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• A food crisis is about to turn into a famine in Niger (Google / ABC)

  
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  VIDEO SEEN AT : Google Alert – images of the Africa Drought http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2012/s3510581.htm West Africa faces food crisis Australian Broadcasting Corporation Broadcast: 24/05/2012 Reporter: Ginny Stein Drought in West Africa’s Sahel region means a hunger crisis is inevitable according to … ...
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• Upcoming Review on eFoods Direct.com

  
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  Coming up soon on my blog, I’ll be sharing my thoughts on eFoods Direct , a company that offers traditional freeze-dried and dehydrated food products. This company stands on three basic principles: Serve, Save, and Share. Serve great food and one another, Save for unforeseen circumstances that lie ahead, and ...
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• In South America, indigenous women break new ground

  
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  Women in Chirikyacu, Peru, work together to cultivate traditional crops. Photo: Percy Ramirez/Oxfam America The more I learn about Oxfam’s work in South America—and I’ve learned a lot in recent months—the more impressed I am by the power of women. Indigenous people in countries like Peru, Bolivia, and ...
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• Atlantic Food Summit Today

  
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  I will be attending the Atlantic Food Summit today, eager to hear the discussion on childhood nutrition, obesity and most important, how to feed 9 billion people sustainably. I will be sharing  and posting on all of that in detail and for the first time, will also attempt to tweet as it happens! Please follow ...
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• Better support for, and integration of, mixed crop and animal farming is key to increasing and sustaining world food production

  
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  A crop and livestock farmer in Uttarakhand, India. Integrated crop and livestock farming systems can play a significant role in improving global food security (photo credit: ILRI/Susan Macmillan). Gita Fartiyal is a master’s student at Almora University, in Uttarakhand, India. She is also a small-scale livestock ...
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• Rethinking the Problem of Food Waste

  
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  As Urban Gleaners: Reducing Food Waste to Reduce Hunger demonstrates, food waste can be used effectively, and humanely to feed people, but it’s not a cure for hunger and food insecurity. As Tracy Oseran notes, there’s plenty of food to feed those in need, it’s really a distribution problem. How do we grapple ...
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• Guest Contributor Tim Hanstad: Poor Land Tenure: A Key Component to Why Nations Fail

  
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  The murder of five land rights campaigners during the last two months – one in Colombia , three in Brazil , and one in Cambodia – have not captured many headlines, but they are a reminder of the central role land tenure plays not just in rural economic development but also in sparking broadly distributed ...
  3 days ago

• Stop land grabbing!

  
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  The New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, launched at the G8 summit, is yet another business-driven initiative that will fail to tackle hunger or support food producers in Africa. As a group of African civil society organisations and small farmers groups said , it is neither new nor is it an alliance: ...
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• Can Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution Hope to Achieve Food Policy Change?

  
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  Jamie Oliver declared May 19th Food Revolution Day  calling on “an international community of foodies, chefs, parents, educators, companies, activists and celebrities to arm people with the knowledge and tools to make healthier food choices.” But can he really make a difference?
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• Five Questions about the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition

  
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  Originally posted at Feed the Future . U.S. President Barack Obama announces the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition at the Symposium on Global Agriculture and Food Security on May 18. Photo Credit: Chicago Council on Global Affairs 1. What is the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, ...
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• DURING BURKINA FASO VISIT, UN RELIEF CHIEF STRESSES NEED FOR RAPID RESPONSE TO FOOD CRISIS (UN News)

  
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  New York, May 23 2012 11:05AM The United Nations humanitarian chief today stressed the need to respond rapidly to the food and nutrition crisis in Burkina Faso, which is affecting some 2.8 million people, and underlined the importance of building … Continue reading →
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• Crop, tree, water, livestock and fish scientists call for action at Rio+20 sustainable development summit

  
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  CGIAR centres and initiatives signing a 7-point ‘CGIAR Call to Action’ at the June 2012 Rio+20 UN sustainable development summit. Mark Kinver at the BBC reports today on a global group calling for decision-makers at the June Rio+20 sustainable development summit to take a concerted approach to agricultural ...
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• London 2012: David Cameron to hold hunger summit during Olympic Games

  
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  Major event on food security to be held during Games to focus worlds attention on combating hunger and malnutrition The British prime minster, David Cameron, will hold a summit on food security during this summers Olympic Games in London. In a statement to the House of Commons on Wednesday, Cameron announced his ...
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• Urban Gleaners: Reducing Food Waste to Reduce Hunger

  
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  A simple idea that came out of hearing a story  on the radio. For Tracy Oseran , it was something she had to do: help find and distribute food that would otherwise be thrown out — perfectly edible food—from supermarkets, farmer’s markets, events, and restaurants, and deliver that food to agencies and schools ...
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• The Stream, May 23: Glacial Floods, Robot Fish and Missing School for Water

  
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  Chile A glacial lake in Chile’s Patagonia region drained for the eleventh time since 2008, releasing a flood of 200 million cubic liters of water through a hole in the temperature-weakened glacier wall, AFP reported. The Inter Press Service reports on why Chile relies so heavily on hydropower , despite its ...
  3 days ago

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