I cant claim to know this, but I think food security has different aspects like safety, adequate nutrition, acces to food etc I think any/comibion of these aspects can be used as indicator of food security. Thanks

Thank you so much Fredrick...

Dear Hamisu,

FAO defines food security as: "Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food which meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life." and you probably know this definition and it is not one indicator but rather a complex story. However the indicator that comes to my mind is the Global Hunger Index (GHI) developed by IFPRI and it combines undernourishment, child wasting, child stunting and child mortality. 

Kind Regards,

Milorad

Thank you so much Milorad...

Food Security is first of all a right of the people in a given territory to have "physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food". However, this is not a simple wish expression; it shall be incorporated first of all in the Country's  Constitution (or equivalent laws). If this constitutional right exists, then the next step is to see how it is implemented in practice (jobs creation, education, social plans, etc.). Implementation in practice, is more difficult to achieve than to declare the constitutional right to food security, but without this Food Security is not assumed as a basic responsibility of the Society. Main Religions have always supported the idea od Food Security, but it has been seen as a moral principle rather than a political and social obligation (rights and obligations are sides of the same coin). In some languages "Food Safety" is confused with "Food Security", but food security includes food safety, therefore in practice the status of food safety in a given country, it is also one of the parameters that refer to food security.

Dear Hamisu, there is a plenty of different indicators that are used for measuring food security or insecurity. As already mentioned they are related to varius domains as food avalability, food access, food quality/safety and utilisation. Foremost it depends on the research context and scale (individual, household/community, regional or national). I would recommend some literature overview such as a review of food and nutrition security indicators by ZEF team: http://www.zef.de/uploads/tx_zefportal/Publications/wp108.pdf

Or comparison of several indicators by TUFTS university:  http://fic.tufts.edu/assets/Different-Indicators-of-HFS.pdf

Or USDA guide on measuring household food security:  http://www.fns.usda.gov/sites/default/files/FSGuide.pdf

For concise literature and relevant inspiration, you can find research papers of desirable scale for example published in the journal 'Food security'

Or for the worldwide scale, you can directly see and download data from FAO: http://www.fao.org/economic/ess/ess-fs/ess-fadata/en/#.V7TOKZiLTIU

Dear Hamisu, As mentioned by other colleagues above, food security can have many different aspects. One of these could be what food manufacturers can do to prevent deliberate and malicious attacks. A publication by BSI is available from the UK Food Standards Agency though the attached link. I hope this will be useful. With best wishes, Philip

http://www.food.gov.uk/sites/default/files/pas96-2014-food-drink-protection-guide.pdf

Thanks to you all, I really benefit from your comments/suggestions and contributions, one love...

There is no universal measurement for food security. However, Proxies are used. These proxies are documented and chosen based on the aspect of food security you are studying.

Dear Hamisu, Adanna's comment reminded me of this free document on a UK Government website (https://www.food.gov.uk/sites/default/files/pas96-2014-food-drink-protection-guide.pdf). It covers only one aspect of food security (in food retailing) but may be helpful for your research regarding definitions and procedures. I have attached a copy. This PAS publication is a type of standard which is produced quickly in answer to an immediate problem. It is only valid for a short time but can provide the basis for a later ISO or other standard. I'm sorry this answer is so long after your original request. With best wishes, Philip

Dear Hamisu Ali: Re Food Security Questions.

Here is a sample food security question and possible answers for families and participant children in our nutrition program. Hopefully you may modify the question/answers to suit your situation. Please see below. Best wishes.  Stella.

FOOD SECURITY QUESTION:

WHICH STATEMENT BEST DESCRIBES THE FOOD EATEN IN THIS CHILD’S HOUSEHOLD IN THE LAST 12 MONTHS?  Select the most appropriate answer that pertains to the child or family.

(SINGLE DIGITS CODES)

1= Enough and the kinds of food wanted

2= Enough but not the type of food wanted

3= Sometimes not enough

4= Often not enough

5= Refused

9= Unknown

I think that beforfe good indicators for FS can be developed one should know the conceptual frame for a study. For FS different, very diverse appraoches are around, som elooking at FS as a result of increasing food production, and others giving greater emphasis on distributional aspects, looking more at access to food that is there.

Food science has a role to play to achieve food security, but its importance is often seen too high. The assumption that too little food is produced to feed everybody on the planet is incorrect. Actually enough food statistically is around, but not everybody has access to what is available. Food science can cause increase in the cost of food making it unaffordable for poor people. The Green Revolution is an example for this. High Yielding Varieties cost money, fertilizers, pesticides and other high costs for external inputs make agriculture costly. Still plant science can help to better adapt agriculture for example to a changing climate.

One aspect that brings issues around food security together is the sustainable livelihood approach. The external aspects of these approaches include seasonality of all sorts that can threaten people's livelihood security. Of course livelihood security is a concept much broader than food security, but there are a lot of overlaps, especially in times of climate change.....

Crucial is to keep the basis of food production is good shape.

Environmental degradation is very dangerous from such perspective. Second is the distribution / access to food, which is to remove poverty. To better understand what is needed one needs to be aware of the different facets of food security.

Food security is a situation that exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life

This is how the FAO defines food security. It combines food production, distribution and consumption, looks into cultural and individual food preferences and also at quality aspects of food both from a nutrition perspective as well as from the perspective of food safety. Climate / environmental changes can have impacts on all these aspects, on food production, food distribution / access and food consumption.

Food production and climate change

all food crops have their optimum what climatetic conditons such as temperature, rainfall, etc are concerned. Especially extremes (too cold, too hot, too wet, too dry) can have devasting impacts. Some plants can tolerate a wide range of conditions, while other plants are rather little flexible to adapt to changing climatic conditons. In addition natural hazards (floods, cyclones, droughts) can have devasting impacts destroying crops in the fields. This all does not mean that only negative impacts are from climate change to agriculture. E.G. the temperate zones towards the poles will have warmer climates allowing longer vegetation periods, longer for crops like wheat. The impacts thus have to be established in regional or even sub-regional dimensions.

Access to food and climate change

this addresses in particular the changes of food prices as a result of climate change. Here in particular countries are effected that already now import big parts of their food requirements, like Kiribati, Tuvalu and other atoll states. Already today food imports make much of their imports and have very negative impacts on their BoP situation. On the micro-level afford rising food prices. They have to change to cheaper foods, often of lesser quality.

McCarthy, J. F., & Obidzinski, K. (2017). Framing the food poverty question: Policy choices and livelihood consequences in Indonesia. Journal of Rural Studies, 54, 344-354.

Cramer, L., Huyer, S., Lavado, A., Loboguerrero, A. M., Martínez Barón, D., Nyasimi, M., ... & van Wijk, M. (2017). Methods Proposed to Evaluate the Potential Impact of Climate Change on Food and Nutrition Security in Central America and the Dominican Republic.

Moragues-Faus, A., Sonnino, R., & Marsden, T. (2017). Exploring European food system vulnerabilities: Towards integrated food security governance. Environmental Science & Policy, 75, 184-215.

Chandra, A., McNamara, K. E., Dargusch, P., Caspe, A. M., & Dalabajan, D. (2017). Gendered vulnerabilities of smallholder farmers to climate change in conflict-prone areas: A case study from Mindanao, Philippines. Journal of Rural Studies, 50, 45-59.