Agrarian reform policy, globalization, etc.

Some think that so long as the total demand for food of a country is no more than the total supply, food security is ensured. However, even when there is surplus food, some groups of the population may suffer from food insecurity if their incomes are not sufficient to buy adequate food or if they do not have access to adequate food. Hence, the food security question cannot be separated from income distribution (or social safety net) issues.

Answer to your question Sherlito relating to which the best predictors of food security index.  I will take it differently from Mohammmad response. In my opinion growing up in the Philippines with rich fertile soil, food safety economics and security has to come from individual people and start growing their food at their own backyard where it used to be. The current society of consumption, land exploitation of our natural resources, water contamination plus over population it means that our fertile land will not be able to sustained. We need to start living sustainable way and living the land where our ancestors used to be. We are so reliant on convenience without thinking the implications that our future generations and the generations to come will endure. Food security is being able to full back of what you have when financial income is not sufficient. Government and policy makers needs to encourage the community to start growing food in order to alleviate poverty. Any surplus of food can be use for trade. There are a lot of things that you can do with surplus food, i.e. food preservation.

Experiences differ, and hence solution would differ, too.

Unfortunately most people in our cities do not have a backyard. Everyone growing food cannot possibly be a solution.

I agree that everybody have different experiences and solution to our own predicament is different too, but is it time for us to think together and find a solution instead of delaying the issues that matters to us all and look back of how our ancestors live the land. For me, growing your own food is one of the solution and be a sustainable as much as you can be, this will alleviate poverty especially for members of the community  that income is not sufficient . We have a very small space but we manage to fit in 7 fruit trees and 25 different varieties of vegetables in our front yard. We don't have a lawn every space of small land are covered with edible food, our backyard is only 8 steps from our back door, but we managed to grow edible plants in pots, buckets, recycled bath tubs, and wire hanging baskets. Sherlito, I am not an expert, I based my thoughts on experience and working with the Elders, but I grow up in a small province of the Philippines where farmers used to keep some of the seeds for the next seasons of planting but when I went back home early last year, I caught up some of the local farmers.  It surprised me that agrarian farmers seems to rely so much on fertilizers and farmers has to buy the seeds for the next season, why? what's the change. In terms of economic globalization, it impacts on local culture  and ways of life. Our current system will not withstand for another century, it will collapse unless we acknowledge climate change and work together.

I like to think of food security as composed of 4 components, and when any of these components are threatened then a person or population becomes food insecure.

While these four are not predictors I think it is a helpful way of thinking about food security and how to determine if it is being achieved. As for predictors, I would tend to want to look at vulnerable populations. Even in moments of extreme famine only a share of the total population is threatened. These are usually people who are marginalized in the country, with less economic/political power and less access to markets. In moments of productivity shocks (i.e. droughts, or disease) poor farmers with limited access to markets (due to distance and lack of resources) are often most vulnerable. In moments of price shocks, you would tend to see urban poor more negatively effected, as they are already spending a larger share of their budget on food, and are less capable of absorbing the price shock with own food production.

I can think of two indicators (ratios) that can be good predictors of food insecurity, which include key variables to watch out for.  One is the ratio of Sales of agricultural products (or ag-income) to off-farm income, and the other is the ratio  of food expenditure to expenditure on other goods and services.  In this way one is looking at the issue of food availability and access to food at the same time.  The higher values on both ratios, the more vulnerable families are to food insecurity.  From both ratios one can derive that the key variables to watch out for are: relative prices (sale products, inputs and consumption goods), production (area harvested and yields), salaries and off-farm employment.  Talking about vulnerability and resilience, one should pay attention to the level of income/production, and also to income/production diversification.  Higher diversification lead to less vulnerability to food insecurity. The indicators should be calculated at the family level. 

Looking at it from the developing countries point of analysis, despite the fact that some are engaged in Agriculture, i will focus on : Income, availability( how much is produced, how much is readily available and how much is consumed), Affordability( can every home or family, afford a quality meal/balanced meal/diet) and Accessibility( crops being produced how easily accessible is it to the population, from the point of production to the larger market and for individual and family consumption). if these are lacking, it will have an effect on the food security of a society.

Regards:

Food security (and therefore also food insecurity) itself is a multidimensional issue, which cannot be adequately recorded by a single indicator. Some indicators to measure food security at the national level are: % of rural population (access), consumer price index (access), import dependency ratio (stability), food supply or kcal/capita/day (availability), prevalence of undernourishment (utilization), and unemployment rate (access). But none of these indicators ensure that food reaches everyone; and less if there are no public policies that support the equitable distribution of resources, including food. At the community, household and individual levels (most relevant to public health approaches to food security) are important to consider indicators such as: food resources (type of food stores, food available, food prices, food production, etc.), socioeconomic/demographic characteristics (employment status, income, poverty status, household structure, etc.), coping actions to obtain food, and neighborhood characteristics, among others. All for the purpose of identifying the underlying causes that are critical to good policy developments.

Carmen María Pérez

I agree with you Carmen, to be sustainable in terms of food security, we have to look at the contributing factors that influences insecurities as you mentioned. The issue itself is global, in my opinion the changes has to be made from the grassroots  level, individual actions and mindset towards food and living sustainably. Another contributor factors will be food wastage - i.e. as individual consumer how much we throw away? Do we ask ourselves on this matter? Does our daily activities are part of these insecurities and why? We have all these ideas but only a few reaches to the policy makers and then it get shelves and collect dust. The reality is until we can work together and put aside our  differences for the sake of the life that we  enjoy now, for our children to inherent it and for the next generations come.

Anyone interested in the subject of food security and its measurements would ask why there are so many indicators out there about food security, and if they refer to the same subject or follow similar approaches.

Let me refer and compare in this note IFPRI’s Global Hunger Index and the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Global Food Security Index, as two of the indicators that are quite popular and have been in the market for several years.

The Global Hunger Index (GHI) was created by the International Food Policy Institute (IFPRI).  The GHI can be classified as an output index, in the sense that it measures the state and evolution of hunger as a proxy for food insecurity.  The GHI is calculated at a country and regional level so it can be useful to raise awareness and understanding of trends and regional and country differences in hunger.

The GHI measures hunger indirectly by combining  three equally weighted indicators: undernourishment, child underweight, and child mortality (see http://goo.gl/sQSyJE for latest estimation).

On the other hand, the GFSI is estimated by the EIU, and sponsored by Dupont (see latest report at http://foodsecurityindex.eiu.com/). Contrary to the GHI above, the GFSI is an input index, in the sense that is measures the state and evolution of variables that contribute or are considered drivers for food security across countries. 

If GHI is an output index, and the GFSI is an input index, then there should be a high negative correlation between both (negative because for the GHI, zero is the best score and 100 is the worst score).  Check the numbers (comparing trends, countries and indicators) and see if countries that solved or made progress on issues known to have a positive impact on food security had a better performance according to the GHI index.  In the process, as stated by The Economist Intelligence Unit in its web page, one can “begin exploring the challenges and then developing solutions.”

http://goo.gl/sQSyJE

http://foodsecurityindex.eiu.com/