1. UNIT A2 1 Option A: Food Security and Sustainability

2. LEARNING OUTCOMES
Food Security/Food Poverty as a global issue Understand what is food security/food poverty; Understand the challenges to achieving food security; Understand food poverty as a global, local and national issue; and
Understand what is food security/food poverty;
Understand the challenges to achieving food security;
Understand food security/food poverty as a global, local and national issue; and
Understand the role of food banks as a solution to food poverty.

3. BACKGROUND TO FOOD SECURITY
The term ‘food (in)security’ identifies whether countries have adequate food supply to feed their populations.
Food is a basic right
Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) = “the right to adequate food and the fundamental right of everyone to be free from hunger”
2012 Sustainable Development Goals call for:
An end to poverty in all its forms everywhere
Zero hunger: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture.

4. THE GLOBAL FOOD SITUATION
According to the United Nations, the world population reached 7 billion on October 31, The world’s population is forecast to reach 9.3 billion by 2050 (UN Dept. Economic & Social Affairs, 2012).
Food prices rose rapidly after 2006 and peaked in 2012.
Rising food prices have driven an estimated 44 million people into poverty (World Bank, 2011).

5. CONTRIBUTORS TO FOOD INSECURITY
A growing population
Intensive farming
Climate change and severe weather events

6. POPULATION GROWTH
The world population continues to increase but this growth is slowing
Population growth = demand for more food making it harder to feed everyone
The planet has been unable to feed its growing population
Threat of food insecurity
The rich have been over eating while the poor have been starving

7. INTENSIVE FARMING
Intensive farming practices were designed to produce sufficient food for a growing population.
Produces high-yield crops, using fertilisers and pesticides.
Food production is increased but there are unwelcome side effects:
Land degradation
Soil erosion due to deforestation
Environmental pollution
Reduced biodiversity due to growing limited crop varieties
Potential harm to health
We need to increase our use of sustainable production methods – but this will produce less yield - so how do we feed a growing population?

8. CLIMATE CHANGE - CONTEXT
Thinking positively, it had been thought we could restrict global temperature increases to 2oC.
According to the World Bank, if global temperatures increase by 4oC: “There will be water and food fights everywhere” [Jim Yong Kim – World Bank President]
Currently we expect global temperature increases of 1.1oC - 6.4oC by the end of the 21st century
We need to act urgently and radically

9. CLIMATE CHANGE & SEVERE WEATHER EVENTS
Climate change has increased carbon dioxide levels, which has increased desertification and caused water-supply problems.
Rising ocean levels could flood low-lying farmlands with salt water and affect rice/wheat production.
Extreme weather events like floods, hurricanes, storm surges, and tsunamis have increased - extreme flooding could affect global distribution of food.
Some food-producing regions could become too hot to grow conventional crops, affect livestock growth and increase crop contamination.
Agricultural prices will be affected by climate change – reduced food supply will increase prices.

10. FOOD POVERTY: Globally
The Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that about 795 million people of the 7.3 billion people in the world, or one in nine, were suffering from chronic undernourishment in  
Direct action against hunger is essential
Increase in the need for Food Aid.

11. FOOD POVERTY: Nationally
The UK is the seventh richest country in the world yet some people cannot afford to eat enough food every day.
Food poverty is the inability to afford or access a healthy diet.
It has overtaken healthy eating as the most pressing public health concern.

12. FOOD POVERTY: Locally
17% of Northern Ireland’s population living in poverty in 2015/2016.
This equates to 318,000 people living in poverty in Northern Ireland, of which approximately 93,000 are children (aged 15 or under).
Some groups are more at risk than others such as children, working age adults and pensioners.
DSD NI Poverty Bulletin

13. CAUSES OF FOOD POVERTY IN UK
Rising housing and energy costs
Low wages / insecure work contracts
Welfare
Reform
Rising food prices
Increasing number of school
children
Aging population

14. FOOD AID This has all led to an increase in the need for Food Aid.
The principal suppliers of food aid in NI are:
FareShare
Food banks (independent and Trussell Trust)

15. FareShare
The main organization that collects and re-distributes surplus food from supermarkets and producers that would have otherwise gone to waste.
This food is redistributed to charitable organisations, to supplement ingredients for meals they prepare for individuals and families, reducing the amount they have to spend on food purchases, enabling them to focus more of their resources elsewhere (eg toiletries, sleeping bags, advice resources).

16. FOOD BANKS (Trussell Trust & independents)
427 Trussell Trust food banks
Provide food aid to people in severe need
1,182,954 parcels were  given to people in crisis 2016/2017
Redistribute food donated by consumers, retailers and the food industry
Non-perishable food: sugar, soup, pasta, jam and tinned products
Operated by a range of volunteer-based organisations - 40,000 people volunteered 2016/2017
Referral by a health or social care professional
Recipients may receive up to three consecutive referral vouchers to help avoid dependency
Rise in “Kettle Boxes”
We cannot ignore the hunger on our doorstep

17. FOOD BANKS IN NORTHERN IRELAND
The number of food banks in Northern Ireland has increased rapidly in 2011.
Trussell Trust, 2017

18. WHY DO PEOPLE RELY ON FOOD BANKS?

19. Supplementary Services
Food Bank Challenges
Operational Costs
Volunteers
Community Support
Accessibility
Supplementary Services
Welfare Reform
Fresh Produce

20. FOOD BANKS’ FOOD OFFER
Watch this video… What do you think?

21. DO FOOD BANKS SOLVE FOOD POVERTY?
Food aid like food banks and emergency food donations will continue but they should not be considered a long-term solution. They may provide immediate relief, but there is no evidence to show that food banks solve food insecurity.
Food banks do not:
Meet the rights of citizens in need;
Meet people’s social right to food;
Address people’s nutritional needs.
To reduce food insecurity the government must address the underlying structural causes of food poverty

22. Further reading
News Articles: –The Independent (2017) Food banks run out as hungry children on summer holidays have no access to free school meals. Available from: –BBC (2017) Who really goes to a food bank? Available from: Websites: –Trussell Trust: –Child Poverty Action: –Food Ethics Council: Published Reports: –Church Action on Poverty (2014) Below the Breadline. Available from: –FSA (2015) Understanding Food in the Context of Poverty, Economic Insecurity and Social Exclusion. Available from:

23. ANY QUESTIONS Beacom-E1@ulster.ac.uk McClelland-N1@ulster.ac.uk
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