Food security remains a persistent global challenge. Food security is defined as a
situation where 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. The Food and Agriculture Organisation 2013 State of Food and
Agriculture review reports that in excess of 868 million people, 12 percent of the global
population, are undernourished. Global inequalities mean that this challenge is
disproportionately experienced. Food insecurity manifests most severely in specific
geographies. Global demographic changes have resulted in shifts in the locus of these
experiences. Food insecurity in urban areas, particularly in developing countries, is a
persistent yet poorly understood phenomenon.
Responses to food security have primarily focused on ensuring food availability,
resulting in responses that are predominantly production-orientated. This approach
presupposes a principally rural challenge and overlooks critical emerging urban food
insecurity challenges. The production and rural dominance in efforts to ameliorate food
insecurity have a number of consequences. The first consequence reflects a scientific and
technology-driven focus on increasing or optimising net calories produced. Secondly, where
access to produced food is constrained, welfare interventions are used to mitigate challenges.
Such interventions are predominantly reactive and lack strategic focus. The third
consequence, informed by the preceding two interventions, sees policies and legislation that
reinforces the production/welfare paradigm. Such food security responses disregard the
current transitions evident within society.