Rayfuse, Rosemary; Weisfelt, Nicole --- "The international policy and regulatory challenges of food security: an overview" [2012] ELECD 1048; in Rayfuse, Rosemary; Weisfelt, Nicole (eds), "The Challenge of Food Security" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2012) 3

Book Title: The Challenge of Food Security

Editor(s): Rayfuse, Rosemary; Weisfelt, Nicole

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9780857939371

Section: Chapter 1

Section Title: The international policy and regulatory challenges of food security: an overview

Author(s): Rayfuse, Rosemary; Weisfelt, Nicole

Number of pages: 14

Abstract/Description:

The concept of food security is deceptively simple. Essentially, it involves ensuring that all people have access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and their food preferences and ensure an active, healthy life. Ensuring global food security is, however, not simple. Indeed, as Craig Pearson notes, ‘food insecurity has been a recurring problem throughout recorded history and no doubt pre-dates records’. According to the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), there are currently nearly one billion undernourished people in the world. With the demand for food projected to double within the next 50 years and the global population projected to increase from 7 to 9 billion, the number of undernourished people is expected to increase. The task of achieving global food security has been on the international agenda since the latter part of the 20th century. In 1945, the FAO was established to raise levels of nutrition, improve agricultural productivity, better the lives of rural populations and contribute to the growth of the world economy.