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Research Guides

Food Security and Nutrition - A Global Issue

About this Guide

The Food Security and Nutrition Guide provides a platform for available, UN and non-UN resources on Food Security, Nutrition and related topics. 

Disclaimer

This guide is intended to provide delegates and UN Secretariat Staff with selected content from both UN and non-UN sources. It references third-party web sites, books and articles. It does not imply the endorsement of the content by the United Nations.

Food - In Images

Fresh Fruits Barcelona Spain - FAO Photo

Muleba, Tanzania - FAO Photo

Fiumicino, Italy Farm visit - FAO Photo

France: Boulogne: Field of soft wheat laid flat because of wind and rain - FAO Photo

Homduras, Gualcince: Farmers control soil erosion - FAO Photo

Lao: Sun dried peppers. - - Emergency Supply of Agricultural Inputs to Flood-affected Farm Households

Morocco: Tineghir - FAO Photo

Swaziland: Vulamehlo Community Gardens

MINUSTAH Peacekeepers Distribute Food to Children - UN Photo/Marco Dormino

Farming on the Outskirts of Juba - UN Photo

WFP Food Drop Operation in Bentiu, South Sudan

Opening of UN Food Garden on Occasion of Nelson Mandela Day - UN Photo

High-Level Event "Pathways to Zero Hunger" - UN Photo

Food Shortages in the Midst of Plenty - UN Photo

Rome, Italy - Soy beans for sale -FAO Photo

Pulses and rice on sale at the Esquilino market in Rome - FAO Photo

Burkina Faso: Bean varieties on sale --(FAO Photo)

Secretary-General Speaks At World Leaders Dinner in Davos - UN Photo/Rick Bajornas

2022 Global Report on Food Crises

Launch of the 2022 Global Report on Food Crises - Hybrid Press Conference.

Briefing by Arif Husain, World Food Programme’s Chief Economist, and Rein Paulsen, the Food and Agriculture Organization’s Director of Emergencies.

Definition - Food Security

      

The 1974 World Food Summit defined food security as:

... availability at all times of adequate world food supplies of basic foodstuffs to sustain a steady expansion of food consumption and to offset fluctuations in production and prices. (Report of the World Food Conference, Rome 5-16 November 1974. New York)

In chapter 2 of the FAO publication, Trade Reforms and Food Security: conceptualizing the linkages, the definition of the term Food Security is presented as a flexible concept which has evolved over time.

The Committee on World Food Security in document CFS 2012/39/4 has provided further official definition to Food Security and related terms.

For more information on how the definition has evolved, see the FAO publication: Trade Reforms and Food Security: Conceptualizing the Linkages- Chapter 2:2 

The Food Loss and Waste Accounting and Reporting Standard, (FLW) provide  the first-ever set of global definitions and reporting requirements to quantify and report on food loss and waste.