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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. 

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.