Food Security: Understanding the Importance of Adequate and Safe Food

Running head: FOOD SECURITY
Food Security
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation

FOOD SECURITY 2
Food Security
Introduction
Food security refers to a situation where all people have access to adequate and safe
food to meet their dietary needs (Brulotte and Di, 2016). There are many several factors that
must be met for an individual, a household, or a community to be considered food secure.
One of those aspects is adequacy. This means that the food is enough in terms of quantity. If
it is not, then the community is said to be food insecure. The second aspect is access. This
includes physical access, economic access and social access to food (Medina, 2018). Physical
access means that the foods are easily located geographically. That is, one does not have to
travel for long distances in search of food. Economic access means that the households have
the ability to purchase enough food to meet their dietary needs. The economic access to food
is influenced by factors such as culture, level of education and employment.
The other aspect of food security is safety. One may have large amounts of food but if
the food is not safe for consumption, then they are considered food insecure. Let us take an
example. Consider a farmer who has harvested numerous amounts of cereals and legumes.
Suppose, the cereals are kept under humid conditions which encourages growth of
Aspergillus flavus. These are the microorganisms that produces aflatoxins. This would
therefore mean that the cereals are intoxicated with aflatoxin. Aflatoxin is known to be a
dangerous toxin and may cause adverse health effects one consumes food containing them. It
follows that such a farmer is not food secure although he/she has a great amount of harvest.
The other aspect of food security is nutrition quality of the foods that are being
consumed. If a person has adequate and safe food but they are not consuming nutritious
foods, they are considered to be food insecure (Candel, 2014). Let us look at an example.
Suppose one has access and ability to purchase foods. If such a person consumes food that
are predominantly carbohydrates and little of the other nutrients, the person would still be
considered food insecure. For a person to be food secure, they should consume foods that
ensure a balance of nutrients. Factors that may cause a person not to consume a healthy diet
include lack of knowledge and culture.

FOOD SECURITY 3
My Experience on Food Security
Since I was a young child, I had always been passionate about nutritious diet. One of
the reasons for this is that I grew up in a family that values the role of food in influencing
health. I recall that fruits and vegetables were almost always part of every meal. As a child, I
was encouraged to take lots of fruits, vegetables, enough carbohydrates and proteins so that I
could become healthy. The family was also very cautious of where the food came from. I
would go shopping for food together with my parents and they would emphasize the
importance of knowing the source of your food. They referred to this as food traceability.
They claimed that it is important in ensuring that one is taking safe and nutritious foods.
Further, the importance of quality of food was high was emphasized.
I would say that I have come from a very food secure background. The background
fits the criteria described in the previous section. It is worth noting that I come from a
community where farming is the basic activity of income. People in my community farm
various crops including cereals, legumes, vegetables and fruits. In addition to this, they also
rear various animals such as cows, goats, chicken and rabbits. These have greatly contributed
to the food security of the community. In addition, I come from a community that treasures
human life so much. This means that the people care about the welfare of each other. Like
most places of the world, there are street children in my home region. Due to the value that is
attached to the human life, the community members ensure that the street children ate
provided with food. It would be true therefore to conclude that I come from a community that
is food secure. It is worth noting that there are many aspects of culture that have affected the
food security situation. For instance, the cultural aspect of valuing human life has played a
role in ensuring that the less privileged in the society are food secure. Another aspect of
culture is that of farming. I am made to understand that my people from my community have
been prosperous farmers since time immemorial. These two aspects of culture illustrate very
well how culture could influence food security.
The Experience and Culture
This section will discuss what my experience on food security has taught me about
culture. Before going further, it would be wise to define culture. Culture generally refers to
the way of life of a certain people group. This may include such aspects as beliefs, religions,
foods, taboos and rituals. My experience on food security helps shed some light about my