Food security is when all people are able to access enough safe and nutritious food to meet their requirements for a healthy life, in ways the planet can sustain into the future.
In recent years, global acute food insecurity has reached alarming levels due to factors such as conflict, climate shocks, and the impact of COVID-19. This has exacerbated the global hunger crisis, pushing millions into extreme poverty.
Almost 800 million people face hunger on a daily basis and more than two billion people lack vital micronutrients, affecting their health and life expectancy. Nearly half of all deaths in children under 5 are attributable to undernutrition.
Climate change will only make things worse as elevated levels of CO2 reduce the nutritional content of grains, tubers and legumes. A growing population also means more mouths to feed and with the expanding global population getting wealthier, there will be more pressure on resource intensive produce, particularly meat and dairy.
It has been estimated that by 2050 we'll need to feed two billion more people. However, there is by good approximation no new land for agriculture, with increasing competition from urbanisation, sea level rise reducing land availability, and the growing need for land for bioenergy, carbon capture and storage.
A major challenge is understanding how can we re-design the food system to be healthy, sustainable, and more resilient to climate change.
It is clear that we will need to use every technology available, alongside best practice farming, to sustainably increase production. This also has to be accompanied by changes to food demand including measures on both consumption and waste.
