Food security is essential, but it is threatened globally today due to rising food demand. This situation has to be scrutinized for its causes so that governments and cross-border agencies can devise a plan to uproot or mitigate the issue.
One reason for this imbalance in food demand might be the global demographic transition. An increasing number of people are urbanized, leading to a higher level of processed food, meat, and dairy consumption compared to subsistence farmers, who have a far lower demand for food. There is also the middle-class expansion. With rising incomes, billions are becoming able to include a variety of foods in their staple diet, such as protein-rich goods, branded food products, and fresh produce.
To address this issue, a major policy change is required at the national level. Governments need to change people’s mindsets about food through leveraging their power to regulate food prices that favor healthy, sustainable diets and promote local agriculture via subsidies and incentives. However, more is needed, given the environmental problems. International agencies, including the UN, FAO, and WHO, should coordinate efforts to fund research on climate-resilient crops, enabling the production of more food with less land, water, and farmer care, and if the knowledge and best practices resulting from these studies are shared with poorer nations, where drums of famine can already be heard, the availability of more food will likely catch up with more people demanding food.
These discussions suggest that governments and world powers can no longer neglect the global food insecurity resulting from urbanization and economic growth; otherwise, famine and starvation will be harder problems to solve. That is why a comprehensive plan at a national and international level is required to redefine food and to enhance its availability despite the climate issues.
