Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
The FAO has long been involved in discussions of food security. Some of the issues covered by the huge FAO website are highlighted here for easy reference.
Expert Group Meeting on Food Production and Population Growth (Rome, 1996): "...strategies do exist which can reduce the volume of future population growth - especially in the longer run. These strategies include programmes to raise levels of education, particularly for women and girls, and improve access to reproductive health, including family planning, which also contribute to (...) the achievement of food security and food production objectives." Website summarises presentations on (1) population size and growth, (2) nutrition, (3) socio-economic Issues - poverty and food security, (4) gender issues, (5) crop-based food production, (6) the role of livestock in food production, (6) migration and urbanization, and (7) rural institutions.
Population ageing and rural development (2002): "In some settings, ageing can intensify labour shortages in agriculture and aggravate existing rural problems. Yet the shift to older age structures can also open up new options for rural development. Policy-makers need to be alerted to the opportunities and challenges brought about by rural ageing. Development strategies can only succeed if they take advantage of the resource that older people represent and if they provide the elderly with adequate support."
Special Programme for Food Security "Aims to help those living in developing countries, in particular the low-income food deficit countries." Key features: national ownership, people's participation, technology transfer, needs- and opportunities-based approach, gender sensitivity and social equity, economic and environmental sustainability, and South-South Cooperation. Here is the FAO definition of food security: "Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food for a healthy and active life (World Food Summit Plan of Action, par. 1). This involves four conditions: (i) adequacy of food supply or availability; (ii) stability of supply, without fluctuations or shortages from season to season or from year to year; (iii) accessibility to food or affordability; and (iv) quality and safety of food."