Food security

People are food secure when they have the means to access food in a way that meets their nutrition needs and their personal and cultural food preferences.

There are six dimensions of food security: availability, access, stability, sustainability, utilisation and agency [2] [3].

Dimension of food security	Summary
Availability	Having a quantity and quality of food available in the food supply (through domestic production or imports) to meet dietary and cultural needs
Access (economic, social and physical)	Having the financial means to acquire food for an adequate diet in a way that doesn't compromise other needs.
Utilisation	The ability to use food to safely prepare meals that meet nutritional needs through access to adequate storage, equipment and clean water.
Stability	Ensuring food security in the event of sudden shocks (e.g. climate events, economic shocks or conflicts) or ongoing stresses (e.g. drought).
Agency	Having the capacity to act independently to make choices about what we eat and to participate in the policy decisions that shape food systems.
Sustainability	Ensuring that food needs for the current generation are met without compromising the food needs of future generations, and contributing to long term regeneration of natural, social and economic systems.
	*Table adapted from HLPE (2020) [2]

What is food insecurity?

Food insecurity exists on a spectrum from mild to severe. The prevalence of food insecurity is tracked globally by measuring the proportion of a population that experiences moderate or severe food insecurity [2].

People who are severely food insecure run out of food at times (for a day or more) and are unable to afford to buy more. People who experience moderate food insecurity face uncertain access to food and need to take steps to avoid running out. They may eat cheaper and less healthy foods, skip meals, and compromise other basic needs in order to eat.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Household Food Security Survey Module (HFFSM) measures varying degrees of food insecurity in households and is the most widely used tool to measure food insecurity in high income nations globally [5].

Food security and resilience

Shocks and stresses have impacts throughout food systems that lead to rising food prices and growing food insecurity [6]. Resilient food systems aim to ensure food security for all in the face of any disruption due to a shock or stress. Building food system resilience addresses all dimensions of food security but particularly focuses on increasing stability and sustainability [7].

Agency underpins dignified approaches to addressing food insecurity [2]. The dimension of agency emphasises people’s capacity to make their own decisions about what they eat and their ability to engage in the decision-making processes that shape food systems. Agency is closely connected to the right to food, a human right under international law, and is grounded in implementation of a human right to food legal framework [1].