what is food security?
Me te wai korari.
Like the nectar of the flax flower.
At the heart of any community in Aotearoa you will find a strong sense of hospitality and compassion – manaakitanga and arohatanga. When mishaps happen with our neighbours we tend to reach out and offer what we have to uphold them during their time of need. We might make a meal or soup; drop in kai or share from our gardens; or sometimes donate to a foodbank. This has always been evident in our nationwide DNA and collective sense of identity, and it was especially evident through our responses to COVID 19.
Against the backdrop of the impacts of COVID, which has seen increased demand for food assistance, there has been a steadily growing momentum simmering throughout Aotearoa. A beautiful, earnest movement and hungry call for fundamental change, so that all have enough to thrive.
At the front line and governing levels, on farms, in large-scale food production and all parts of our sector, conversations are taking place – bringing together community, social services, industry, philanthropy and decision makers to find solutions that move away from a ‘food insecurity’ response to one that champions communities and a country that is abundantly food secure.
Food security is defined by the United Nations as existing when “all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets dietary needs and preferences for an active and healthy life”[1]. The nutritional aspect of food, and nutrition security, is achieved when secure access to food is coupled with a sanitary environment, adequate health services, and knowledgeable care to ensure a healthy and active life for all household members[2].
[1] By the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE).
[2] Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
The deeper challenge beyond defining food security is addressing the inequalities and root causes that currently make food security unobtainable in Aotearoa. This is part of a wider work of justice Kore Hiakai actively engages in, alongside many other networks advocating for systemic changes to reduce the impacts of poverty.
Food security is not about more food charities, or more operational responsibility being put on charities to support the rise in food assistance. These kinds of food assistance can limit people’s mana, because it takes away self-determination, agency and autonomy. While it is vitally important to ensure no one goes hungry in the immediate, therefore food parcels currently have a purpose, food assistance is not the long-term solution. It does not address the ongoing root causes. Part of those solutions is recognising that in Aotearoa food is treated as a commodity – and not as a human right, necessity of life, or something owned by the whole community.
Creating food security impacts our current social development and requires us to address equality. This is a key piece of building a better future for all by achieving a more inclusive and sustainable society. To better understand our global responsibility as participants in the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal of ‘Zero Hunger’, we reference the most current FAO food security framing:
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation recently put out a paper describing the six facets of Food Security. When we address these six facets as a society, we see food security in action. Those six things are: Availability, Access, Utilisation, Stability, Agency, Sustainability.
Availability refers to having a quantity and quality of food present in your community that is sufficient to satisfy the dietary needs of individuals and groups. This food is free from adverse substances and acceptable within a given culture, supplied through domestic production and imports.
Access is ensured when all have the personal or financial means to acquire food for an adequate diet at a level to ensure that satisfaction of other basic needs is not threatened or compromised; and that adequate food is accessible to everyone, including vulnerable individuals and groups. This includes physical accessibility, such as access to transport.
Utilisation and use describe having an adequate diet, clean water, sanitation and health care to reach a state of nutritional well-being where all physiological needs are met. This includes the physical ability, knowledge and equipment to prepare and eat the food available, including access to cooking facilities and utensils.
Stability describes that food security is ensured and can be sustained over time, including in the event of sudden shocks or cyclical events. It is not only available when aid is brought in.
Agency refers to individuals or groups having the capacity to work independently and with self-autonomy, to make choices about what they eat, the foods they produce, how that food is produced, processed and distributed, and to engage in policy processes that shape food systems. The protection of agency requires socio-political systems that enable people to participate in decision making that promote the achievement of food security and nutrition for all. This includes access to knowledge from your cultural heritage.
Sustainability enables food system practices that contribute to long-term regeneration of natural, social and economic systems, ensuring the food needs of the present generations are met without compromising the food needs of future generations.
Aotearoa has the opportunity to continue to work together across our food system, to remember those core values of manaakitanga and arohatanga. This is an opportunity to reimagine abundance that is as sweet as honey – or like the nectar of the flax flower - so that we build a bountiful food system where we work together within local spaces, across business, government, community, iwi and hapū for a Food Secure Aotearoa.