Food security still critical worldwide: EU study

Food security policy should move towards a much broader landscape and focus on regular access to food for a population nearing nine billion towards 2030-2050, according to the press release of the European Commission's Joint Research Center (JRC) on Wednesday.

The JRC foresight study on global food security brought together the European Commission, external experts, and stakeholders to develop a vision for food security in 2030.

Due to a growing population, climate change, limiting expansion of agricultural land, and increasing demand of high-energy food input, achieving global food security will be one of the most critical challenges in the coming years, said the report.

Traditionally, the debate on food security focused on production and agricultural aspects, as well as hunger, poverty and humanitarian aspects. Instead, with this foresight study, the JRC proposed to go further and move towards a more comprehensive and systemic approach to explore the issue.

By 2030 and beyond, food security will increasingly be defined by securing food supply in response to changing and growing global demand, said the report.

Food security is not only a global and systemic challenge, but also an opportunity for the EU to play a role in innovation, trade, health, wealth generation, and geopolitics.

Moreover, ensuring better coordination and coherence at the EU level needs to happen to move from a food-security to a food-systems approach.

The report concluded that food security would be guaranteed on a sustainable base through four processes: extensive transformation of agriculture production systems through investment, research and training; adequate rural transformation; balancing of production and consumption in food systems between local, regional and global levels; and finally, moving towards a demand-driven food system, with responsible consumer behavior shaping sustainable objectives. Endit