Food security remains a persistent issue in the contemporary world, as not all people have physical and economic access to healthy and sufficient nutrition. National security and human security are among the significant paradigms that assess this problem. Human security focuses on people’s well-being and, thus, is a better perspective to identify the problem – but it is still not a perfect fit due to many factors still functioning on the state level.
To develop a comprehensive position on food security through the lens of human security, it was necessary to gather a sufficient amount of relevant information from multiple sources. Andersen-Rodgers and Crawford supplied a comprehensive definition of food security that combined food and water access, availability, stability, and use, including proper sanitation and clean water (232). World Hunger supplied the data on the general number of undernourished people in the world – 815 million people of the 7.6 billion (“2018 World Hunger”). United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization provided information on the correlation between undernourishment and negative outcomes other than death (“Undernourishment”). To characterize access to clean water and sanitation, the group used the numbers provided by the World Health Organization (“2.1 Billion”). To gather more details on how food security is practically implemented in the developing world, the group consulted Tscharntke et al. with its emphasis on land use in the developing nations (55). These sources allowed developing the group’s specific position: food security constitutes an acute problem, and the human security lens offers a well-suited, albeit not a perfect way to approach it.
The strength of using human security as a lens to approach food security is that it focuses on the people’s well-being directly. Human security makes access to food, clean water, and sanitation its primary aim, while national security only stresses these insofar as they are conducive to strengthening the state. From the national security perspective, access to sufficient nutrition becomes merely a way to avoid dangers to the country, such as the Egyptian revolution of 2011 or Venezuelan protests in 2017 (Andersen-Rodgers and Crawford 237). Human security, on the other hand, perceives food security not as a prerequisite for stabilizing the country but as a goal in its own right. Thus, this perspective is better suited for identifying the problem because it perceives it as such, even when there is no direct threat to the state’s stability present.
However, while human security is superior to national security as an approach to identifying the issue, it is still not a perfect fit for the problem. Regardless of how one chooses to perceive food security, the majority of the instruments to address it still functions on the state level and, thus, depend on nation-states rather than supra-state actors. For instance, international investors consistently “leasing or buying farmland in Africa, Asia, and Latin America for food and fuel production” constitute a direct threat to food security in these regions (Tscharntke et al. 55). It happens because the concentration of land in the hands of international companies undermines small-scale farming that remains the primary source of economically accessible food in the developing world (Tscharntke et al. 55). However, implementing the laws protecting local farmers and, consequently, promoting food sovereignty is the prerogative of a nation-state, and national interests coincide with the human security perspective in this case. Thus, while human security is better in identifying issues with food security, it is still not a perfect choice to approach them in practice, as most of the relevant policy tools still belong to nation-states.
The group succeeded in presenting the collective point as planned, although developing the logical structure of the presentation required some effort. For instance, it might not have been readily evident how the fact that more than 4 billion people access to sanitation relates to food security (“2.1 Billion”). This potential misunderstanding required a broad definition of food security, including clean water and sanitation, as presented by Andersen-Rodgers and Crawford (232). In general, presenting the group’s point proved easier than anticipated, but developing it was harder than initially presumed.
The primary observation made in the course of this study was the sheer complexity of factors influencing the food security of the state and supra-state levels alike. In some cases, international intervention may benefit the situation with food security where the state has failed, as in Sudan (Andersen-Rodgers and Crawford 236). Yet in other cases, human security and national security may be “mutually reinforcing” (Andersen-Rodgers and Crawford 236). Since human security makes the most gains against national security in identifying the problem, but the nation-state still possesses most means of rectifying it, such mutual amplification becomes pivotal.
As one can see, human security is preferable, albeit not a perfect perspective to approach food security. Its direct focus on the people’s well-being makes it superior to national security in identifying the problem, although the national security perspective remains relevant in fixing it. Success in promoting food security worldwide depends on the state and supra-state actors acting cohesively rather than neutralizing each other’s efforts. Thus, food security may serve as an illustration of the complexities involved in ensuring human security in the contemporary world.
Works Cited
Andersen-Rodgers, David, and Kerry F. Crawford. Human Security: Theory and Action. Rowman & Littlefield, 2018.
Tscharntke, Teja, et al. “Global Food Security, Biodiversity Conservation and the Future of Agricultural Intensification.” Biological Conservation, vol. 151, no. 1, 2012, pp. 53-59.
“2018 World Hunger and Poverty Facts and Statistics.”World Hunger Education Service, Web.
“2.1 Billion People Lack Safe Drinking Water at Home, More than Twice ss Many Lack Safe Sanitation.”The World Health Organization. 2017, Web.
“Undernourishment around the World: Hunger and Mortality.” Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Web.