Introduction
Even as commercial and peasant farmers continue to increase pressure on farmland for the production of non-food crops, food security continues to dominate major global forums. Global farmlands are gradually losing their historical fertility, food-processing companies are increasingly becoming unstable, and food galleries are becoming emptier.
The issue of food security is a universal dilemma that has struck several nations across the world, even as climate continues to be unpredictable, and the events of hunger and drought continue to occur repeatedly. The intent of this essay is to give an in-depth meaning of food security, the perspective of food insecurity to the case of the United States, the major lapses of the conventional food systems, and the American communities that frequently remain affected by food insecurity.
The Meaning of Food Security
Food security may refer to the sufficient accessibility of nutritious, safe, and religiously and culturally appropriate food to all the people across the world. Food security may also depict a situation whereby all communities of the world, regardless of their ethnic backgrounds, religious beliefs, political affiliations, and socioeconomic statuses, rightfully enjoy unlimited access to reliable and affordable food that is nutritious and safe for human consumption.
Food security is also a state whereby all the people across the continents are capable of accessing food that is sufficient in quantity and quality, depending on their daily nutritional demands. The concept of quantity applies because food has to be adequate to feed the populations sufficiently. The concept of quality applies because food has to be safe and nutritious.
Food Insecurity in the American Perspective
Despite the United States seeking equitable access to economic food resources and physical food resources, food insecurity in the American perspective comes in a disparity manner. American food insecurity occurs when the vulnerable groups of people in different communities are suffering an acute shortage of ability to have an economic and physical access to safe, nutritious, and religiously and culturally appropriate food.
Food insecurity in America is eminent when children are facing a devastating shortage of adequate food that is nutritious and safe for human consumption. Food insecurity in the United States also becomes eminent when the elderly, the ethnic minority, and the rural people, lack access to food of the right quality and quantity, due to their mobility conditions and other socioeconomic situations.
Major Problems Associated with the Traditional Food Systems
The foremost problem associated with the American conventional food systems is lack of food maintenance. The traditional American food systems lacked proper food maintenance because they lacked proper food harvesting techniques, they lacked proper food preservation methods, and they lacked ample storage infrastructures.
Although the traditional food systems are more nutritious and safer compared to the foods produced through the contemporary technologies and stored through the modern industrial systems, they lack their sustained value because of poor preservation. Since the modern industrial food systems replaced the traditional methods of producing and preserving food, food security has improved tremendously across the continents. The traditionally gathered foods have never proven significant in dealing with the modern food insecurity. The replacement of traditional galleries with industries is worthwhile.
American Communities Affected by Food Insecurity
Although hunger is a universal problem that affects all the global communities, food insecurity in United States affects the minority ethnicities unfairly. The most affected minority communities are those that make up the biggest minority groups. The ethnic communities of America that often face food insecurity are large minority communities.
These communities involve the African American ethnic communities and the Latino minority population, which report constant events of food shortages. In the American demographic statistics and history, the two minority communities have remained disproportionately affected by poverty, food insecurity, and unemployment misfortunes. These two ethnic communities of the United States live in the rural, the suburban, and the underdeveloped cities of America. These are areas, where racial poverty, lack of education and unemployment, are major social concerns.
My Role in the Food System
My major role in the modern food system is to ensure appropriate use of the available food in the markets, at home, and within the institution. People must use the right amount of food required by the body tissues to enable the body systems work properly. I must practice suitable cooking. Suitable cooking means cooking the right amount of food, without wasting any food amount that may deem important somewhere else in the world.
My other significant role in the food system is ensuring an appropriate budgeting of food to avoid unnecessary food decay, which literally leads to loss of food. Lastly, my other role in the food security is sensitizing the local communities about the appropriate use of farmland.
Conclusion
Food insecurity is becoming a growing concern in many nations. Food security primarily means an unlimited economic and physical access to food that is nutritious, safe, and culturally and religiously acceptable. Although hunger is a universal problem that affects many people across the world, the situation may sometimes be disproportionate in some parts of the world, depending on several socioeconomic dynamics.
In America, poverty, unemployment, and old age are some of the variables that determine access to food, as well as define the situation of food insecurity in the nation. In America, there is food insecurity when the elderly, the ethnic minority, the children, and the rural and suburban populations report considerable incidences of hunger. Such situations make the issue of food insecurity a complex phenomenon.