How is biodiversity threatened and how can we protect it?Factors affecting food security

Food security is a measure of the availability of food required to support people of a household, region, country or any specified area. It is a measure of how much food there is, if it is of suitable quality and whether people can access it.

Having fully stocked supermarket shelves is something that perhaps some of us might take for granted. However, this high level of food security is not experienced by all people. In some parts of the world there is a shortage of food, which can result in starvation and death. The United Nations estimate that over 700 million people face hunger each year. They also estimate that each year three billion people cannot afford a healthy diet.

Food security is affected by:

• The increase in human population, as birth rates are increasing and many people have better access to medical care.
• Changing diets mean scarce food resources are transported to be sold from areas which need them to other areas.
• New pests and pathogens that attack crops and farm animals.
• The effects of environmental change are making farming more difficult in many areas, eg famine in some countries if it doesn't rain for a long time.
• Problems with sustainability such as using more land for making biofuels.
• The increased costs of farming.

Finding sustainable ways to feed people is an important problem for scientists to solve.