Food Security What is it, and how can you contribute to it? By Jacqui Southey Education for Development, Unicef, 2011.

Food SecurityWhat is it, and how can you contribute to it?

By Jacqui Southey Education for Development, Unicef, 2011

Food security is the availability of food, when people are not living in fear of hunger or even starvation. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_security

OrThe ability of individuals to obtain sufficient food on a day to day basis. highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0070294267/student_view0/glos…

Food security is becoming an important current issue.

Image UNI42623: © UNICEF/NYHQ2004-1286/Pirozzi

Many New Zealand school children are contributing to food security without realising it.

• Edible school gardens contribute to food security.

• By learning to grow our own food and sharing our skills and knowledge, we are strengthening our ability to be food secure.

• Many families are spending more of their incomes on food due to high food prices. Growing our own food, eating locally grown food, and eating seasonal food can help combat this.

Image UNI42572: © UNICEF/NYHQ2004-1235/Pirozzi

Rising Food Prices

• According to the United Nations Food and Agricultural Society, world food prices have increased by 41%, on average since June, 2010.

• Although the average price has risen by 41%, some food items have increased by a lot more. Developing countries are often more severely affected.

• Examples of this:

Mauritania (Africa) wheat, 90% increase

Liberia (Africa) rice, 200% increase

Honduras, (South America) red beans, 120% increase

Image UNI30839: © UNICEF/NYHQ1997-0945/Horner

Why are food prices rising?

• There are many reasons why food prices increase. Some obvious causes are:

- Extreme weather events destroying produce, such as flooding in Pakistan and Australia, or the worst heat wave in 1000yrs in Russia.

- Natural Disasters, such as the Japan earthquake and tsunami destroying produce and interrupting supply.

- Violent conflict, such as the political violence in Libya, causing people to flee their homes and jobs to refugee camps. Produce is destroyed, supply is interrupted and need for food is concentrated in one area that is not used to having to feed so many people.

Image UNI93990: © UNICEF/NYHQ2010-1684/Ramoneda

• In August, 2010 much of Muzaffargarh District, Punjab Province, Pakistan, was submerged in floodwater. At least 4.25 million acres of crops were destroyed in these floods.

Why are food prices rising? (cont.)

• High or volatile fuel prices also contribute to increasing food prices. Why?

• It costs more to produce and transport food.

• Cereal crops that would normally go to feeding people, or feeding food producing animals, such as dairy cows, are instead used for bio fuels.

• In 2010 Thailand exported 90% of its Cassava chips to China to make biofuel. Cassava root is used in a wide range of products such as, ice cream, tapioca pudding, paper, and animal feeds.

• Land that has been seriously affected by a weather event takes some time to recover.

Image UNI102929: © UNICEF/NYHQ2010-2982/Noorani

Rising Food Prices in the Pacific

• People in developing countries, such as Pacific Island countries, rely heavily on imported food.

• Not only is the imported food becoming more and more expensive, it is also high in salt, sugar and fats.

• Countries such as Fiji, Kiribati, The Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Tonga and Vanuatu reported sharp increases in food prices.

• On average, food increases on staple items are up from 50% to 100%

• In Fiji rice has increased by 100% and neck of lamb by 50% Children attending a child friendly school in Fiji, Unicef NZ

2003

High Food Prices and Natural Disasters in Vanuatu

• Vanuatu is extremely vulnerable, not only are they affected by high food price increases such as;

– Yams up 114%– Bananas up 60%– Water Taro up 150%

• They are also threatened by natural disasters. Vanuatu has experienced over

– 100 tropical cyclones (including 60 hurricane force) in the last 40 years;

– At least 10 active volcanoes affecting communities throughout the country;

– 22 major earthquakes in 27 years (with an average of 6.6 magnitude on the Richter scale)

– Numerous floods and droughts. (Unicef a working paper, Situation Monitoring, Food Price Increases in the Pacific Islands, March 2011) Image UNI46487: © UNICEF/NYHQ2006-2530/Pirozzi

Michael, 7, sits on a stool and cracks coconuts in his family's dirt-floor kitchen in Erakor Bridge, a suburb of Port Vila, the capital, on the island of Efate. Michael attends third grade.

Rising Food Prices and the Effects on Children

• Children are increasingly being pulled from secondary schools as parents cannot afford fees or because they need the older sibling to help earn money to support the family.

• In Vanuatu, one secondary school reported a 20% decrease in enrolment.

• Secondary schools, which house children from remote rural areas (boarding school), are also reporting difficulties in ensuring adequate food for students. Lenakel Presbyterian College (Vanuatu) reported reducing the quantity of food served to students.

• Some schools were closed down temporarily due to shortage of rice. (Unicef a working paper, Situation Monitoring, Food Price Increases in the Pacific Islands, March 2011) Image UNI46506: © UNICEF/NYHQ2006-2549/Pirozzi

Two students read a book together during class at St. John Primary School in Honiara, the capital, on Guadalcanal Island.

Edible Gardens

• A solution to this problem is locally grown food campaigns. Enabling people to eat the food they grow themselves.

• Producing and eating locally grown food provides access to fresh, nutritious, seasonal food.

• Khammany is 11 years old and she takes care of some of the small chores in their garden such as feeding the ducklings and watering the vegetable plot.

Image UNI14965: © UNICEF/LaoPDR04063/Holmes

Using edible gardens to boost food security in refugee camps.

• In a Refugee camp in Algeria, Unicef introduced an edible garden project to boost the food security of the camp.

• The project was called, “Construction of family gardens and school gardens in the refugee camps of the Saharawis” (Tindouf region, S.W. Algeria)

• Not only did this project contribute to the food security of the camp, it improved health in the camp as the refugees had access to fresh vegetables.

• Families constructed gardens using seed collected from European citizens who saved the seed from their fruits and vegetables, such as melons, pumpkins, avocados, etc.

http://desertification.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/dscn0175.jpg

Image UNI28373: © UNICEF/NYHQ2004-1327/Noorani

Primary School gardens are also flourishing in other countries such as this primary school garden in Thee Kone Village, Myanmar.

Edible Gardens Supporting our Children and our Future

• By growing edible gardens we are working towards achieving Goal one and seven, of The Millennium Development Goals

• Eradicating extreme poverty and hunger by 2015 (goal 1)

• Ensuring environmental sustainability (goal 7)

• And also supporting, ‘Every child’s right to nutritious food’ (article 24, United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child)

Image UNI44860: © UNICEF/NYHQ2006-0999/Noorani

For more information on The Rights of the Child go to, http://www.unicef.org.nz/page/343/ChildRights.html

For more information on the Millennium Development Goals go to , http://www.undp.org/mdg/basics.shtml

Bibliography• World Food Prices Report, World Food Programme (March, 2011)• http://desertification.wordpress.com/2008/02/29/algeria-fresh-food-in-refugee-camps-

unicef-willem/• http://globalpoliticalawakening.blogspot.com/2011/04/rush-to-use-crops-as-fuel-

raises-food.html• http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2011/feb/04/extreme-weather-global-

food-crisis• highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0070294267/student_view0/glos…• http://www.undp.org/mdg/basics.shtml• http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/mozambique_47524.html• http://www.unicef.org.nz/page/343/ChildRights.html • en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_security