ABSTRACT
Food Summit 1996). Thus, food insecurity exists when people do not have adequate physical, social or economic access to food. The definition incorporates the two key debates in food security – whether it is a problem of food availability or a problem of access to food. It also recognises that food security is not only about having a sufficient amount of food – the problem of undernourishment – but also takes into consideration the problem of malnutrition caused by an unbalanced diet. The definition recognises that food security is not only about sustenance but about the dignity and quality of life. Thus the concept of food security includes a multitude of aspects and a range of actors and sectors – it is multidimensional. Food security is frequently discussed within the development academic discipline as a threat to human security, with the individual and the community as its referents of security (see Caballero-Anthony 2008; Paris 2001). However, as the scope of the challenges to food security affect both the state and the individual, they both need to be the referent to security in order to comprehensively analyse food security (Caballero-Anthony 2008). This combination accounts for the political implications of food security, which are vital to consider because of the way relevant policies are formulated and enacted.
