The basics of food security (and how it’s tied to everything)

This article was updated by Mauro Flammini on August 4, 2026

Across cultures, food is a way to bring togetherness to a group and celebrate community. But more than that, it’s one of a healthy human’s basic needs, along with water and shelter. Food is essential for every person to survive and thrive.

Yet in recent years, the United Nations has been warning of a global food security crisis⁣. Despite all the world’s resources, food security or reliable access to enough affordable, nutritious food— is a pressing issue in multiple countries.

As a global community, we have the ability to feed every human being. Yet developments such as the crisis in Sudan, armed conflicts in multiple countries, climate change and economic instability have left millions on the brink of famine.

In this article, we’ll explain the basics of food security. We’ll look at how it impacts child and adult health, agriculture, climate change and women’s empowerment.

You’ll learn why food security is important and what we can do to improve it. And we’ll explain some of the causes of the global food crisis.

1. What is food security?
2. Why is food security important?
3. What are the four types of food security?
4. What does food security look like in Canada?
5. How can countries improve food security?
6. How has COVID-19 impacted food security globally?
7. How do other global issues impact food security around the world?
8. What can I do to help?

1. What is food security?

The Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) food security definition is:

• “... all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.”

In other words, food security is having consistent, reliable access to safe, nutritious food. When the availability, accessibility, nutritional quality and longer-term stability of food sources become strained or non-existent, “food insecurity” exists.

“Zero hunger” remains one of the most rigorous of the world’s Sustainable Development Goals. While the decades preceding 2015 had shown a steady decline in global hunger, the numbers rose again:

• By 2023, 581 million people globally suffered from malnutrition.
• In 2025, that number grew to 733 million.

Experts noted that if recent trends continue, this number will balloon to more than 840 million by 2030.

That’s more than twice the populations of Canada and the U.S. combined.

Now, wou may be wondering, “ Can’t we just produce more food? ” But issues around food security are complex, to say the least.

Technically, we are producing enough food to feed the world’s entire population. Yet millions of people are undernourished.

Food security can be disrupted by many things such as armed conflict, climate change, economic and political instability and natural disasters.

Within the past decade, the COVID-19 pandemic joined that list.

2. Why is food security important?

In 2018, the FAO (Food and Agriculture of the United Nations) released its State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World . This passage, in particular, is relevant and meaningful:

• Access to safe, nutritious and sufficient food must be framed as a human right , with priority given to the most vulnerable. Policies must pay special attention to the food security and nutrition of children under five, school-age children, adolescent girls and women in order to halt the intergenerational cycle of malnutrition. A shift is needed towards nutrition-sensitive agriculture and food systems that provide safe and high quality food, promoting healthy diets for all.

In 2026, this passage still matters. Here's why.

Food security impacts our health, especially children’s

Research reveals that food insecurity can result in ongoing short and long-term health problems. The first 1000 days (from conception to age two) of a child’s life are of critical importance for their healthy growth and development.

For children, severe food insecurity has been linked to chronic health conditions like stunting, wasting and anemia. A diet lacking enough calories, protein, fats, vitamins and minerals will impede a child’s growth and development from before they’re born up until adolescence.

A pregnant mother’s malnutrition can lead to low birthweight, infant mortality, pre-term delivery and slow cognitive development for her baby.

Food security depends on agriculture

You may have heard the phrase “farmers feed families” urging us to “buy local” more often.

Why should we do this?

Right now, up to 811 million people in the world go to sleep hungry every night. The 2025 Global Report on Food Crises revealed that in 2024, more than 295 million people faced acute hunger--an increase of almost 14 million in just one year. The number of human beings reaching a catastrophic level reached an unprecedented high.

With education and support, farmers, forestry and fishery workers can provide nutritious food for themselves and their communities.

Organic agricultural practices that have access to proper resources and learn best practices are more likely to generate much higher crop yields. This allows farmers to secure enough for their own needs and produce enough to sell in local markets.

This improves the family’s livelihood, strengthens community resilience and furthers the local economy.

Food security is tied to climate change

The world’s ecosystems are experiencing rapid change and often, immense damage.

Climate change is putting even more pressure on the resources we depend on. When natural disasters like droughts, floods, wildfires and insect infestations grow in frequency and severity, more people go hungry.

Many rural families can no longer make ends meet on their land, forcing them to migrate to cities in search of opportunity.

Climate-related disasters – including extreme heat, droughts, floods and storms – are more frequent than ever before. In 2024-2025:

• More people were displaced due to extreme weather events since 2004.
• Temperatures were 1.43 degrees Celsius warmer than pre-industrial averages, making 2025 the third warmest year on record.
• In 2024 , 393 natural and climate-related disasters caused nearly 17,000 deaths and affected over 167 million people.

These disasters harm agricultural productivity, which means food availability suffers. With this comes a domino effect, causing food prices to skyrocket and income losses that prevent people from being able to afford food.

Food security empowers women, families and future generations

• “When women have an income, [they] dedicate 90% to health, education, to food security, to the children, to the family, or to the community. So, when women have an income, everybody wins."

- Michelle Bachelet, former United Nations Commissioner on Human Rights

Women typically start with fewer advantages than men, especially when it comes to nutrition, money and resources.

This translates to poorer health for women and less of a say in decisions that keep their families and communities fed, nourished and healthy.

But when they are provided with resources and opportunities, women are more likely to direct most of what they have toward helping others.

A study from the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that closing the gender gap helps empower women, which in turn, contributes to food security.

Such is the case in developing countries where women don’t have the same access to agricultural resources as men.

Women make up only 14 per cent of agricultural landowners worldwide, despite paying a major role in food production. Giving women access to resources like land credit, machinery or chemicals could close the gap in food insecurity between men and women by 57 per cent, according to the FAO.

When we give women the tools and support they need to take the lead in providing food for their households, everyone benefits. Feeding a mother and teaching her how to grow food, even in a changing climate, means nourishing her family. And that's wisdom she can pass on to future generations.

So, how can we contribute to women’s empowerment through sustainable food security? Ideas from the 2019 report fom the International Institute for Sustainable Developmen (which are still relevant in 2026) include:

Nurture production practices for diverse nutrition and female labour

• In many areas of agriculture, men and women are responsible for different crops, and this division of labour is often gendered.
• “Development organizations working on the ground can promote food security and women’s empowerment by promoting the use of female-grown crops,” says Cristina Larrea, head of the Sustainability Standards for the Economic Law and Policy Program . “This includes new, nutrient-dense crops, such as bananas.”

Promote women’s independence, especially in financial decisions

• Organizations working with farmers can take a gender-transformative approach to improve food security in households by promoting women’s decision-making.
• Economic empowerment for women ultimately boosts the entire family’s food security, health and wellbeing.

Seek opportunities to address gender bias in agricultural settings

• “Cash crops are typically overseen by men,” Larrea says, which can unintentionally reinforce gender bias. This is just one example of the many seemingly insignificant behaviours and systems that can be addressed to uplift the rights of women.
• If more time can be invested in learning local gender power dynamics, a smarter way to grow and sustain agriculture can be established.

3. What are the four types of food security?

While there is a main definition of food security, we must also understand the four aspects of food security. In order to achieve full food security in a community, all four must be addressed sufficiently and simultaneously.

• Food availability: Food availability refers to the actual physical production and supply of safe and nutritious food at a given time and place. This can mean anything related to the level of production and trade of food in a community.

• Access to food: This component questions whether or not a community is able to access and therefore eat available food. Access can refer to anything like purchasing power to buy food or other social aspects that affect access (like gender equality and social norms).

• Food utilization: Utilization addresses the way the body is able to make the most of nutrients in available food. Being able to utilize food well is the result of best practices in food preparation, proper storage, feeding and diet—anything that might affect having enough consumption and digestion of food.

• Stability of food systems: Food security is all tied together based on the stability of the other three dimensions over time. Even with sufficient food intake, a household might still be food insecure if they don’t have consistent access to food.

4. What does food security look like in Canada?

Food security in Canada may not be as turbulent as other countries, but factors such as inflation and unemployment have significantly impacted food security in the country.

While an increasing number of people are turning to food banks for help, Second Harvest reports that nearly one third of its branches have needed to send them away empty-handed.

5. How can countries improve food security?

Here are some of the ways we can tackle food insecurity:

Give immediate hunger relief

Whenever possible, offer food accessibility to keep children and families alive and safe from extreme malnutrition.

If countries are unable to gather and distribute nutritious food to their citizens, accepting help from charities or donor nations is a first step.

Connect gender equality and women’s nutrition

Nutrition programs must do more than just feed hungry women and girls. They must recognize that nutrition is a right and also address structural inequalities that drive malnutrition among women and girls.

Offer education and resources for agriculture

Teaching families how to farm effectively during drought – plus providing resources such as drought-resistant seeds – can help reduce the threat of food crisis.

It’s particularly important to include women in this. Improved food production can help families, communities and the country’s economy.

Work toward addressing root causes

With any chronic issue, many interventions are only temporary. This article lists some of the root causes of food insecurity

Since food security is tied to poverty, healthcare and other complex issues, there is no simple answer.

We do know that the world was making strides toward ending hunger in response to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, but of course, new challenges have arisen.

Being educated on these issues can help get to the core of the problem and equip governments and world bodies to work toward better solutions.

6. The impact of COVID-19 on global food security: Then and now

Then: just trying to survive

Pandemic-related lockdowns closed businesses and community markets alike, driving millions of the world’s people into hunger and poverty.

According to the World Food Programme, 276 million people were left facing severe hunger due to COVID-19.

• “COVID-19 is potentially catastrophic for millions who are already hanging by a thread,” said the World Food Programme’s Arif Husain in 2020. “It is a hammer blow for millions more who can only eat if they earn a wage.”

As the economies floundered, fewer and fewer people had ways to earn that wage in developing countries. Families exhausted their savings. With supply chains disrupted, food prices soared. Against the backdrop of pre-pandemic threats such as conflict and severe weather patterns, COVID-19 created a severe impact on food security.

What’s even more frightening was the pandemic’s aftershock effects and its threat to children. When parents died or fall ill, there was frequently no one to care for their children. Children were left vulnerable to hunger, abuse and even child marriage.

Even before the pandemic, up to 30 million children a year were vulnerable to illnesses like malaria and malnutrition. It’s likely that more children will die from residual impacts brought on by COVID-19 than from the virus itself.

Now: Regaining lost progress

Six years after the onset of the pandemic, food security remains above pre-pandemic levels.

Prior to the pandemic, about 1.6 billion people experienced moderate or food security. By 2024, that number had grown to about 2.3 billion people. As mentioned in the previous section, COVID-19 disrupted supply chains globally. But jobs and incomes were also impacted:

• In 2020, 8.8 per cent of all global working hours (the equivalent to 255 million full-time jobs) were lost. That took almost $4 trillion USD out of the global economy.
• In 2023, the global unemployment rate was 5.1 per cent. In 2026, it’s 4.9 per cent. Slowly, the fragile global job market is recovering.
• In 2023, workers globally were making about $1 trillion USD less than they were in 2014.

Developing economies are still feeling the impact. Approximately 40 per cent of low income countries are poorer now than they were prior to the pandemic.

COVID-19 disrupted the economics of eating. While jobs have somewhat recovered globally, income hasn’t. For people who lost their livelihoods, the result was simple, and is still ongoing: less income means less ability to afford food.

7. How do other global issues impact food security around the world?

In areas of conflict, there is often tension over the control of important factors in food production such as land and water.

This affects food accessibility and makes it harder for people to secure food to feed their families. Logistics is another area of concern, especially for food items and raw materials that are not readily available locally.

A prime example of how conflict impacts food security is the ongoing crisis in Sudan.

Since the crisis began in 2023, over 12 million people have been displaced, including over 4 million children. Even before the crisis escalated, Sudan was gripped by rising food prices. And now:

• Almost 20 million people are facing acute hunger.
• More than 375,000 people are at risk of starvation.
• Over 4.2 million young children and breastfeeding and pregnant women are experiencing high levels of malnutrition.

Climate change and extreme weather conditions are also seen as major drivers of hunger.

Such is the case in Chad, where the Lake Chad ecosystem has been weakened by climate change and water scarcity. As a result, approximately 8 million children in Chad are hungry and 66 per cent do not receive proper nutrients daily.

8. What can I do to help?

World Vision Gifts offers ways to improve families’ livelihoods and provide emergency food when needed. Gifts include emergency food, nutritious school meals, crop seeds for farmers and many others.

Child Sponsorship is a monthly pledge that empowers children and their families by providing access to basics like food, clean water, education, protection and health care. Because of our community-focused solutions, for every child you help, four more children benefit, too.

Article originally updated by Karen-Luz Sison, Charizze Abulencia and Deborah Wolfe