This document provides an overview of the concept of food security as conceived by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in 1974. It discusses the four key pillars of food security - availability, access, utilization, and stability. The definition and understanding of food security has evolved over time to incorporate these demand-side factors in addition to initial supply-side focuses. The concept remains an important framework for addressing issues of hunger, malnutrition and poverty around the world.

1. Provides information about the development and commercialization of
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Revised by Thomas Kowall
FOOD SECURITY
Food security, as an institutionalized universal concept
encompassing both food and nutrition security, was
conceived in 1974 by the Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Today, the
term defines a situation in which “all people, at all times,
have physical, social and economic access to sufficient,
safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and
food preferences for an active and healthy life” (WSFS
2009, 1).
CONCEPTUAL COMPONENTS
The development of the food security concept involves
the inclusion of four key pillars that have become
collectively regarded as indispensable components to the
food and nutrition security framework: the idea of
physical availability, social and economic access, utiliza-
tion, and stability. These four dimensions must be
simultaneously fulfilled in order to satisfy the condition
of food security. Ensuring food availability implies that
there is a sufficient supply of food of adequate quality to
meet the needs of the unit of analysis in question and is
necessarily linked to agricultural production and trade.
Food access, by contrast, refers to the ability of the
individual, household, or population to obtain appropri-
ate foods for a nutritious diet (Stamoulis and Zezza 2003).
Access can be secured by the local production of food (i.e.,
direct access) or through social networks and food
purchases (i.e., indirect access). The former requires rights
to adequate resources, or entitlements, while the latter is
obtained by exchange, as a gift, or through the market
where sufficient purchasing power is required (Maxwell
and Smith 1992).
The utilization and stability components of the term
are emphasized to ensure that food availability and access
secure and improve nutritional status and physiological
well-being over the long run. Food utilization highlights
the cultural choices and knowledge base of food
consumers that are critical to ensuring the sufficient
consumption of adequate foods that satisfy the nutritional
needs of all members of the household. This component
also reveals the importance of nonfood inputs related to
food consumption, including clean water, sanitation,
health care, and the ability to biologically utilize the
nutrients consumed. Food stability underscores the idea
that food security is optimally established when the
availability, access, and utilization of food resources are
sustained over time (Stamoulis and Zezza 2003). This
dimension recognizes the destabilizing potential of
external impacts and focuses on improving the resiliency
in the structure of food systems to effectively reorganize
and resist political, economic, and ecological stresses and
shocks (Frankenberger et al. 2012).
The four dimensions of the food security concept
reveal that ensuring individual food security is dependent
on policies, programs, and projects carried out at larger
scales, including the household, subnational, national, and
global scales. As such, the concept not only is tied to the
development of nutritional indicators and overall stan-
dards of well-being but also is embedded in larger policy
frameworks aimed at managing interventions and reduc-
ing poverty. Institutions focused on monitoring and
improving food security often specialize in addressing
specific aspects of the problem, such as trade, sustainable
agricultural development, rural and urban poverty reduc-
tion, public health, political stability, and governance.
Because it is an operational concept and not a means of
measurement, the focus of analysis rests on the nature of
food insecurity and vulnerability, using global and
context-specific methods that include the food energy
deficiency index, household expenditure and food intake
surveys, anthropometric indicators, and qualitative
Food Security
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2. measures (Mason 2002). As a participatory approach, the
livelihoods framework is often used for holistic analyses
of household assets and strategies, including the institu-
tions that affect them, while providing disaggregated
data for national policy development (Devereux et al.
2004).
ORIGINS AND EVOLUTION
Food security, as a multifaceted and multisectoral
concept, is not static and has evolved into greater
complexity over time in an attempt to maintain its
applicability to various policy frameworks and technical
approaches focusing on the producer and/or consumer at
different scales. Modern conceptions of food security arose
out of early efforts to increase and stabilize world food
supplies and avert food shortages. Amid the social and
economic disruption of World War II (1939–1945),
President Franklin D. Roosevelt convened an internation-
al conference in 1943 that emphasized the interdepen-
dence of the consumer and producer and the need to
encourage greater food production under the pretext that
“there has never been enough food for the health of all
people” (FAO quoted in Shaw 2007, 3). As a result, the
FAO was established in 1945 to guide policies for
improving agriculture and global standards of living that
could “ensure humanity’s freedom from hunger” (FAO
quoted in Shaw 2007, 462). Given new chemical and
mechanical innovations, promoting greater outputs of
food through agricultural modernization was understood
as critical to securing adequate supplies at lower
purchasing costs to the world’s urbanizing population.
By advocating for market expansion and the importation
of surplus grain from industrialized nations, along with
technological transfers and the coordinating of interna-
tional emergency relief systems, the FAO encouraged
greater production and a stable supply of food resources
for an industrializing world (Shaw 2007).
Up until the 1980s the official definition of food
security was heavily supply oriented. High fuel and
fertilizer costs, compounded by natural disasters and an
increasing demand for food, resulted in a fourfold rise in
world cereal prices between 1972 and 1974. In response,
delegates of the 1974 World Food Conference focused on
supply-side constraints, such as food production and
storage mechanisms, in an attempt to stabilize supplies
and avert greater malnutrition in food-importing nations
(Shaw 2007). As a result, the concept of food security was
consolidated and defined as “the availability at all times of
Laborers unload wheat from a tractor trolley at a wholesale grain market near Amritsar in northern India, 2013. The four
pillars of food security are physical availability, social and economic access, utilization, and stability. MUNISH SHARMA/REUTERS/CORBIS.
Food Security
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3. adequate world food supplies of basic foodstuffs to sustain
a steady expansion of food consumption and to offset
fluctuations in production and prices” (UN 1975, 6).
It was not until greater analyses into the dynamics of
famine and malnutrition that the importance of demand-
side constraints became widely recognized. Amartya Sen’s
1981 investigation into the ways in which resource
entitlements affect food access contributed significantly to
the understanding that food availability alone does not
translate into food security, leading to the inclusion of the
dimension of access into the food security concept in
1983. A World Bank analysis (1986) later highlighted
differences in the duration and severity of food insecurity,
chronic and transitory, which have become central
guiding principles for effective policy development.
Greater investigation into the causes of malnutrition since
the 1990s further refined the concept by exploring aspects
of utilization while revealing the myriad livelihood
conditions and contexts of those suffering from food
insecurity. Such efforts led to an appreciation of a
balanced diet, emphasizing the role of micronutrients and
the quality of food over the quantity of calories and
protein alone, as well as the acknowledgement of the
importance of nonfood inputs related to public health and
cultural perceptions and practices (FAO and WHO
1992).
While the FAO’s food security mandate had been
articulated as a negative right to food—that is, ensuring
freedom from hunger through improved productivity,
trade, and aid—new emphasis on poverty and human
development drove greater popularity of the positive right
to food approach inspired by Article 25 of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights. While upheld by several
governments at the national level, the formal adoption of a
rights-based mandate that would hold governments
accountable for the food deprived on a global scale has
not been politically achievable within the FAO (Shaw
2007). Nevertheless, the 1996 World Food Summit
reaffirmed the importance of the rights-based approach in
the Rome Declaration with the goal of halving the
number of hungry and malnourished people by 2015,
while defining food security as a state when “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” (WFS
1996, 1). In 2001 the definition was again extended to
acknowledge social issues affecting food access among and
within households (FAO 2001).
Since 1974, however, definitions and perspectives on
food security have diversified substantially (Maxwell
2001). Surges in world food prices in 2007–2008 and
again in 2011, compounded by a global recession, have
only sparked intensified debate over the meaning of and
measures for achieving global food security. Today, over
one billion people suffer from chronic hunger. Despite
substantial achievements in reducing food insecurity, the
FAO itself is now facing significant internal reform in an
attempt to remain relevant and effective in promoting
pro-poor food-security strategies. Criticism from both
within and outside the organization concerning the
negative impact of uneven and premature trade liberaliza-
tion in developing countries has resulted in a stronger
emphasis on increasing global agricultural investments,
with greater attention being paid to improving resource
access and the sustainable productivity of small food
producers (FAO 2008; Sarris and Morrison 2009; HLPE
2011). The food price shocks also led to a resurgence in
interventionist policies for greater food self-sufficiency at
the national level, while transnational networks have
embedded the idea within a larger movement toward food
sovereignty (Demeke, Pangrazio, and Maetz 2009; Rosset
2008). Thus, while the multidimensional applicability of
the food security concept maintains its universality, it
remains an essentially contested concept as a result of its
multiple paradigmatic usages.
BI BLIO GRAPHY
Demeke, Mulat, Guendalina Pangrazio, and Materne Maetz.
2009. “Country Responses to the Food Security Crisis: Nature
and Preliminary Implications of the Policies Pursued.” Rome:
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/user_upload/ISFP/pdf_for_
site_Country_Response_to_the_Food_Security.pdf
Devereux, Stephen, Bob Baulch, Karim Hussein, Jeremy Shoham,
Helen Sida, and David Wilcock. 2004. “Improving the
Analysis of Food Insecurity: Food Insecurity Measurement,
Livelihoods Approaches, and Policy; Applications in FIVIMS.”
Rome: Food Insecurity and Vulnerability Information and
Mapping Systems (FIVIMS) Secretariat.
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2001. The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2001. Rome:
Author.
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2008. The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2008: High
Food Prices and Food Security—Threats and Opportunities.
Rome: Author. ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/011/i0291e/
i0291e00.pdf
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
and World Health Organization (WHO). 1992. International
Conference on Nutrition: Nutrition and Development—a Global
Assessment. Rome: Authors. http://www.fao.org/docrep/017/
z9550e/z9550e.pdf
Frankenberger, Tim, Tom Spangler, Suzanne Nelson, and Mark
Langworthy. 2012. “Enhancing Resilience to Food Security
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dfid_wb_nov._8_2012.pdf
High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition of
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Volatility and Food Security. Rome: Author.
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4. Mason, John B. 2002. “Measuring Hunger and Malnutrition.”
Keynote paper presented at the International Scientific
Symposium on Measurement and Assessment of Food
Deprivation and Undernutrition, Rome, June 2002.
Maxwell, Simon. 2001. “The Evolution of Thinking about Food
Security.” In Food Security in Sub-Saharan Africa, edited by
Stephen Devereux and Simon Maxwell, 13–31. London:
ITDG Publishing.
Maxwell, Simon, and Marisol Smith. 1992. “Household Food
Security: A Conceptual Review.” In Household Food Security:
Concepts, Indicators, and Measurement; A Technical Review,
edited by Simon Maxwell and Timothy R. Frankenberger, 1–
72. Rome: International Fund for Agricultural Development;
New York: UNICEF.
Rosset, Peter. 2008. “Food Sovereignty and the Contemporary
Food Crisis.” Development 51 (4): 460–463.
Sarris, Alexander, and Jamie Morrison, eds. 2009. The Evolving
Structure of World Agricultural Trade: Implications for Trade
Policy and Trade Agreements. Rome: Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations, Trade and Markets
Division.
Sen, Amartya. 1981. Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlement
and Deprivation. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Shaw, D. John. 2007. World Food Security: A History since 1945.
Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
Stamoulis, Kostas, and Alberto Zezza. 2003. “A Conceptual
Framework for National Agricultural, Rural Development, and
Food Security Strategies and Policies.” ESA Working Paper
03-17. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United
Nations, Agricultural and Development Economics Division,
Rome. ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/007/ae050e/ae050e00.pdf
United Nations (UN). 1975. Report of the World Food Conference,
Rome, 5–16 November 1974. New York: Author.
United Nations General Assembly. 2013. The Universal Declara-
tion of Human Rights. New York: United Nations. http://www
.un.org/en/documents/udhr/
World Bank. 1986. Poverty and Hunger: Issues and Options for
Food Security in Developing Countries. Washington, DC:
Author.
World Food Summit (WFS). 1996. “Rome Declaration on World
Food Security and Plan of Action.” Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations. http://www.fao.org/
docrep/003/w3613e/w3613e00.HTM
World Summit on Food Security (WSFS). 2009. “Declaration of
the World Summit on Food Security.” Rome: Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. http://www
.fao.org/fileadmin/templates/wsfs/Summit/Docs/Final_
Declaration/WSFS09_Declaration.pdf
Siobhan Lozada
FORD, HENRY
The American automobile manufacturer Henry Ford
(1863–1947) is, along with Thomas Edison and the
Wright Brothers, one of those who best symbolized the
use of technology to transform human life in the early
twentieth century. Ford himself recognized the social
orientation of his efforts. As he explained in his 1922
autobiography, he believed that successful manufacturing
was rooted in public service rather than in money making.
He was equally clear about his own public service goal:
“To lift farm drudgery off flesh and blood and lay it on
steel and motors has been my most constant ambition.”
Somewhat unexpectedly, however, his focus shifted when
he discovered “that people were more interested in
something that would travel on the road than in
something that would do the work on the farms.”
Ford was born on a farm in Wayne County, Michigan,
on July 30, 1863, and died in Dearborn, Michigan, on
April 7, 1947. As a boy he experienced the agrarian way of
life that once had dominated the American economy but
that during his lifetime, in part as a result of his efforts,
would be replaced by manufacturing. Among the relevant
features of his youth were his education in rural schools
(1871–1879), the early death of his mother (1876), and his
fascination with machinery. That interest led to an
apprenticeship in nearby Detroit (1879–1882) and a
traveling job servicing steam traction engines. After his
marriage in 1888 Ford’s father gave him a forty-acre farm,
but rather than take up farming, Henry Ford and his wife
moved to Detroit, where he became an engineer for the
Edison Illuminating Company.
AUTOMOBILE MANUFACTURING
By the early 1890s, when Ford turned his attention to
using internal combustion engines to power road vehicles,
the effort to develop automobiles had been under way for
several decades. By that time American manufacturers had
incorporated the general principles of machine produc-
tion, interchangeable parts, and cost-based management,
along with other practices of the factory system and large-
scale business. Thus, Ford began neither the specific
process of creating automobiles nor the overall process of
industrialization. However, he would achieve lasting fame
as well as notoriety by helping bring both processes to full
maturity.
Ford’s historic achievement was twofold. First, he
rethought the basic idea of the automobile (making him
more an innovator than an inventor), by aiming not for a
large luxury vehicle but for one that was light and sturdy
enough for unimproved rural roads and inexpensive
enough for the average family. Second, he, along with the
mechanics and engineers he employed, redesigned the
manufacturing process to allow for the mass production of
a product of unprecedented complexity.
The main features of this frequently told story
include the completion of Ford’s first experimental car
Ford, Henry
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