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What is food security, what threatens it, and how can it be improved?

Food security: the meaning of food security and food poverty, the factors that threaten the global and local food supply (population, climate change, water and land, conflict, waste and price), and strategies to improve food security.

A CCEA A-Level Nutrition and Food Science answer on food security: the meaning of food security and food poverty, the factors that threaten the global and local food supply, and the strategies used to improve food security.

Generated by Claude Opus 4.812 min answer

Reviewed by: AI editorial process; not yet individually human-reviewed

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  1. What this dot point is asking
  2. What food security and food poverty mean
  3. Strategies to improve food security
  4. Examples in context
  5. Try this

What this dot point is asking

CCEA wants you to explain food security and food poverty, discuss the factors that threaten the global and local food supply (population, climate change, water and land, conflict, waste and price), and evaluate strategies used to improve food security.

What food security and food poverty mean

Food security has several dimensions: enough food being available, people being able to access it (afford and reach it), the food being safe and nutritious enough to use, and this being stable over time. Food poverty is the local, household-level failure of access, often caused by low income, unemployment, high living costs or living far from affordable fresh-food shops.

Strategies to improve food security

CCEA expects evaluation, not just a list: raising yields helps but must be environmentally sustainable; food banks relieve immediate hunger but do not solve underlying poverty; and waste reduction is cheap and effective but depends on behaviour change. Balancing immediate relief with long-term solutions is the mark of a strong answer.

Examples in context

Example 1. Food banks in a wealthy country. Rising living costs and low incomes have driven more families in the UK to use food banks, which redistribute donated and surplus food. This relieves immediate food poverty but highlights that security is about access and affordability, not just national food supply, and that lasting solutions need higher incomes and cheaper healthy food.

Example 2. Climate change and harvests. A severe drought in a major grain-exporting region cuts the harvest, reducing global supply and pushing up prices. Poorer importing countries are hit hardest, showing how climate change, global trade and price interact to threaten food security far from where the weather event happened.

Try this

Q1. Define food security. [2 marks]

  • Cue. When all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to enough safe, nutritious food for an active, healthy life.

Q2. State three factors that threaten food security. [3 marks]

  • Cue. Any three of: rising population, climate change, competition for water and land, conflict, rising prices, food waste.

Q3. Describe one way of addressing food poverty. [2 marks]

  • Cue. For example food banks, free school meals, redistribution of surplus food, or policies that raise income or lower the cost of healthy food.

Exam-style practice questions

Practice questions written in the style of CCEA exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.

CCEA A2 20188 marksDiscuss the factors that threaten food security, and evaluate strategies that could be used to improve it.
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An 8-mark answer needs the threats to food security and an evaluation of strategies.

Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to enough safe and nutritious food for an active, healthy life. Several factors threaten it. A rising global population increases demand for food. Climate change brings droughts, floods and extreme weather that damage harvests, and competition for limited water and farmland (including land used for biofuels or lost to building) reduces what can be grown. Conflict and political instability disrupt farming and distribution, poverty and rising food prices put food out of reach for the poorest, and large-scale food waste means produced food is never eaten.

Strategies include reducing food waste along the supply chain and at home, improving crop yields through better farming, irrigation and resistant or higher-yielding varieties, supporting local and sustainable production, fairer trade and pricing, reducing reliance on imports, and government and charity support such as food banks for those in food poverty. Each can be evaluated: improving yields helps but must be sustainable, food banks relieve immediate need but do not solve underlying poverty, and waste reduction is cheap and effective but needs behaviour change.

Markers reward a definition, several threats (population, climate, water and land, conflict, price, waste), and evaluated strategies for the higher marks.

CCEA A2 20204 marksExplain what is meant by food poverty and describe how it can be addressed.
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A 4-mark answer needs a definition of food poverty and ways to tackle it.

Food poverty is the inability to obtain or afford a healthy, balanced diet, so people go without food or rely on cheap, less nutritious foods. It can result from low income, unemployment, high food or housing costs, or limited access to shops selling affordable fresh food.

It can be addressed by support such as food banks and community food projects that provide emergency food, free school meals and breakfast clubs for children, cooking and budgeting education, policies that raise incomes or lower the cost of healthy food, and redistribution of surplus food from retailers to charities.

Markers reward a correct definition of food poverty, at least one cause, and at least two ways of addressing it such as food banks, free school meals or redistribution of surplus food.

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