Mercy Corps defines food security as a state when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food which meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. Food security means more than simple food distribution. It means making sure that people have the ability to grow their own food, and the income to buy it in the future. While extremely important, providing hunger relief through emergency food supplies is not a long-term solution; instead, food security means access to food will be sustainable.





Articles

Food Security Firsthand- Chelsea Catto, food security Program Officer at Mercy Corps, discusses the goals and obstacles of Mercy Corps' food security programs while offering insight from the field.

The Quest for Food Security - A Nigerian aid worker asks what food security really is and how it can be achieved.

A World Without Hunger May Be Within Reach - Food biotechnology may provide an answer to overwhelming forces of malnutrition and starvation.

Another View of Food Aid in Africa- The many complexities of food aid to Africa have led to differing opinions on its effectiveness.

International Food Wars - A look at the next international war - on food policy.

The Last Thing the Developing World Needs - A disturbing trend is appearing in the battle for control of the world's food resources.

Niger's Food Crisis - Short-term Aid vs. Long-term Investment - It was clear even before the drought how vulnerable Nigerians were to famine, and that even the most mild of shocks to their security would cause widespread devastation.







Papers and Reports

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Annual Hunger Report - The State of Food Insecurity in the World. November 26, 2005; 40 pages.

Chris Barrett and Dan Maxwell, Food Aid: We Can Do Better. A brief based on the authors' book, Food Aid after Fifty Years: Recasting its Role . London: Routledge, 2005.

Patrick Webb and Beatrice Rodgers, Addressing the "In" in Food Insecurity . USAID Office of Food for Peace, Occasional Paper No. 1, 2003; 36 pages.





Film Resources

City Farmers - A journey down New York City's meanest streets, where inner-city residents have transformed the rubble and rats of abandoned land into burgeoning vegetable and flower gardens.

Life & Debt - A critical examination of the effects of economic globalization on Jamaican industry and agriculture.

Silent Killer - The unfinished campaign against hunger.







Organizations

Global Citizen Corps - "Global Citizen Corps is a national network of high school students who educate and mobilize our schools and communities to fight global poverty. As part of Mercy Corps, we've joined the movement of committed Americans who will transform the world."

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations - The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) mandate is to "raise levels of nutrition, improve agricultural productivity, better the lives of rural populations and contribute to the growth of the world economy."

Mercy Corps' Hunger and Nutrition Resource - Mercy Corps works amid disasters, conflicts, chronic poverty and instability to unleash the potential of people who can win against nearly impossible odds.

World Food Programme - As the food aid arm of the United Nations, the World Food Programme (WFP) "works to put hunger at the centre of the international agenda, promoting policies, strategies and operations that directly benefit the poor and hungry."





Books

George Kent, Freedom from Want - The Human Right to Adequate Food. Georgetown University Press: Washington, DC, 2005

Presidential Commission, Overcoming World Hunger: the Challenge Ahead. Report of the Presidential Commission on World Hunger, 1980.

Amartya Sen, Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation. Oxford University Press: New York, 1981.

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