FOOD SECURITY AND SAFETY
With the increased movement of people and goods around the globe, food security -- access to adequate and sustainable food supplies -- and food safety have become topics of widespread international interest. What is being done to ensure that reliable and affordable amounts of nutritious food are available to the world's growing population and how safe is the global food supply?

Only a small percentage of the world's hungry and malnourished people currently are being reached by food assistance programs, says Congressman Tony Hall, U.S. Ambassador-designate to the United Nations hunger and food organizations, in the lead article in this issue of Economic Perspectives. Hasty, stop-gap measures to address food security, he says, must be replaced by programs that are crafted, in part, by key stakeholders in affected communities to ensure predictable and stable food supplies appropriate to local conditions.

Hall and other experts begin by asking if food insecurity is a symptom or a cause of poverty. Hall suggests that hungry people are so focused on getting their next meal they cannot take advantage of many traditional routes out of poverty, such as education and alternative agricultural techniques that would, over the long term, help them attain food security. These experts recommend some new approaches, such as direct food assistance for families whose children stay in school and legal protection for rural property rights that would encourage farmers to make the types of investments that would boost food productivity. Others argue that food insecurity is not an issue of a shortfall in food production but rather that governments have neglected agricultural development, made ineffective use of food aid, and, through protective trade barriers, made hunger alleviation more difficult to attain.

There are success stories. Bangladesh, once extremely dependent on food imports, has transformed its devastated agricultural sector into one of the most productive farm economies in all of South Asia through a global partnership between foreign aid agencies, international research institutions, and indigenous non-governmental organizations. Greater crop diversification would help further food security in Bangladesh, experts say.

Food security and safety are tightly linked. On one hand, transgenic technology may hold the greatest potential to increase food production, reduce the use of harmful chemical pesticides, and provide nutritional foods. On the other hand, some argue that the technology, rather than being a hope, represents a new threat to both the environment and health. Some argue that the U.S. food safety regulatory structure is the best in the world and ensures the safety of both the domestic and export food supply. Others say that as good as this structure is, even more food product labeling is needed to let consumers know which products include or exclude genetically engineered foods and ingredients.

This issue of Economic Perspectives does not take sides on all of these issues but aims rather to educate foreign audiences on U.S. policy and on the debate in the United States over food security and safety, raising important questions that policy-makers in each country must address in forming future development and environmental policies.

世界粮农组织的解释：
What is meant by food security?
Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food for a healthy and active life (World Food Summit Plan of Action, par. 1). This involves four conditions:
(i) adequacy of food supply or availability;
(ii) stability of supply, without fluctuations or shortages from season to season or from year to year;
(iii) accessibility to food or affordability; and
(iv) quality and safety of food.

中文：
粮食安全的定义是什么?

粮食安全就是所有人在任何时候都能在物质上和经济上获得足够、安全和富有营养的食物以满足其健康而积极生活的膳食需要（世界粮食首脑会议行动计划第一段）。这涉及四个条件：
（1）充足的粮食供应或可获得量；
（2）不因季节或年份而产生波动或不足的稳定供应；
（3）具有可获得的并负担得起的粮食；
（4）优质安全的食物。

世界粮农组织粮食安全特别计划：The specail programe for food security(FPFS)

What are the Programme's main objectives?
The main objectives of the SPFS are: (i) to help LIFDCs improve national food security through rapid increases in productivity and food production; (ii) to reduce year-to-year variability in production on an economically and environmentally sustainable basis; and (iii) to improve household access to food. Increasing the net income of farmers, rural employment and social and gender equity are core features of the SPFS.

特别计划的主要目标是： (i) 帮助低收入缺粮国通过迅速提高生产率和粮食产量加强国家粮食安全；(ii) 在经济和环境可持续的基础上缩小每年的产量波动；(iii) 改善家庭获得粮食的机会。增加农民净收入、乡村就业、社会公平和男女平等是特别计划的核心。