Concepts,measurement indicators of food security and research directions of Geography
Food security is a complicated social and economic issue,linked to social stability and physical health,which is always a key concern for governments and academia around the world.This study reviewed the evolution and characteristics of the concept of food security,analyzed the main measurement indicators and the advantages and disadvantages of scenario analysis methods of food security in recent years,and explored the possible research directions of geography in food security systems.The main conclusions are as follows:1)The concept of food security has developed into a comprehensive concept with 4 dimensions and 5 scales.The 4 research dimensions of food security are food availability,access,utilization,and stability,and 5 scales are the individual,household,national,regional and global levels.2)Households are the basic production and living unit of society,and the country shoulders responsibility for safeguarding food security of the whole soci-ety.So food security at household and national levels should be focus of the food security assessment.The at-tention of academic and the governments has also shifted from national scale to household and individual scale.Nutrient supply and dietary bulk have become key indicators for measuring food security.3)At present,there are more than 200 definitions of food security and more than 450 measurement indicators in the world.Most of food security assessment indicators have some shortages,such as insufficient quantification,non-uniform standards,inaccurate data,etc.There is no global standardized assessment indicator system covering the 4 di-mensions.Large scale inaccurate and incomplete data sets have become one of the biggest obstacles in food se-curity assessment.4)Computable General Equilibrium(CGE)model or Partial Equilibrium Theory(PE)are used to predict the situation of food security.There are significant differences in the prediction results of differ-ent studies on future food security.The accuracy of the forecast results is difficult to measure,too.5)Food se-curity is a comprehensive and complex system,involving a series of processes such as agricultural production,supply chain,household food access,food security evaluation,and coping strategies,etc.Geography,character-ized by comprehensiveness and regionalism,can make important contribution to the studies of driving forces of food supply,food supply chain,food security assessment indictor system,coping strategies,etc.
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