Food Security: Achieving the Potential.

FOOD supply; SUMMIT meetings; HUNGER prevention; INTERNATIONAL cooperation; INTERNATIONAL cooperation on food supply; SCARCITY; CONFERENCES & conventions

The article discusses global food security. The example given is the June 2008 High-Level Conference on World Food Security in Rome, Italy. A gathering of representatives from 180 countries met to discuss the need for eliminating worldwide hunger and improving food security. Similar commitments had been made during prior meetings including those from the 1974 World Food Conference, the 1996 World Food Summit, and the 2000 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The author suggests rhetoric and short-term actions will not fix the problem and that the way food security is defined adds to the difficulty in finding a solution. Statistics related to food security and problems facing global food shortages are presented.