Redefining the Concept of Food Security

As one observer has put it, in the years since the 1974 World Food Conference, the concept of food security has ‘evolved, developed, multiplied and diversified’ (Maxwell, 1996b). One count put the number of definitions of ‘food security’ at close to two hundred (Smith et al., 1993). With the failure to achieve Boyd Orr’s grand vision of a World Food Board, and the adamant objection of the world’s most powerful countries to proposals for a multilateral world food security arrangement, the early conceptual work of FAO focused on increasing food production, particularly in the developing countries, stabilizing food supplies, using the food surpluses of developed countries constructively and creatively, creating world and national food reserves, stimulating world agricultural trade, negotiating international commodity agreements, and increasing concern and understanding through B. R. Sen’s Freedom from Hunger Campaign.