Examining the Influence of Governmental, Socioecological, and Economic Perspectives as Determinants of Food Security

Abstract

The concept of food security has traditionally encompassed complex issues that underpin human health and development globally. Defined and categorized by scholarly researchers, food security encompasses stability, access, and availability in its shaping. These characteristics are influenced by three major pillars that determine consistent and equitable access to food: the role of governance and policy implementation, socioecological challenges, and contrasting economic systems. This paper examines how each determinant intertwines and has proven its significance in either ensuring or challenging food security on all regional, national, and international levels. Strategic leadership and policies set by governments play a pivotal role in enhancing food security in both direct and indirect methods. International examples include China and Indonesia's success in re-achieving food security via an active government that supported their agricultural industries to flourish. The socioecological approach examines how both human society and natural disasters affect the creation and maintenance of secure food systems. Pandemics and climatic catastrophes damage the most vulnerable in disproportionate ways, underlining the importance of social capital in food systems. In developing economies, social burdens like food loss become a prevalent issue due to poor infrastructure in society. In developed economies, however, patterns of a weak food system occur at the consumption stage. Economic intervention in the form of better wages, quality housing, and reduced food prices raises levels of access to healthier diets. Economic limitations, however, include foreign land investment displacements, global price changes, and insufficient food systems (e.g., food deserts, oases, swamps). All three determinants of food security align clearly with the following United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Goal 2 (Zero Hunger), Goal 3 (Good Health and Well-Being), and Goal 17 (Partnerships for the Goals). Furthermore, these frameworks align with the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agriculture and Food Research Initiative’s (AFRI) priority of Food Safety, Nutrition, and Health. Food security is ultimately driven by inclusive and collective action among its three major determinants, grounded in the principles of the AFRI and the SDGs, with a commitment to reducing inequality and fostering resilience.