Niki Bezzant: Food a basic human right

Climate change is threatening our food supply. Photo / WGP

When you work in food, there's lots of talk about food trends - about what's happening at the cutting edge, what's new, what's next. We talk about artisan products and innovation and inspiration. It's fun.

But lately I find myself thinking about the other side of the coin. The issue of food security doesn't come up much in New Zealand and the term probably doesn't mean much to many of us. But it should.

Food is a basic human right.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) food security is "when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life".

The FAO celebrates its World Food Day tomorrow. In a reminder that food is intrinsically linked with a much bigger picture, they're focusing on the fact more people have been forced to flee their homes in recent years due to increased conflict and political instability than at any time since World War II.

Hunger, poverty and climate change-induced extreme weather events are also presenting major challenges.

The FAO's goal to achieve Zero Hunger by 2030 is achievable, it says, but not without addressing some of these challenges, including protecting the global climate and tackling some of the root causes of migration and displacement.

It also means addressing global inequality. It seems shameful the world produces enough food to feed everyone, yet about 800 million people suffer from hunger and that a third of the food worldwide is wasted.

And it is baffling that against this backdrop, obesity is a major problem - 1.9 billion people, more than a quarter of the world's population, are overweight.

Close to home, food security is closely linked with inequality. According to local data, one in five households - two in five Maori households - are food insecure.

Low income is the strongest determinant of food insecurity, with unemployment and sole parenthood also factors. Women are more likely to suffer than men.

Right now it feels like we are increasingly looking at a future of inequality, where along with only a privileged few having access to home ownership and timely health care, only some of us will have access to food that keeps us healthy.

Experts point to environments becoming more obesogenic - where the predominant accessible and affordable food choices are unhealthy ones - and where people are surrounded by wall-to-wall marketing for unhealthy food.

The old arguments that personal responsibility and education are the solutions to this are ignoring the bigger picture, and passing judgment on people who are caught in a system that goes far beyond the choices they make in the supermarket.

• Niki Bezzant is editor-at-large for Healthy Food Guide magazine.