Introduction to Food security in India Video Lecture - Social Studies (SST) Class 9

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The two Chinese characters for the
word population are the character
of a person and the
character of an open mouth.
Do you know how many people
there are in the world today?
For most of human history, our
population increase has been slow
and steady, but in the last 120
years it has accelerated from 1.5
to more than 7 billion.
Around one billion people, or one in seven,
are chronically hungry.
It is predicted that by
the end of this century,
we will welcome person number 11 billion.
Experts agree the planet can
definitely produce enough food for 11
billion, but they question whether
we can do it in ways that are
environmentally responsible and
whether safe and nutritious foods
will be distributed fairly.
What we are talking about
here is called food security.
It's not a term you might have heard before,
so let's define it.
According to the United Nations,
food security exists when
all people at all times have physical
and economic access to sufficient,
safe and nutritious food to meet their
dietary needs and food preferences
for an active and healthy life.
There are four dimensions of
food security: availability,
access, utilization, and stability.
You might like to explore these further.
Australia is one of the
most food secure countries.
We produce enough food to feed the
nation nearly three times over.
But food security is more than
just how much food is produced.
For a country to be food secure, there
needs to be a consistent supply
of healthy food and it needs
to be accessible to all.
We already have enough healthy
food to feed the world,
but the problem is that it
isn't distributed equally.
You may like to discuss what
constitutes healthy food,
and how it can be accessible
to all the world's people.
One potential piece of the puzzle
is the re-emergence of local food
systems, in which food is grown, processed,
packaged, and consumed,
in the same community.
There are lots of great examples
of this including Western Farms
in Brighton, Tasmania, where food
is produced for farmers markets
and restaurants including
their own cafe in Hobart.
You might like to consider the
economic health and environmental
benefits of local food systems.
So, now you've stated to
think about food security,
perhaps the two Chinese characters
that make up the word population
- that is a person and an open
mouth - make more sense to you.
Ultimately, we must balance
people and resources.
This is a challenge for
agribusiness and consumers alike,
but one I think we're up for.
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