Food security is when the entire population has access to enough safe and nutritious food to maintain a healthy body. Food insecurity is a problem for lots of different countries. Here is a list of challenges that arise from the lack of food security in Singapore and worldwide.
#1 Famine
Over 800 million people in the world are underweight. Malnutrition is when people do not eat enough of the right foods to keep them healthy. Wasting is severe weight loss due to acute malnutrition resulting from starvation. Undernourishment is when people do not consume enough calories.
#2 Debt
When there is less food available, the prices of food increase, less privileged countries are more vulnerable to increasing food prices set by speculators in Advanced Countries. It can cause sizable swings in the prices offered to farmers for their crops. Farmers and vulnerable groups in the community can incur debt to afford what they do not have.
#3 Soil Problems
Deforestation, overgrazing, and overcultivation expose the soil to wind and water erosion. Soil erosion can result from food shortages as farmers strive to gain more from their land. Soil removal happens more quickly in dry locations.
#4 Social Unrest
When food supplies are low, people have to fight for their survival. Riots in most cities are due to urban poverty and high food costs. Prices often radically fluctuate from month to month, causing unrest in less privileged communities.
Singapore does not have an official poverty line to calculate poverty rates. The Singaporean Parliament elected to develop a broad definition after following the footsteps of Hong Kong. Singapore considers any four-person home earning less than $1,250 per month to be in some financial difficulty. They came out with criteria to better identify and alleviate the financial burden of the specific portion of the community.
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