History of food security

Abstract

Reverend Thomas Malthus, an English cleric and scholar, predicted that the population growth would unavoidably supersede the food production already in 1798. During the lasts decades the agricultural production has grown worldwide more rapidly than the population did. So at least in terms of macronutrients there is more food available to feed the world population, but the number of people suffering from food insecurity has been increasing and so is the proportion of the overall population suffering from insufficient food since a few years. The last 80 years are divided in four periods based principally on the world food situation. It puts events in a chronological order and tries to highlight hidden links for a better understanding of approaches to food security (Simon, 2012).