Food Systems, Sustainability and Climate Change Food Systems, Sustainability and Climate Change Glossary

The USDA Economic Research Service (ERS) defines food insecurity as a household characteristic. Food insecure households are those for which “consistent access to adequate food is limited by a lack of money and other resources at times during the year” (See more at: USDA-ERS).

The state of being without reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food. During the first decade of this century, more than 800 million people live every day with hunger or food insecurity as their constant companion (see also National Academy of Science definitions).

Food security exists “when all people at all times have access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life.” According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the three pillars of food security are: availability, access and (safe) utilization. In addition you can learn about the four dimensions of food insecurity at the FAO website.

A fertilizer consisting of growing plants that are plowed back into the soil.

Any of the atmospheric gases, both natural and anthropogenic, that contribute to the greenhouse effect by absorbing infrared radiation produced by solar warming of the Earth's surface. Water vapor (H₂O), carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH₄), nitrous oxide (NO₂) and ozone (O₃) are the primary greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Heat trapping effect of greenhouse gases in the troposphere (lowest portion of the earth's atmosphere)

Enabling a person to discover or learn something for themselves. Techniques, activities or lessons that allow someone to discover something for himself or by finding solutions through experiments or loosely defined rules.

Lack of proper nutrition, caused by not having enough to eat, not eating enough of the right things, or being unable to use the food that one does eat (see more on Wikipedia).

Sustainability is a holistic concept that built on three inter-related pillars: environmental, social and economic. To be sustainable, any entrepreneurial activity must be economically viable, ecologically healthy and socially equitable. A universal definition of sustainability was given for the first time by the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) in the Brundtland report published under the auspices of the United Nations in 1987.

Narrowly defined, SI refers to increase food production from existing farmland in ways that place far less pressure on the environment and that do not undermine our capacity to continue producing food in the future. However, Garnett et al. (2013) added the following four premises underlying SI: (a) The need to increase production; (b) Increase production must be met through higher yields because increasing the area of land in agriculture carries major environmental costs; (c) Food security requires as much attention to increasing environmental sustainability as to raising productivity; and (d) SI denotes a goal but does not specify a priori how it should be attained or which agricultural techniques to deploy.