Food System and Food Security in BC and Globally

British Columbia State and Food System and Food Security around the World Currently, our food system in British Columbia uses different ways to access food. In 2008, about 45% (less than half) of the food was imported into British Columbia (Ostry, 2010). In this sense, BC seems to be safer than other states and countries. Most of our imported products are vegetables, fruits, nuts, fish (Ostry, 2010). We produce large amounts of dairy products, meat and live animals (Ostry, 2010). Our dependence on these products is much smaller (almost not dairy products), which will slightly improve the safety of our food.

World food system can be defined as "world food production, processing, distribution". Individual food security within the world food system is characterized by the four aspects of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Economic and material access, use of food to achieve nutritional status, and stability of the first three aspects over time. However, our current food system is full of inequality and problems that hinder everyone from accessing adequate food security, affecting individuals and the global environment. Below are the top five problems of the world food system.

Food security is the result of the food system process throughout the food chain and climate change will affect food security through the impact on all elements of the world, national and regional food systems. This is explained by the definition of food security adopted by the World Food Summit (WFS) in November 1996. Food security exists in food preferences for healthy living "(FAO, 1996)

The extent of food insecurity depends on whether the family can obtain consistent food. The range ranges from high food security, marginal food security, low food security to extremely low food security. People with a high food security level can get enough food. Conversely, people with very low food safety reported multiple diet patterns and decreased food intake, but often lacked funds and other food resources. Food insecurity affects people of all ages and backgrounds. According to the report of 2016, out of 42 million people facing food insecurity, 28 million are adults and 13 million are children. Children, the elderly, African American, Latin American, and rural communities are most seriously affected by food insecurity. The effects of food insecurity on individuals may be malnutrition and lack of adequate food or improper intake of empty calories.