Food is the general term for all matter that is taken into the body for nourishment. It is any edible substance eaten to provide nutritional support for the body. Food may be of plant or animal origin, consist of essential body nutrients such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins or minerals. It is ingested and digested to produce energy, stimulate growth, and maintain life.
World hunger and food security has been and remains a major problem throughout the world. Food security refers to the availability of food and one's access to it. Hundreds of millions of people are chronically hungry due to extreme poverty, while up to 2 billion people lack food security due to various degress of poverty. Increased farming for use in biofuels, oil prices, population growth, climate change, loss of agricultural land to industrial development and growing consumer demand in countries such as China and India have pushed up the price of grain. More than half of the earth's population live in urban areas such that any disruption to farm supplies may cause an urban food crisis in a relatively short time. In developing countries, 70% of the population lives in rural areas where agricultural development among small farmers and landless people provides a livelihood for people allowing them to stay in their communities but limits growth. A new peer-reviewed journal Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food will be published in 2009 by the International Society for Plant Pathology.
Many organizations are working hard to combat hunger and famine. These include OXFAM, Second Harvest, World Vision, The Hunger Project, Save the Children, UNICEF, and many others.
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