Improving local food security 227
Making healthy food available at fair prices
The world now produces more than enough food for everyone, but people still
go hungry. This is partly because food prices are often higher than people
can afford, and healthy food is often not available to the poorest people.
Government support is important to make sure prices are fair for both buyers
and sellers of food. Some ways people work locally to make sure healthy food is
available at fair prices include:
• Farmers markets reduce transportation costs
and the need for merchants in the middle, so
farmers can earn more and consumers pay less.
Farmers’ markets also let consumers meet and
talk with the people who grow their food. This
helps farmers learn what consumers need and
helps consumers know what farmers do to bring
them food.
• Food cooperatives are markets partly or entirely
owned by the workers and people who buy food
there. Food coop members pay part of their food
bill by working at the market. Most food coops
try to buy and sell locally grown food.
• Farmers cooperatives help farmers get better prices for what they grow,
and still offer better prices to consumers (see page 313.)
Safe food storage
Safe food storage is as important as the ability to grow food or have access
to food. Drought, storms, flooding, pests, or illness can all leave a family
or community with not enough to eat and nothing to sell. Community food
storage programs can help overcome these problems. (For information on
storing food and protecting it from pests, see page 305. For ways to prevent
food from spoiling in the home, see page 375.)
For example, on the Pacific island of Temotu, hurricanes frequently destroy
many crops. To improve food security, communities build big, communal pits to
store fermented cassava, unripe plantains, bananas, and breadfruit. Everyone
contributes to making and filling the pits. When crops are destroyed and
people are hungry, they use this stored food.
Food banks are places where food is collected and then given away to those
in need. Food banks help during a hunger crisis. But because people may come
to depend on them, they are not a good solution to long term food security.
When entire regions suffer from hunger, food aid from international
agencies can help them get through the crisis. Food aid is a short term solution
to food security, but it does not solve the long term need for food sovereignty
(see page 235).
A Community Guide to Environmental Health 2012