Reclaiming Food Security

1. Introduction 

2. Food Security: A Brief History 

Section 1: Calorie-ization of Food Security 

Section 2: Neoliberalization of Food Security 

Section 3: Empty Calorie-ization of Food Security 

3. Well-being and Nutrition 

Section 1: Life Expectancy 

Section 2: Subjective Indicators of Well-being 

Section 3: Aggregate Well-being Indicators 

Section 4: Nutritional Well-being 

4. Sustainability 

Section 1: Greenhouse Gas Emissions 

Section 2: Energy Consumption 

Section 3: Water 

Section 4: Waste 

Section 5: Meat 

Section 6: Environmental Performance Index: Agriculture 

5. Food Sovereignty, Safety and Access 

Section 1: Farmer Dependency 

Section 2: Constricting Consumer Choice 

Section 3: Food Safety 

Section 4: Import Dependency 

6. The Food and Human Security Index 

Section 1: Individual and Society Well-being 

Section 2: Ecological Sustainability 

Section 3: Potential for Food Independence 

Section 4: Nutritional Well-being 

Section 5: Freedom in Agrifood Chain 

Section 6: Results 

7. Lessons Learned 

Section 1: From Green Revolution to Rainbow Evolution 

Section 2: So What Can We Eat If Not GDP? 

Section 3: Food Security as Process (Not a Thing) 

Section 4: Towards a New Social Imaginary 

Biography

Michael Carolan is a Professor at Colorado State University, USA, and Chair of its Department of Sociology. Some of his recent books include The Real Cost of Cheap Food (Routledge), The Sociology of Food and Agriculture (Routledge), and Society and the Environment: Pragmatic Solutions to Ecological Issues (Westview Press).

"Never again should we use the phrase ‘food security’ – in the classroom, in the literature, or at the dinner table – without invoking Carolan’s meaning in his aptly titled Reclaiming Food Security: not just simply meeting calorie needs but fostering well-being in current and future generations."– Christine M. Porter, Assistant Professor of Public Health and Food Dignity Project Director, University of Wyoming

"Carolan challenges the prevailing assumptions about food security and, in so doing, recovers the true spirit of the term by reconnecting it to human welfare. Rich in detail, broad in scope, and thoroughly engaging to read. Genuinely refreshing scholarship" – Colin Sage, University College Cork, Republic of Ireland 

"A brilliant, bold and path breaking intervention into world food politics. This easy to read book changes how we must think about and work on food security. The conceptual and analytic tool of the Food and Human Security Index compellingly brings social sense back into the food security debate. A powerful, empirically grounded, thought experiment directed at enacting different human and food futures." – Richard Le Heron, University of Auckland

"Carolan questions current assumptions, especially the agro-industrial and food systems based on providing the cheapest calories possible, with devastating effects on the environment, small holders and health. He argues that a secure food system enables people both present and future to prosper and lead long, happy and healthy lives." – David Lorimer, Network Review

"(Reclaiming Food Security) provides an excellent introduction for both undergraduate and graduate students to a more critical approach to ‘food security’. For educators the creative use of statistics is great classroom material and serves as a good entry point into the more complicated and sometimes contradictory relationships present in contemporary food systems. Most importantly, the FHSI introduced in this volume provides a strong foundation—and can be seen as a versatile thinking tool—for a reorientation of ‘food security’ into a direction that is more responsive to human and environmental needs than has previously been the case." – Justa Hopma, Agriculture and Human Values, Aberystwyth University