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S. Namany and T. Al-Ansari
1 Introduction: Food Insecurity Background Information:
Trends and Causes
Over the years, the global population and economy has and continues to experience significant demographic expansion, urbanisation and industrialisation [1].
However, the continued increase in population is accompanied by growing demands
on resources and industrial services, which in turn cause tremendous pressures on
natural resources and the surrounding environment. In fact, the global population is
expected to reach 9.7 billion by 2050 [2], leading to a significant surge in demands
for all major industrial sectors. Food demand is predicted to rise by 70%, and global
energy demand by more than 50%. The water sector which heavily supports agriculture activities, which is the main consumer of fresh water at a share of 70%, will
experience unprecedented withdrawal rates to meet the requirements of other sectors
[3]. In order to supply sufficient resources to all sectors and to feed the increasing
population, resource sectors should expand to accommodate the rise in production.
This would cause significant pressures on the environment due to the emissions
associated with power generation, water withdrawal or treatment and food production and primary agriculture activities. In addition, pressures on resource sectors
and resource depletion are not the only risks associated with demographic expansion. From a social perspective, the increased demand for food products can lead to
disparity in the access for food in many regions of the world especially in those with
limited financial resources and constrained access to the natural capital. In order to
overcome the uneven food situation, the concept of food security is adopted as an
adaptation strategy to ensure equal and fair access to food products. Food security
is defined as the state “when all people, at all times, have physical and economic
access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food
preferences for an active and healthy life” [4]. It is comprised of four main pillars:
availability, accessibility, utilisation and stability. Food availability consists of all
activities responsible for delivering food products including production and supply
chains (distribution). Food accessibility is related to the economic value of food
products along with their social affordability. As for food utilisation, it is concerned
with food safety and sanitation in addition to the nutritional content of food products.
Food stability is not generally considered a pillar on its own, although in modern
society it is a critical component to food security as it maintains the stability of the
three core pillars [5]. In order to achieve holistic food security, the representative
pillars should be modelled efficiently as a means to ensure the continuous performance and effective operations of all subsystems that constitute the food system. It
is also important to highlight that besides the fundamental pillars of food security; it
cannot be achieved in isolation to the secure provision of water and energy resources.
Therefore, modelling food security requires the consideration of the interactions that
exist between the three sectors in order to ascertain an accurate representation for
resource requirements, synergies, and trade-offs. As such, the energy, water, and food
(EWF) nexus is an approach that can enable the efficient cooperation between EWF
S. Namany and T. Al-Ansari
1 Introduction: Food Insecurity Background Information:
Trends and Causes
Over the years, the global population and economy has and continues to experience significant demographic expansion, urbanisation and industrialisation [1].
However, the continued increase in population is accompanied by growing demands
on resources and industrial services, which in turn cause tremendous pressures on
natural resources and the surrounding environment. In fact, the global population is
expected to reach 9.7 billion by 2050 [2], leading to a significant surge in demands
for all major industrial sectors. Food demand is predicted to rise by 70%, and global
energy demand by more than 50%. The water sector which heavily supports agriculture activities, which is the main consumer of fresh water at a share of 70%, will
experience unprecedented withdrawal rates to meet the requirements of other sectors
[3]. In order to supply sufficient resources to all sectors and to feed the increasing
population, resource sectors should expand to accommodate the rise in production.
This would cause significant pressures on the environment due to the emissions
associated with power generation, water withdrawal or treatment and food production and primary agriculture activities. In addition, pressures on resource sectors
and resource depletion are not the only risks associated with demographic expansion. From a social perspective, the increased demand for food products can lead to
disparity in the access for food in many regions of the world especially in those with
limited financial resources and constrained access to the natural capital. In order to
overcome the uneven food situation, the concept of food security is adopted as an
adaptation strategy to ensure equal and fair access to food products. Food security
is defined as the state “when all people, at all times, have physical and economic
access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food
preferences for an active and healthy life” [4]. It is comprised of four main pillars:
availability, accessibility, utilisation and stability. Food availability consists of all
activities responsible for delivering food products including production and supply
chains (distribution). Food accessibility is related to the economic value of food
products along with their social affordability. As for food utilisation, it is concerned
with food safety and sanitation in addition to the nutritional content of food products.
Food stability is not generally considered a pillar on its own, although in modern
society it is a critical component to food security as it maintains the stability of the
three core pillars [5]. In order to achieve holistic food security, the representative
pillars should be modelled efficiently as a means to ensure the continuous performance and effective operations of all subsystems that constitute the food system. It
is also important to highlight that besides the fundamental pillars of food security; it
cannot be achieved in isolation to the secure provision of water and energy resources.
Therefore, modelling food security requires the consideration of the interactions that
exist between the three sectors in order to ascertain an accurate representation for
resource requirements, synergies, and trade-offs. As such, the energy, water, and food
(EWF) nexus is an approach that can enable the efficient cooperation between EWF