Poverty, inequality and food security

Understanding how poverty, inequality and food security are interconnected is necessary for actually providing adequate access to “sufficient food, which is adequate both in quantity and quality which conforms with the beliefs, culture, traditions, dietary habits and preferences of individuals in accordance with national and international laws and obligations” – according to the definition given at the World Food Summit in 1996. Access to good quality, appropriate nutrition is a more comprehensive objective than providing a predefined level of calories intake, or even accessing specific sets of micronutrients. Human nutrition is a complex social activity, shaped by culture and tradition; as anthropologist have shown, traditional local food habits developed over the centuries in such a way to combine all necessary nutrients from local production; while the simple adoption of a new staple food coming from other regions of the world – irrespective of native traditional knowledge – may lead to severe forms of malnutrition (as it was the case for some northern Italy valleys, where corn was adopted as staple food and pellagra followed)