Culture and Food Security

Using a wide berth of evidence, this paper reviews available cross-disciplinary evidence on how culture affects food security in terms of availability, access and choice, utilization, and stability. While the research identifies a poor understanding of culture’s effects on food security and an imbalance of evidence in favor of high-income countries, the literature shows that how we obtain, process, prepare, and eat food is influenced by culture in various ways. The paper concludes with a recommendation to take culture into account to improve food security policy.