Although hunger can be caused by social or political breakdowns, crop failure or ecological disaster, the main cause of hunger is chronic poverty - a poverty so absolute that its victims possess neither the resources to buy food nor control over the resources needed to produce it. The prevailing export-oriented development strategy has led to numerous problems. The current foreign debt load of many developing countries is a deterrent to their food security. The problems of dependency on food import and food aid include political conditionality, vulnerability to a failure of delivery mechanisms, disincentive to local producers due to decreased food prices, competition with local traditional foods and changed consumption patterns. Additionally, importing countries face vulnerability to drought and political unrest and they have less control over food quality, which requires increased chemicals to preserve the food being transported long distances.
Food security is a basic human right.
Every person must be assured access to safe, high quality food. To ensure the right of people to feed themselves, food security must be based, to the extent possible, on local self reliance. Food security is best assured where the production, transporting and consumption of local food is a priority and where dependence on food imports is reduced as much as possible, acknowledging that food imports can be necessary to supplement local supplies 9. The attainment of food security is vital to sustainable development. People have the right to the dignity of sustainable self-reliance.