Culture and food security

This paper reviews available cross-disciplinary evidence on how culture affects food security. We discuss the impact of culture on all four dimensions (availability, access and choice, utilization, and stability). There is large heterogeneity in the size and breadth of available evidence, with research often biased toward high-come countries. The dynamics as well as the magnitude and relative importance of cultural effects on food security are still poorly understood. Despite these gaps in the literature, it is clear that how and why we obtain, process, prepare, and eat food is influenced by culture in various ways. Gender, family, and decision-making power play a critical role in interacting with culture and its impact on food security. There remains ample scope for improving food security policy by taking culture better into account.