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Welcome to the Food Security Research Guide

This guide is intended to help you find resources for food security research and information from

Reference works such as encyclopedias, dictionaries, handbooks, etc.
Print and electronic books
Articles from journals, magazines and newspapers
Theses and Dissertations
Trustworthy Internet sites and web resources

Use the tabs on the side to navigate through the pages of the guide.

Definition of food security:

FAO - Food security is “a situation that exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.” - 2015, The State of Food Insecurity in the World

USDA - "Access by all people at all times to enough nutritious food for an active, healthy life."

Food Security @AUB

Featured Interview

Economic and coronavirus crises threaten Lebanon’s already fragile food security
FAFS Dean Mohtar's interview with Executive Magazine discussing the threat of the economy and COVID-19 crisis on Lebanon's food security.

Featured Sites

Lebanon Food Security Portal
All you need to know about Food security in Lebanon: Briefs; Reports; Media; Policy updates; Q&A.

Lebanon Spatial

Lebanon Spatial is a data atlas launched by the Food Security Program at the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). This mapping project seeks to make data on development and food security more available, user-friendly, and intuitive for users. Lebanon Spatial supports the dissemination of information and data on food security, for easier use by the general public, policymakers, and researchers. News of the launch may be found here.

Featured Books on Food Security

Climate Change, Food Security and Natural Resource Management by Mohamed Behnassi (Editor); Olaf Pollmann (Editor); Himangana Gupta (Editor)
Publication Date: 2018
This book contributes to the on-going debates on climate change by focusing on the SDGs and exploring linkages between environmental change and food security as well as the relevance and need to consider the management of natural resources, especially water, soil and forest. The strength of this book lies in the fact that it covers the most neglected topics in climate negotiations in spite of the fact that these decide the fate of millions of people around the world, especially the developing countries. By presenting a collection of case studies from Africa, Asia and Europe, this book encourages cross-continental knowledge sharing.
Water, Energy and Food Sustainability in the Middle East by Adnan Badran (Editor-In-Chief); Sohail Murad (Editor); Elias Baydoun (Editor); Nuhad Daghir (Editor)
Publication Date: 2017
This book provides a survey of technologies available to tackle the problems associated with climate change in the energy, water and food security nexus with a special focus on the Middle East. It is divided into three main sections. The energy Section consists of six chapters, the water section of seven chapters and finally the food security section has six chapters. The individual chapters are authored by experts and provide discussions and in-depth views on the current status of each topic.
The Water, Energy, and Food Security Nexus in the Arab Region by Kamel M. Amer (Editor); Zafar Adeel (Editor); Benno Boer (Editor); Walid Saleh (Editor)
Publication Date: 2017
This book investigates the need for a more open and interdisciplinary dialogue on the nexus of food, water and energy security in the Arab region. It argues that achieving sustainable economic development is irretrievably tied to the security of the water-energy-food nexus, which is in turn essential for bringing about sustained peace. Further, it discusses various approaches to achieving these lofty objectives.
Food Security and Sustainability by George Mergos (Editor); Marina Papanastassiou (Editor)
Publication Date: 2016
This edited volume brings together contributions from experts on a range of food security issues, and examines them through a number of case studies. A Millennium Development goal and important policy concern, food security is experiencing renewed interest due to globalisation, which has led to population affluence, changing consumption, and production and trade patterns.
The Political Economy of Arab Food Sovereignty by Jane Harrigan
Call Number: S 338.191:H297p
Publication Date: 2014
A political economy analysis of the history of food security in the Arab world, including the role played by the global food price crisis in the Arab Spring and the Arab response aiming at greater food sovereignty via domestic food production and land acquisition overseas - the so-called land grab.
Food Security and Sociopolitical Stability by Christopher B. Barrett
Publication Date: 2013
This volume explores the complex relationship between food security and sociopolitical stability up to roughly 2025. Organized around a series of original essays by leading global technical experts, a key message of this volume is that actions taken in an effort to address food security stressors may have consequences for food security, stability, or both that ultimately matter far more than the direct impacts of biophysical drivers such as climate or land or water scarcity. The means by which governments, firms, and private philanthropies tackle the food security challenge of the coming decade will fundamentally shape the relationship between food security and sociopolitical stability.

Featured reports

International Food Security Assessment, 2017-2027
USDA-ERS’s International Food Security Assessment (IFSA) model is a demand-oriented framework used to project three food security indicators: the number of food-insecure people, the share of the food-insecure population, and the food gap, a measure of the depth of food insecurity. Projections are made for the current year and 10 years out. The model includes information on domestic prices and consumer responsiveness to changes in prices and incomes. Given ongoing low food prices and rising incomes for many of the 76 low- and middle-income countries included in the IFSA model, food security is projected to improve. The share of the population that is food insecure is projected to fall from 17.7 percent in 2017 to 8.9 percent in 2027. Over the next decade, the number of food-insecure people is projected to fall from 646 million to 372 million, and the intensity of food insecurity will also decline by about 40 percent.
2019 Global food policy report
IFPRI’s flagship report reviews the major food policy issues, developments, and decisions of 2018, and considers challenges and opportunities for 2019. This year’s Global Food Policy Report highlights the urgency of rural revitalization to address a growing crisis in rural areas. Rural people around the world continue to struggle with food insecurity, persistent poverty and inequality, and environmental degradation. Policies, institutions, and investments that take advantage of new opportunities and technologies, increase access to basic services, create more and better rural jobs, foster gender equality, and restore the environment can make rural areas vibrant and healthy places to live and work. Drawing on recent findings, IFPRI researchers and other distinguished food policy experts consider critical aspects of rural revitalization.
Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition in the Near East and North Africa 2019
The past few decades have seen dramatic improvements in the region in access to food, reduction in stunting rates, in premature death and disability caused by communicable, maternal, neonatal, and nutritional diseases. However, the gains in the fight against hunger and malnutrition have reversed in the wake of conflicts and violence that have spread in many parts of the region in the last decade.
Today, nearly 55 million people in the Arab States, 13.2 percent of the population, are hungry and the situation is particularly worrying in countries affected by conflicts and violence: Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Sudan, and Yemen. Displacements and forced migration are widespread in the region, especially among the growing youth population segment.
Many countries carry a double burden of malnutrition, including overweight and obesity and undernutrition. A high or very high prevalence of stunting in children under the age of five persists in nearly half of the Arab States, while anaemia is a severe public health issue in certain countries. The trends of overweight and obesity continue to worsen for children and adults.
Beyond these numbers, the report explores food systems in the Arab States and the policies that support them. It also explores how the latter have contributed to poor nutritional outcomes by failing to make safe and diversified healthy diets available to all. While there has been significant progress in policies designed to reduce caloric deficiencies in the population, the policy reaction to address existing malnutrition problems, particularly in relation to overweight and obesity.

Reference Sources

What is Reference?

Reference books such as encyclopedias, dictionaries, handbooks and biographies help you find factual and background information about your topic.

It is advisable to look at more than one source of information to get the most information and to have a more balanced view of the topic.

Google and Wikipedia could be good places to start your search for general and initial ideas about your topic. But you will always have to use Library resources to get more credible information.

Selected Online Encyclopedias

Selected Print Handbooks

Routledge Handbook of Food and Nutrition Security by Bill Pritchard (Editor); Rodomiro Ortiz (Editor); Meera Shekar (Editor)
Call Number: S 338.19:R869p
Publication Date: 2016
The concept of food and nutrition security has evolved and risen to the top of the international policy agenda over the last decade. This handbook represents the most comprehensive compilation of our current knowledge of food and nutrition security from a global perspective. It synthesizes a vast field of information drawn from agriculture, soil science, climatology, economics, sociology, human and physical geography, the nutrition and health sciences, environmental science and development studies.
Agricultural Urbanism by Janine M. de la Salle (Editor); Mark Holland (Editor)
Call Number: S 630:A278d
Publication Date: 2010
Taking sustainable food systems far beyond community gardens and local farms, this guide, compiled by some of the most innovative leaders of the agricultural urbanism movement, envisions much larger networks that include food-processing businesses, organic-food wholesalers, and many kinds of training programs. Outlining key strategies for creating food precincts in towns and cities, the discussion describes ways to grow produce all year round and unify urban and rural life in innovative ways.

Articles & Databases

Selected Food Security E-Journals

Agriculture & Food Security from 2012 to present published by BioMed Central

Agronomy for Sustainable Development from 2007 to present published by Springer

Food & Energy Security from 2012 to present published by Wiley

Food Policy from 1975 to present published by Elsevier

Food Security from 2009 to present published by Springer

Global Food Security from 2012 to present published by Elsevier

Selected Articles Related to the Arab World

Al Dulaijan, H. D. (2020). The economy of inspiration and its role in achieving food security during the Covid-19 pandemic (an applied study-Kingdom of Saudi Arabia). International Journal of Inspiration & Resilience Economy, 4(2), 50-57. 10.5923/j.ijire.
Ghattas, H., Sassine, A. J., Aqeel, M., Hwalla, N., Obeid, O. A., & Sahyoun, N. R. (2018). Children’s experiences of food insecurity in Lebanon: A qualitative study. Journal of Hunger & Environmental Nutrition, 13(1), 28-39.
Ramadan, Racha. (2017). Determinants of food security in Egypt. Review of Economics and Political Science, 2(3), 3-27.
Sahyoun, N. R., Sassine, A., Vaudin, A., Sakr-Ashour, F., & Ghattas, H. (2020). Living arrangements and food security of a sample of older Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. Health Reports, 4, e2020051.

Find Full-text for Citation

If you have the citation of an article, use Citation Linker
OR
go to Journal Finder and type the journal name to see if the library has the full-text of the article.

Food Security Core Databases

Agricola (Open access)
Created by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Library, it contains citations to journal articles, books, reports, theses and more.
CAB Direct (4 simultaneous users)
Incorporating CAB Reviews and providing information and analysis about international research in the applied life sciences. Coverage includes agriculture, applied plant science, biotechnology, forestry, food and nutrition, environmental sciences, veterinary medicine and related disciplines.

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Users are prompted to add exception to access the database.
Food Science and Technology Abstracts (8 simultaneous users)
Worldwide coverage of all scientific and technological aspects of the processing and manufacturing of human food products and nutrition. It includes journals, reviews, standards, legislation, patents, books, theses, and conference proceedings.

Find Scholarly Articles in Major Databases

Start at the University Libraries Home Page, go to Databases and select Food Security, or Multidisciplinary from the drop down menu under 'All Subjects'.

Multidisciplinary

Google Scholar Logo

Open Access Databases

AGRIS/Caris International Information: FAO resource for papers, data, statistics, and multimedia

FAO Catalog Online: A multilingual, on-line index and catalogue of documents, and publications produced by FAO since 1945, books added to the library collections since 1976, and serials held in the FAO library.

PubAg: The USDA National Agricultural Library's search system for agricultural information (nutrition, food, animal and crop production, natural resources, sustainable agriculture, rural development, ag economics, statistics)

Books & e-Books

Find Books and eBooks at the University Libraries

I. Search the Library Catalog to find books and other materials available at the University Libraries.

Find Open Access e-Books

Digitized texts of classic out-of-copyright books (items published before 1923, cutoff date in US copyright law).

Read Free eBooks

Open Library
The World's classic literature at your fingertips. Over 1,000,000 free ebook titles. Browse the library by subject: Food security

Atlases

The atlas of food : [who eats what, where and why] by Erik Millstone and Tim Lang
Call Number: S 664:M657a:c.1
ISBN: 9781844074990
Publication Date: 2008
Atlas of Sustainable Development Goals 2018 by World Bank
Call Number: Online
ISBN: 1464812500
Publication Date: 2018

Sample Books on Food Security

Water, energy & food sustainability in the Middle East
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Provides a survey of technologies available to tackle the problems associated with climate change in the energy, water and food security nexus with a special focus on the Middle East. It is divided into three main sections. The energy Section consists of six chapters, the water section of seven chapters and finally the food security section has six chapters. The individual chapters are authored by experts and provide discussions and in-depth views on the current status of each topic.
Crucial agricultural policy: Analysis of key threats to food security
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The aim is to present economy-wide but detailed information that will facilitate state-of-the-art economic agricultural policy analysis in the light of future threats. The scope of the book is comprehensive, analysing a range of key food security issues (self-sufficiency, stocks and industry development), policies and futures.
In search of biohappiness: Biodiversity and food, health and livelihood security
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It deals with methods of converting agro-biodiversity hotspots into happy spots. This involves concurrent attention to conservation, and sustainable and equitable use. Bioresources constitute the feedstock for the biotechnology industry. The aim of the book is to promote an era of biohappiness based on the conversion of bioresources into jobs and income in an environmentally sustainable manner.
Science and sustainable food security: Selected papers of M S Swaminathan
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Provides a roadmap for achieving sustainable agricultural advance and food security in an era of climate change and global economic melt-down. The contents include a description of the paradigm shift under the leadership of the author, from a green to an ever-green revolution necessary for advancing productivity in perpetuity without ecological harm.

Food security, gender and resilience by Leigh Brownhill (Editor); Esther Njuguna (Editor); Kimberly L. Bothi (Editor); Lutta Muhammad (Editor); Gordon M. Hickey (Editor) Through the integration of gender analysis into resilience thinking, this book shares field-based research insights from a collaborative, integrated project aimed at improving food security in subsistence and smallholder agricultural systems. The scope of the book is both local and multi-scalar.
Call Number: S 338.196:F686b
Publication Date: 2016
Food security and conflict in the ESCWA region by Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) This report argues that, up to a certain extent, the conflict-affected countries and territories of the ESCWA region can promote food security nationally.
Call Number: S 338.1956:F686u
Publication Date: 2010
Food security and sustainability by George Mergos (Editor); Marina Papanastassiou (Editor) The volume draws on papers presented at the inaugural Workshop of the Mediterranean Center for Food Security and Sustainable Growth (MED-SEC), an international network of academics focusing on issues of development, sustainability and food security.
Call Number: S 338.19:F686m
Publication Date: 2016
Water and Food Security in the Arabian Gulf by Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research Staff Growing populations and economies have led to an increase in water demand around the globe. However, there are large variations in the amounts of water available, and growing concern surrounding the uncertainty associated with these supplies. This is evident nowhere more than in the dry and arid Arabian peninsula. Global food security also faces an uncertain future. The Gulf states suffer from a substantial food gap, and all the countries in the region are net food importers. The increase in the region's population, rising income levels, and harsh weather conditions that prevent the increase of local food production, have resulted in a vast increase in the region's food imports. In this book, water and food resource management strategies are examined, as well as the policies in the Gulf states, the global geopolitics of water security, future demand trends in the Gulf region, and the particular challenges faced by the UAE in ensuring a reliable supply of food and water in the coming decades.
Call Number: S 333.91:E539w:2012:c.1
Publication Date: 2013

Sample Publications on Food Security

Pathways towards food security in the Arab region : An assessment of wheat availability
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The study includes a review of the various regional initiatives that relate to wheat in order to reflect the results of the assessment of wheat availability into useful regional policy directions that can help the region to enhance wheat availability. The outcome of the review coupled with the results of the assessment can shed light on the pathways that Arab countries, collectively or individually, can follow to secure higher wheat availability levels and, as such, contribute to enhanced food security for their populations.
Food security and conflict in the ESCWA region
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The study attempts to analyze sectoral and country-level policies and explores regional policy options that may help reduce food insecurity in the region. It identifies data gaps and opportunities for further research, and stresses that food security and conflict are intertwined regional issues, therefore requiring solutions that involve a coordinated international, and more importantly, regional approach. The study proposes recommendations for Iraq, Palestine, the Sudan and Yemen as well as the region and the international community on the development of national and regional policies and programs to support food security while mitigating the impact of conflict.
How vulnerable are Arab countries to global food price shocks?
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This paper presents new estimates of pass-through coefficients from international to domestic food prices by country in the Middle East and North Africa. The estimates indicate that, despite the use of food price subsidies and other government interventions, a rise in global food prices is transmitted to a significant degree into domestic food prices in many countries in the Middle East and North Africa, although cross-country variation is significant. In nearly all countries, domestic food prices are highly downwardly rigid. The finding of asymmetric price transmission suggests that not only international food price levels matter, but also food price volatility. High food pass-through tends to increase inflation pressures, where food consumption shares are high. Domestic factors, often linked to storage, logistics, and procurement, have also played a major role in explaining high food inflation in the majority of countries in the region.
Food security and food sovereignty in the Middle East : Working group summary report
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The research initiative is comprised of original, empirically-grounded chapters that collectively offer the most comprehensive study available to date on food security in the Middle East. Some of the major themes examined include the ascent and decline of various food regimes, urban agriculture, overseas agricultural land purchases, national food self-sufficiency strategies, distribution networks and food consumption patterns, and nutrition transitions and
healthcare.
Beyond the Arab awakening : Policies and investments for poverty reduction and food security
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This report aims to inform and stimulate the debate on key policy priorities for poverty reduction and food security in light of the Arab Awakening. Its findings are based on an innovative combination of datasets and rigorous economic analysis.

Reports

FAO reports with a focus on Lebanon

Other reports with a focus on MENA

FAO reports

Internet Links

Lebanon

FAO: Lebanon
   - Food security statistics (food security indicators)
   - Food availability, access and utilization
   - Nutrition profile (includes a section on food security)

Government Websites

USDA ERS Reports and Data on Food Security in the U.S.

USDA ERS Reports and Data on Global Food Security

Featured Sites

Lebanon Spatial
A data mapping atlas launched by the Food Security Program at the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). This mapping project seeks to make data on development and food security more available, user-friendly, and intuitive for users. Lebanon Spatial supports the dissemination of information and data on food security, for easier use by the general public, policymakers, and researchers.
Arab Spatial
A regional and bilingual resource established by IFPRI to post and map data on food security, in an effort to support research and learning on this topic in the MENA region.
Knoema
Users discover, extract, and normalize data to make it usable through Knoema's open data platform. Knoema’s smart search engine moves beyond simple keyword search results to dataset discovery and auto-generated visualization collections to represent users' data query.

Statistics and Data

Useful Links

Evaluate Web Sites

Evaluation of Web Documents
Evaluating Web Pages
Evaluating Internet Resources

Internet Detective "A free online tutorial"

Theses

Find Thesis in the Library

Thesis Help

Need help with thesis formatting? Consult the Resource Hub for Thesis Writers Guide

Need help with citation management and locating resources? Contact the Science & Agriculture Library

Need help with writing your thesis? Contact the Writing Center

Theses Repositories

Find full-text theses in University catalogs and repositories.

PQDT Open
Find open access dissertations and theses offered by ProQuest's UMI Dissertation Publishing.

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With PQDT Open, you can read the full text of open access dissertations and theses free of charge. You can quickly and easily locate dissertations and theses relevant to your discipline, and view the complete text in PDF format.
NDLTD: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
An Open Access Initiative union catalog of theses and dissertations from many countries.

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NDLTD provides access to thousand of citations from digital dissertations and theses. Citations are collected from hundreds of universities around the world, as well as partner organizations, including the American Library Association, OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Proquest/UMI, and Theses Canada. NDLTD promotes the adoption, creation, use, dissemination and preservation of electronic theses and dissertations.
Open Thesis
OpenThesis is a free repository of theses, dissertations, and other academic documents.
Worldwide ETD Index
A global index of freely available electronic theses and dissertations.
Open Access Theses and Dissertations
A bibliographic database indexing over 1.6 million electronic theses and dissertations and freely available online.

Databases

Dissertations and Theses Full Text
Its coverage of the USA and Canada is comprehensive, including masters' as well as doctoral theses. 1861- First 24 pages preview 1997-Includes full-text of theses published as open access.

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Coverage of other countries is less thorough, but there are records from individual universities in places as far apart as the Czech Republic, Australia, Thailand, Saudi Arabia and Germany. Coverage of US theses goes back to 1861, US and Canadian theses usually have an abstract.
Subject Databases
Search for theses in subject databases.

Search for theses in national Library catalogs

Search for theses in national Library catalogs:

DART - Europe
A partnership of European libraries which pool information about their electronic theses.
EThOS: Electronic Thesis Online Service
A single point of access of over 250,000 theses where researchers from all over the world can access ALL theses produced by UK Higher Education.
SUDOC
SUDOC is a French union catalogue which can be restricted to searches on theses and dissertations completed at universities in France.
Theses.fr
Theses in France.

Cite Your Sources

Why cite your sources? An overview

A great video on Vimeo from UNLV Libraries giving an overview on citing sources: "Using other people's ideas"

Tags: Summary, paraphrase, quotation, plagiarism, attribution.

Which style to use

Styles commonly used at AUB are MLA, APA and Turabian. If you are not sure which citation style you should use, ask your instructor.

Below are commonly used systems of documentation:

MLA, used in English and the humanities;
APA, used in psychology and the social sciences;
Chicago, used in history and some humanities; and
CSE, used in biology and other sciences.

For more details check out the table of content of the print copy Research and documentation in the electronic age.

Additional guidelines

Check the resources from Purdue University's Online Writing Lab (Owl Purdue)
Look at some samples from other universities
Consult the guide Citing your Sources

If you still need help, visit Science & Agriculture Library, call ext. 2165, or e-mail sn23 @aub.edu.lb

Citation management tools

EndNote

Mendeley

RefWorks

Zotero

Food Security

Home

Welcome to the Food Security Research Guide

Food Security @AUB

Featured Interview

Featured article

Featured Sites

Featured Books on Food Security

Featured reports

Reference Sources

What is Reference?

Selected Online Encyclopedias

Selected Print Handbooks

Articles & Databases

Selected Food Security E-Journals

Selected Articles Related to the Arab World

Find Full-text for Citation

Food Security Core Databases

Find Scholarly Articles in Major Databases

Multidisciplinary

Open Access Databases

Books & e-Books

Find Books and eBooks at the University Libraries

Find Open Access e-Books

Read Free eBooks

Atlases

Sample Books on Food Security

Sample Publications on Food Security

Reports

FAO reports with a focus on Lebanon

Other reports with a focus on MENA

FAO reports

Internet Links

Lebanon

Government Websites

Featured Sites

Statistics and Data

Useful Links

Evaluate Web Sites

Theses

Find Thesis in the Library

Thesis Help

Theses Repositories

Databases

Search for theses in national Library catalogs.innerbox_3 { font-weight: bold; }

Cite Your Sources

Why cite your sources? An overview

Which style to use

Additional guidelines

Citation management tools

Ask a Librarian

Search for theses in national Library catalogs