Concerns with food security predate the tortilla crisis. In the 2003 report on Trade Reforms
and Food Security, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) discusses its
evolution as an operational public policy concept and points out more than two hundred definitions
that appeared since the 1970’s. The official definition adopted in 2001 in The State of Food
security is: “Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access
to enough safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and
healthy lifestyle”.
Food securitization has become a very important issue for the international community and
has required action from Nation States. The rising trend in commodity prices and their volatility
(Chart 1) are both the subject of growing concern in recent years