Food and food poverty are political questions (Robertson et al. 1999) and as
Dowler et al. (2001) have argued “solutions to food poverty go beyond welfare
transfers or health services to include issues of basic human rights, sustainable
development, health inequalities and social inclusion”. As a question for
social policy food security is about the courses of action and social arrangements
whereby society provides for the individual and/or collective welfare
of its peoples (Titmuss 1974; Jones 1985). Food as a human right is clearly an
important way of reframing the debate about food poverty and suggests an
agenda for action which goes beyond the welfare/human capital responses
which Dowler has discussed in relation to the United Kingdom (Dowler et
al. 2001).