Final answer:
Food security is the correct answer, emphasizing access to safe and nutritious food for individuals based on availability, access, utilization, and stability.
Step-by-step explanation:
Food security is a measure of access to safe and nutritious food supplies sufficient to meet individual dietary needs. It is based on four pillars: availability, access, utilization, and stability. To be considered food secure, an individual must have access to a sufficient quantity of food of the proper dietary mix (quality) at all times, thereby avoiding chronic food insecurity.
At the national level, analyzing food security involves considering a country's production, global market access, foreign exchange earnings, and consumer choices. When evaluating at the household level, factors include the household's food production and the members' ability to purchase food. Yet, it is at the individual level that the true measure of food security can be assessed, which reveals the impact of sociocultural and gender inequalities on nutritional needs fulfillment.
Food stability ensures that access to food is constant and not jeopardized by cyclic events. Malnutrition occurs when there is a lack of food stability, which can have significant economic consequences. Furthermore, poverty is identified as a major driver of food insecurity, with the latest estimates indicating that approximately 795 million people worldwide go to bed hungry each night.
In conclusion, the correct answer to the question is a) Food security.