Food Security and Gross National Happiness

This paper reconsiders the concept of food security to reflect Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness framework. Through various case studies relating to people’s food security, including production, circulation and consumption, it analyses factors that would affect GNH indicators. By comparing the conventional concept of food security with the GNH framework, the paper suggests that while the conventional concept focuses on “what” and “how much”, namely what is produced, traded and eaten and quantities, it lacks a perspective on the “how” questions, namely how food is produced, how food is traded and distributed, and how food is consumed.