A decision support system for addressing food security in the UK

Abstract: This paper presents an integrating decision support system to model food security in the UK. In ever-larger dynamic systems, such as the food system, it is increasingly difficult for decision-makers to effectively account for all the variables within the system that may influence the outcomes of interest under enactments of various candidate policies. Each of the influencing variables is likely, themselves, to be dynamic sub-systems with expert domains supported by sophisticated probabilistic models. Recent increases in food poverty the UK raised the questions about the main drivers to food insecurity, how this may be changing over time and how evidence can be used in evaluating policy for decision support. In this context, an integrating decision support system is proposed for household food security to allow decision-makers to compare several candidate policies which may affect the outcome of food insecurity at household level.