A decision support system for addressing food security in the United Kingdom

This paper presents an integrating decision support system (IDSS) for food security in the United Kingdom. In ever-larger dynamic systems, such as the food system, it is increasingly difficult for decision makers (DMs) 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 subsystems with expert domains supported by sophisticated probabilistic models. Recent increases in food poverty in the United Kingdom have raised the questions about the main drivers of 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 IDSS is proposed for household food security to allow DMs to compare several candidate policies which may affect the outcome of food insecurity at the household level.