foods Article Food Security and Sustainability: Discussing the Four Pillars to Encompass Other Dimensions Raquel de Pinho Ferreira Guiné , Maria Lúcia de Jesus Pato, Cristina Amaro da Costa , Daniela de Vasconcelos Teixeira Aguiar da Costa, Paulo Barracosa Correia da Silva and Vítor João Pereira Domingues Martinho *   Citation: Guiné, R.d.P.F.; Pato, M.L.d.J.; Costa, C.A.d.; Costa, D.d.V.T.A.d.; Silva, P.B.C.d.; Martinho, V.J.P.D. FoodSecurity and Sustainability: Discussing the Four Pillars to Encompass Other Dimensions. Foods 2021, 10, 2732. https://doi.org/10.3390/ foods10112732 Academic Editors: António Raposo, Renata Puppin Zandonadi, Raquel Braz Assunção Botelho and Theodoros Varzakas Received: 17 September 2021 Accepted: 5 November 2021 Published: 8 November 2021 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). Agricultural School (ESAV) and CERNAS-IPV Research Centre, Polytechnic Institute of Viseu (IPV), 3504-510 Viseu, Portugal; raquelguine@esav.ipv.pt (R.d.P.F.G.); mljesus@esav.ipv.pt (M.L.d.J.P.); amarocosta@esav.ipv.pt (C.A.d.C.); daniela@esav.ipv.pt (D.d.V.T.A.d.C.); pbarracosa@esav.ipv.pt (P.B.C.d.S.) * Correspondence: vdmartinho@esav.ipv.pt Abstract: The unadjusted intake of food constitutes a real challenge for the several sustainability dimensions. In this perspective, the main objectives of this research are to characterise the current contexts of food security, its relationship with sustainability, and identify proposals and actions that may support the design of more adjusted policies in the future. In addition, it is intended to assess if the food security pillars properly address the sustainability goals and if the evolution of undernutrition is accompanied by sustainable frameworks. In this way, statistical information from the FAOSTAT database was considered for the several dimensions of food security over the period 2000–2020. These data were analysed through factor-cluster approaches and panel data methodologies, namely those related to quantile regressions. As main insights, we may refer that undernutrition is more impacted by the availability of food and nutrients and political stability than by the level of GDP—Gross Domestic Product (except for the extreme cases). This means that the level of development is not the primary explanation for the problems of nutrition. The main focus of the national and international policies must be to improve the agrifood supply chains and to support political stability, in order to mitigate undernutrition worldwide and ensure a global access to sustainable and healthy diets. In addition, it is suggested to rethink the four pillars of food security (availability, access, utilisation and stability), in order to encompass other dimensions, such as climate change. Keywords: FAOSTAT information; factor-cluster analyses; panel data approaches; quantile regressions 1. Introduction There is a significant relationship between the level of development of the countries and food insecurity contexts [1]. Food insecurity is also impacted by political stability and climate change [2]. Food security is a multidimensional concept characterised by four pillars related to availability, access, utilisation, and stability [3]. These dimensions are interrelated with, for example, agricultural modernisation [4], social capital [5], kitchen equipment [6], and worldwide shocks [7]. In a broader perspective, food security is interrelated with sustainable food and agri- cultural sectors, where the needs of present and future generations are met in commitment with the environmental, social, and economic dimensions [8]. The concepts of food secu- rity and sustainability are interrelated. The sustainability concept was considered by the international community associated with sustainable developments, according to which the societies evolve without compromising the future generations [9]. In fact, food security is already considered by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), namely in the goal 2 for zero hunger [10]. Nonetheless, the pandemic context brought additional challenges for these world objectives increasing the problems associated Foods 2021, 10, 2732. https://doi.org/10.3390/foods10112732 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/foods