Food is any substance consumed to provide nutritional support for the body. It is usually of plant or animal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins or minerals. The substance is ingested by an organism and assimilated by the organism's cells in an effort to produce energy, maintain life, or stimulate growth.

Historically, people secured food through two methods: hunting and gathering and agriculture. Today, most of the food energy consumed by the world population is supplied by the food industry. The right to food is a human right derived from the International Covenant on Economics, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), recognizing the "right to an adequate standard of living, including adequate food," as well as the "fundamental right to be free from hunger."

Environmental science is a multidisciplinary academic field that integrates physical and biological sciences, (including but not limited to ecology, physics, chemistry, zoology, mineralogy, oceanology, limnology, soil science, geology, atmospheric science and geography) to the study of the environment, and the solution of environmental problems. Environmental science provides an integrated, quantitative, and interdisciplinary approach to the study of environmental systems.

Qatar has initialized Qatar National Food Security Programme to develop a comprehensive and sustainable long term solution to the challenges that the State of Qatar faces with regards to its Food Security. The objective is to increase and enhance domestic agricultural production and, in parallel, strengthening the security of food imports to alleviate the food supply deficit that Qatar faces. The QNFSP could also serve as a model to other dry land countries in the region and globally. The programme will present its findings to the State of Qatar in the form of a Master Plan that will be completed by the end of 2014.

The programme will implement the usage of solar energy to desalinate seawater, which will then be used for its agricultural production. It will also develop Research & Development centres, educational facilities, and introduce sound technologies that will enable Qatar to diversify its economy while preserving its natural resources to ultimately achieve Food Security.

• Water/ Wastewater Reuse research revolves around Water Quality, with a main thrust on assessing the quality of the source water, understanding the chemical processes in treatment technology of desalination; and evaluating the quality of the finished water and its potential effects on human health. New sciences on wastewater treatment and reuse will be a major contribution to addressing Qatar’s water security goal of increasing water reuse by 30 percent by 2020.
• Groundwater recharge (aquifer systems and dynamics) focuses on assessing the groundwater system and dynamics, groundwater modeling and mapping and the efficiency of groundwater recharge schemes.
• Air Quality research that includes characterization/understanding of the photochemical and exchange processes of the atmosphere.  This information will be used to support and validate regional chemistry-transport modeling to assess the human health and economic impacts of gas-phase and particulate pollution.
• Other, such as analytics and characterization.