The Challenge of Global Food Insecurity
The UN World Food Programme delivers food aid in Afghanistan.
The term ‘food security’ was first used at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations -sanctioned World Food Conference of 1974. Since then, it has become a significant conceptual tool used to explain the causes of global hunger. That over 800 million people have consistently remained malnourished since FAO started keeping records in 1969 may be attributable to poor cultivation techniques, unpredictable weather, etc. Such a depressing fact, however, is also attributable to corruption, inadequate distribution systems (both intentional and not), and the ‘weaponization’ of food as an instrument of social control and war. When the latter pathologies occur, one has the obligation to ‘securitize’ the analysis of food, both in terms of how it is produced and distributed in today’s world.
To accomplish the above task, we begin our week-long focus on food security by looking at how the concept is officially defined and by providing a ‘by the numbers’ portrait of rising food prices and how they relate to global hunger. We then discuss how food security is increasingly being viewed through the lenses of environmental degradation, climate change and migration. On Wednesday, we specifically consider how this ‘unholy trinity’ is impacting the security dynamics of the Sahel region of Sub-Saharan Africa. This case study will then be followed by a podcast where we explore the role of food as a geopolitical instrument that is being used to exert leverage or control. Finally, we conclude our week with another case study that tries to determine whether food production in the developing world has become a new ‘Great Game’ for those seeking to secure predictable food supplies for themselves.
Additional Content
- World Food Price Crisis (Audio)
Blaming market speculation for rising food prices oversimplifies a complex phenomenon, Emilia Casel...
- Yemen: A Perfect Storm (Audio)
Debilitating poverty, a dysfunctional parliament, soaring food prices and a reinvigorated civil war ...
- Vietnam and China: Shoals Ahead (Article)
A rumble of popular discontent in Vietnam over territorial and environmental issues signals a new ph...
- UN warns of hunger, malnutrition in N Korea (Article)
- The Hot, Flat, Insecure World (Article)
How human and institutional agents manage the interplay of global warming and insecurity will define...
- Ethiopia's Famine: Deny and Delay (Article)
Millions of Ethiopians once again face misery and famine.
- Afghan food insecurity (Article)
Some 40,000 people die every year in Afghanistan due to hunger and poverty, many more than due to vi...
- Food fights, food rights in ASEAN (Article)
The unfolding global food crisis and its devastating consequences on human security require no le...
- Net Food-Importing Developing Countries (Publication)
High and volatile food prices pose new challenges to poor, net food-importing countries.
- Food Security and Climate Change (Publication)
Rising food prices point to a potential crisis in 2012 as poor communities across the world find the...
- Leveraging Services Trade Liberalisation for Enhanced Food Security in SADC (Publication)
This paper examines the potential role of trade liberalization to enhance food security in the South...
- Grain Reserves and the Food Price Crisis (Publication)
This collection provides an overview of recent writing on food reserves.
- Trade Policy Options for Enhancing Food Aid Effectiveness (Publication)
This paper examines which policies and mechanisms on food aid have enabled recipient countries to im...
- Transitions in North Africa in Times of Scarcity (Publication)
This report presents a number of issues for the region of North Africa.
- Food Security at the Crossroads: A Wake Up Call (Publication)
The right to adequate nourishment, part of Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, ...
- Measuring Aid to Agriculture and Food Security: Losing the Plot? (Publication)
This paper argues that without clarity on what constitutes aid to agriculture, it is difficult to ac...
