Food Security and Sociopolitical Stability

Food Security and Sociopolitical Stability PDF Author: Christopher B. Barrett
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191668702
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 512

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Book Description
Global food price spikes in 2008 and again in 2011 coincided with a surge of political unrest in low- and middle-income countries. Angry consumers took to the streets in scores of nations. In some places, food riots turned violent, pressuring governments and in a few cases contributed to their overthrow. Foreign investors sparked a new global land rush, adding a different set of pressures. With scientists cautioning that the world has entered a new era of steadily rising food prices, perhaps aggravated by climate change, the specter of widespread food insecurity and sociopolitical instability weighs on policymakers worldwide. In the past few years, governments and philanthropic foundations began redoubling efforts to resuscitate agricultural research and technology transfer, as well as to accelerate the modernization of food value chains to deliver high quality food inexpensively, faster, and in greater volumes to urban consumers. But will these efforts suffice? This volume explores the complex relationship between food security and sociopolitical stability up to roughly 2025. Organized around a series of original essays by leading global technical experts, a key message of this volume is that actions taken in an effort to address food security stressors may have consequences for food security, stability, or both that ultimately matter far more than the direct impacts of biophysical drivers such as climate or land or water scarcity. The means by which governments, firms, and private philanthropies tackle the food security challenge of the coming decade will fundamentally shape the relationship between food security and sociopolitical stability.

Food Security and Sociopolitical Stability

Food Security and Sociopolitical Stability PDF Author: Christopher B. Barrett
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191668702
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 512

Get Book

Book Description
Global food price spikes in 2008 and again in 2011 coincided with a surge of political unrest in low- and middle-income countries. Angry consumers took to the streets in scores of nations. In some places, food riots turned violent, pressuring governments and in a few cases contributed to their overthrow. Foreign investors sparked a new global land rush, adding a different set of pressures. With scientists cautioning that the world has entered a new era of steadily rising food prices, perhaps aggravated by climate change, the specter of widespread food insecurity and sociopolitical instability weighs on policymakers worldwide. In the past few years, governments and philanthropic foundations began redoubling efforts to resuscitate agricultural research and technology transfer, as well as to accelerate the modernization of food value chains to deliver high quality food inexpensively, faster, and in greater volumes to urban consumers. But will these efforts suffice? This volume explores the complex relationship between food security and sociopolitical stability up to roughly 2025. Organized around a series of original essays by leading global technical experts, a key message of this volume is that actions taken in an effort to address food security stressors may have consequences for food security, stability, or both that ultimately matter far more than the direct impacts of biophysical drivers such as climate or land or water scarcity. The means by which governments, firms, and private philanthropies tackle the food security challenge of the coming decade will fundamentally shape the relationship between food security and sociopolitical stability.

Food Insecurity and Hunger in the United States

Food Insecurity and Hunger in the United States PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309101328
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 156

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Book Description
The United States is viewed by the world as a country with plenty of food, yet not all households in America are food secure, meaning access at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life. A proportion of the population experiences food insecurity at some time in a given year because of food deprivation and lack of access to food due to economic resource constraints. Still, food insecurity in the United States is not of the same intensity as in some developing countries. Since 1995 the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has annually published statistics on the extent of food insecurity and food insecurity with hunger in U.S. households. These estimates are based on a survey measure developed by the U.S. Food Security Measurement Project, an ongoing collaboration among federal agencies, academic researchers, and private organizations. USDA requested the Committee on National Statistics of the National Academies to convene a panel of experts to undertake a two-year study in two phases to review at this 10-year mark the concepts and methodology for measuring food insecurity and hunger and the uses of the measure. In Phase 2 of the study the panel was to consider in more depth the issues raised in Phase 1 relating to the concepts and methods used to measure food security and make recommendations as appropriate. The Committee on National Statistics appointed a panel of 10 experts to examine the above issues. In order to provide timely guidance to USDA, the panel issued an interim Phase 1 report, Measuring Food Insecurity and Hunger: Phase 1 Report. That report presented the panel's preliminary assessments of the food security concepts and definitions; the appropriateness of identifying hunger as a severe range of food insecurity in such a survey-based measurement method; questions for measuring these concepts; and the appropriateness of a household survey for regularly monitoring food security in the U.S. population. It provided interim guidance for the continued production of the food security estimates. This final report primarily focuses on the Phase 2 charge. The major findings and conclusions based on the panel's review and deliberations are summarized.

Food Security and International Relations

Food Security and International Relations PDF Author: Thiago Costantino, Agostina Lima
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
ISBN: 3838214811
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 236

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Book Description
People are often surprised to learn that although the current global levels of food production are sufficient to feed all of humanity, the problems of undernourishment increase year by year in many countries. Economic growth, while important, is not a guarantee for reducing hunger. The intensification of income concentration worldwide, in the face of the persistence of millions of hungry families, demonstrates that economic interest is not guided by the needs of humanity. Moreover, the problem of food no longer refers to the lack of food alone. Many people are still unaware that our diets are not simply choices of taste and tradition but the result of international dynamics driven by geopolitical factors, the trajectory of capitalism, and other ulterior forces. The authors deepen the link between international relations and food security by exploring the humanitarian and ethical importance of a solution to the problem of hunger; the role of the state as a strategically relevant actor in achieving food security; and the nature of the problem of food security in a world in which the rationale guiding food production and distribution is a capitalist one.

Climate Change and Food Security

Climate Change and Food Security PDF Author: Elizabeth Thomas Hope
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1315469715
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description
Global climatic change has resulted in new and unpredictable patterns of precipitation and temperature, the increased frequency of extreme weather events and rising sea levels. These changes impact all four aspects of food security – availability, accessibility, stability of supply and appropriate nourishment – as well as the entire food system – food production, marketing, processing, distribution and prices. Climate Change and Food Security focuses on the challenge to food security posed by a changing climate. The book brings together many of the critical global concerns of climate change and food security through local cases based on empirical studies undertaken in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean. Focusing on risk reduction and the complex nature of vulnerability to climate change, the book includes chapters on the responsiveness of farmers based on traditional knowledge, as well as the critical phenomenon of food insecurity in the urban setting. Other chapters are devoted to efforts made to strengthen resilience through long-term development, with interventions at the regional and national levels of scale. It also examines cross-cutting themes that underlie the strategies employed to achieve food security, including equity, gender, livelihoods and governance. This edited volume will be of great interest to students and scholars of climate change, food security, environmental management and sustainable development.

World Food Security

World Food Security PDF Author: D. Shaw
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 0230589782
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 510

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Book Description
This book is the first comprehensive account of the numerous attempts made since the Second World War to provide food security for all. It provides a reference source for all those involved and interested in food security issues.

Food Security in a Food Abundant World

Food Security in a Food Abundant World PDF Author:
Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing
ISBN: 1785602144
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
Food insecurity can result from various events. While an adequate food supply is necessary, when food is abundant the entitlement to food is limited by endowments, the ability to trade, and potential transfers. This volume considers trends in economic growth, agricultural productivity growth, income and other policies that shape food security.

The Challenge of Food Security

The Challenge of Food Security PDF Author: Rosemary Gail Rayfuse
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 0857939386
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 319

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Book Description
'The Challenge of Food Security addresses one of the key development challenges of our time. It examines issues related to food security in a comprehensive manner that covers both theoretical perspectives and policy challenges. It will be a key reference book for anyone interested in issues related to food security.' Philippe Cullet, University of London, UK 'This is a timely book which addresses one of the greatest challenges for international regulation: food security. The book is a comprehensive treatment of various aspects of food security from its origins to the relationship between food security and other values, the role that commodity trading plays in exacerbating food insecurity, the importance of adequate food governance, together with specific food security problems like fish, water and genetic resources. The editors should be congratulated on a stimulating collection of essays that brings together a diverse range of scholars and which sheds real light on the complex dimensions of the food security debate.' Fiona Smith, University College London, UK This timely study addresses the pressing issue of food security through a range of interdisciplinary contributions, providing both scholarly and policy-making perspectives. It sets the discussion on food security within the little-studied context of its international legal and regulatory framework. The expert contributors explore the key issues from a development perspective and through the lens of existing governance and policy systems with a view to articulating how these systems can be made more effective in dealing with the roots of food insecurity. The book considers the root causes of food insecurity before discussing the regulatory challenges inherent in reconciling food production and sustainability to ensure both adequate supply of and equitable access to food, particularly in light of emerging issues such as food price volatility, 'land grabbing' and the need to coordinate the actions of the multitude of actors that influence food policy and regulation. It highlights the need for more equitable, transparent and coherent policy and regulatory approaches to the myriad of issues that make up the food security challenge. This cross-cutting study will appeal to researchers in law, international relations, agricultural science and food systems, as well as to policy makers in government and international organisations that engage with policy and regulation of food security issues. It will also be essential reading for professionals in non-governmental organisations that are interested in development issues in general and food security in particular.

Food Prices and Political Instability

Food Prices and Political Instability PDF Author: Mr.Rabah Arezki
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 1455221066
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 24

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Book Description
We examine the effects that variations in the international food prices have on democracy and intra-state conflict using panel data for over 120 countries during the period 1970-2007. Our main finding is that in Low Income Countries increases in the international food prices lead to a significant deterioration of democratic institutions and a significant increase in the incidence of anti-government demonstrations, riots, and civil conflict. In the High Income Countries variations in the international food prices have no significant effects on democratic institutions and measures of intra-state conflict. Our empirical results point to a significant externality of variations in international food prices on Low Income Countries' social and political stability.

The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2019

The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2019 PDF Author: Food and Agriculture Organization
Publisher: United Nations
ISBN: 9210043634
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 236

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Book Description
The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World gives updates on the prevalence of undernourishment globally and the absolute number of undernourished, as well as the latest estimates for a number of global nutrition targets. This latest edition looks at the role of economic slowdowns and downturns in the rise of hunger and makes policy recommendations to safeguard food security and nutrition worldwide.

Arab Water Security

Arab Water Security PDF Author: Hussein A. Amery
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107042291
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 177

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Book Description
Exploring the national security implications of the Gulf states' reliance on desalination plants, this book provides the first systematic and comprehensive discussion of current and future threats to the supply of freshwater, effects of a potential disruption, and possible measures to increase resilience to these threats, for researchers and graduate students.