Developing a Global Food Security Policy (original) (raw)

Governing food security globally: stakeholders` opinions

2013

While more than 850 million people are starving (FAO, 2012) around the world, agricultural production grew at about 2.3% per year in the past 50 years and access to food increased with an even higher rate. By 2012, almost 65% of all implemented agricultural policies (focused at national, regional and global level) that have a reference on food security only aim on solving present day crisis, without integrating policies for preventing future ones. While the League of Arab States (LAS) called for an integrated Arab approach to agricultural policy to the Arab Organization for Agricultural Development (AOAD), the League of African Nations did not yet agree on common objectives in matters regarding agriculture and rural development despite AGRA Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, a network of US based iNGOs` who`s board is chaired by Kofi Annan, former Secretary General of the United Nations, took on the challenge of reforming this continent`s agriculture. Although the European Union has the Common Agricultural Policy that works on a 7 years framework with a wide budgetary support from the European Commission and all 27 Member States and China has an agricultural policy working under the ridged 5-years system, food security and food quality are becoming the main concerns in the world leaders minds with the population reaching 7 billion on October 31st 2011 and resources becoming scarce. This paper analyses the stakeholders` opinions on the possibility of changing the policy instruments status quo that would enable a coherent exchange of good practices and information throughout the world to a global approach to food security and food quality that is necessary for overcoming problems like famine in Africa, obesity in North America and high risk and vulnerability for human health and the environment. The key questions that are answered in this paper are: What are the common elements of agricultural policies with regional reach that can constitute objectives for a Global Agricultural Policy (GAP)? Which organization could manage a GAP and what would be its main driving mechanisms? What kind of impact would have a global mechanism in agriculture and rural development acting at different levels? What are the determinants for the successful creation and implementation of a GAP?

Global food security: challenges and policies

Science, 2003

Global food security will remain a worldwide concern for the next 50 years and beyond. Recently, crop yield has fallen in many areas because of declining investments in research and infrastructure, as well as increasing water scarcity. Climate change and HIV/AIDS are also crucial factors affecting food security in many regions. Although agroecological approaches offer some promise for improving yields, food security in developing countries could be substantially improved by increased investment and policy reforms.

Debates on food security and agrofood world governance

International Journal of Food Science & Technology, 2010

Mechanisms of global governance, developed in response to initiatives adopted by the FAO to combat hunger and confront food crises, are the result of wide ranging historical debates using three basic criteria for justification: the scientific, the political-ideological, and the ethical. On the basis of these criteria, certain forms of understanding and acting on agriculture, health and nutrition at global level have come to be accepted as valid. Currently the debate and the resulting proposals are based on the recognition of food as a universal human right.

Globally Securing Food in an Insecure World – Opportunities and Challenges

Alternate Horizons, 2021

This paper looks into the necessity of a global governance system for food security from a "humane" side, with a focus on countries and MNCs. It also explores potential mechanisms to drive MNCs involvement in the global governance of food security into a more inclusive path. Furthermore, the paper explores a more sustainable side to globally governing food security. All in all, this paper calls for the reshaping of a global governance system that better matches the root causes of food insecurity, rather than tries to solve hunger with food aid and provision. The solution starts with asking the right questions. The global governance system should adopt a sole human rights framework while addressing food insecurity. It should acknowledge that questions such as “for whose benefit?” is just as important as “how to produce more?”. Although effective, International Governmental Organizations should further consider how global rules affect different people, who will bear the risk...

FOOD SECURITY AND NUTRITION: BUILDING A GLOBAL NARRATIVE TOWARDS 2030

Report by the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition of the Committee on World Food Security, Rome. , 2020

The 15th Report of the High-Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE) responds to the request of the UN Committee on World Food Security (CFS) to provide strategic guidance towards the achievement of the SDGs, especially SDG 2: “End hunger, achieve food security and nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture.” The timing of this report is crucial. The state of global food security and nutrition is alarming, with an estimated 821 million people experiencing chronic undernourishment and with poor nutrition contributing to nearly 45% of the deaths in children under the age of five. The COVID-19 pandemic makes this situation even more urgent: world hunger is projected to rise with the most affected being the poorest and most vulnerable segments of the population. The report has several core messages. First, there is an urgent need to strengthen and consolidate conceptual and policy thinking around FSN to prioritize the right to food, to widen our understanding of food security and to adopt a food systems analytical and policy framework. Second, the right to food must be prioritized as a guiding principle for the achievement of food security and sustainable food systems. Third, understandings of food security must be updated to incorporate agency and sustainability alongside availability, access, utilization and stability, as supported by the literature and states’ obligations with respect to the right to food. And Fourth, policymakers must adopt a sustainable food systems approach that supports the six dimensions of food security. Progress on the 2030 Agenda, especially SDG 2, has been uneven, pointing to the need to improve our understanding of the complex underlying drivers of food system change. Four critical policy shifts are required to transition to more sustainable food systems that support all dimensions of food security. First, it is vital that food policies support a radical transformation of food systems from production to consumption. Second, it is important for food policies to take into account the interconnectedness of different systems and sectors. Third, policies must address hunger and all forms of malnutrition. Fourth, it is essential that food policies develop context-specific solutions, taking local conditions and knowledge into account. It is vital that the global community seize this moment to embrace these policy shifts to arrive at more sustainable food systems that support all dimensions of food security and uphold the right to food for all.

Food security: different systems, different notions

Perspectives on Federalism, 2019

Food security is a hugely important and complex issue. Such complexity is demonstrated, inter alia, by the lack of a consistent definition of food security under the international policy framework. Of the various elements that can affect food security, trade in agriculture plays a significant role both in positive and negative terms. This article considers the concept of food security as emerging from the WTO Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) and discusses it in the light of the most commonly accepted definition of food security (i.e. the FAO’s definition). The analysis highlights a bifurcation in the concept at stake, depending on the forum considered. According to the AoA, food security is conceived as an exception. It does not consider the individual condition, but focuses either on a country’s agricultural self-sufficiency or on the suitability of food self-reliance at national and global levels. While within the UN agencies, a multifaceted and multidimensional concept emerges

Food security as long-term goals of strategic agricultural development

Bulletin of University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine Cluj Napoca Agriculture, 2014

In any national economy, agriculture is one of the key sectors of economic activity overall. As always anthropogenic activities held in conjunction and, not infrequently, the adversarial relationship with the environment, agriculture accumulate elements of society, from food security to social stability. In this context, one of the objectives of long-term agricultural development strategy must be accounted for to ensure food security threshold. This paper aims to study the scientific endeavor further the current concepts of food security and the challenges facing countries in this regard. Every day, the world's population grows by about 220,000 people and the world population every year we add 80 million people. All these people must have access to sufficient and safe food. Globalization of the food chain causes constant new challenges and risks to health and interests of consumers. This article was prepared as a basic research as sources of information: the international literature, FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization-United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization) data, official statistics etc. According to FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization-United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization), food security means "guaranteeing each individual at all times, in any place or time of access to adequate and healthy diet to allow him to have a regime sufficient food for a healthy and active life". Multidimensional nature of food security, just as the fight against poverty, calls a good correlation between the various sectors-agriculture, commerce, infrastructure, health-and the variety of intervention levels-local, national, international. In recent years indicate that there are problems of food insecurity in 86 countries, 43 African, 24 Asian, 9 in Latin America and the Caribbean, 7 in Oceania and Europe 3. In 2004, 35 countries have received emergency aid because of the food crisis. The main causes were: military and civil conflicts, post-conflict situations, refugees, economic disadvantaged areas and climate issues. Global agricultural production should increase by at least 3% per year to provide live feed of the rising population, according to a study by the Economist Intelligence Unit. At present, current agricultural productivity growth is only 2%. In the present research work, we demonstrated that food security is a global problem of humanity, in the context of population growth, climate change and economic crisis. The food security is influenced by four groups of factors, namely: the social-economic and political, agro-food sector performance, social protection and health and hygiene.