Self-Sufficiency versus Security: How Trade Protectionism Challenges the Sustainability of the Food Supply in Russia (original) (raw)
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Food security has guided Russia's food policy since 2010. The article examines the impact of food security policy on the food system. The Russian model of food security combines government intervention in the form of assistance for domestic production while simultaneously restricting market access. Food security does not appear to have a deleterious impact on the food system. We measure impact on four dimensions. Financial support for agriculture continues to increase in nominal rubles. In food production, the beef and dairy branches continue to lag, but increased grain production has made Russia a global leader in grain exports. Average per capita food consumption improved, although the poor consume much less, and the decline of the ruble affects the way Russians shop. The largest impact of food security has been on food trade. Food security policy has brought food to the forefront as an instrument of foreign policy. Food trade is politicized, witnessed by the food embargo against the West and food import bans against Turkey and Ukraine.
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Providing sustainability of the food supply is becoming increasingly challenging in today's rapidly changing global economic environment. Food security remains a serious problem, especially in developing countries where the challenge of the sustainable food supply is exacerbated by the rapid rise in the population, limited access to food intake, vulnerability, price volatilities, protection measures imposed by the government, and other distorting influences. Russia is classified as a middle-income country that is nationally self-sufficient in its food supply. However, amid the economic recession and restrictions on foreign trade in food, many households in Russia are becoming increasingly vulnerable to food insecurity. In the case of Russia, this paper aims to assess the sustainability of the food supply, and identify the factors that affect food security. In order to establish the impact of socioeconomic variables on food security at the macroeconomic level, a regression model was estimated. The study has identified the factors that influence food security in terms of agricultural production, food self-sufficiency, and foreign trade. The relationships between the regressands and corresponding regressors have been discovered, in view of alternations between positive and negative influences on the dependent variables. Additionally, a significance of the relationships has been measured. The results of the regression analysis suggest that the sustainability of the food supply in Russia is threatened by inflation and a degrading purchasing power of the population from people shifting towards cheaper products of lower quality, while exporters seek higher profits outside the country and thus create food shortages in the domestic market.
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The Russian Food Security Doctrine: Historical Roots and Major Limitations
Exploring and Optimizing Agricultural Landscapes. Innovations in Landscape Research., 2021
The Food Security Doctrine of the Russian Federation, adopted in 2010, proposed a target of reaching food self-sufficiency by 2022. That concept of food security, unusual among developed countries, is driven by a political vision of the national origin of food and motivated by historical trauma. Our analysis of the climate and geography, historical food crises, and the current agricultural situation shows that the problem of food security in Russia is far more complex than is currently recognized. Even if the goal of self-sufficiency were met, Russia might not find itself food-secure, as it continues to import agricultural equipment and seed stock. And, given a history of regional food separatism, self-sufficiency may prove to be a risky strategy. If Russia’s regions follow suit and aim for local self-sufficiency, they will threaten Russia’s already weakly integrated markets. An alternative goal for Russian food security is the achievement of full integration of the economic space, as that provides price equilibrium over various regions in a year of crop failure. Projected on the regional level, a doctrine of this kind will contribute (as in the late years of Tsarist Russia) to the regions opening up as much as possible, while the influence of non-economic factors (crime, administration, infrastructure deficiency, etc.) drops in the production of and trade with food.
Food security and nutrition in the Russian Federation – a health policy analysis
Global Health Action, 2015
Background: In the Russian Federation (Russia), an elevated burden of premature mortality attributable to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) has been observed since the country's economic transition. NCDs are largely related to preventable risk factors such as unhealthy diets. Objective: This health policy study's aim was to analyze past and current food production and nutritional trends in Russia and their policy implications for Russia's NCD burden. Design: We examined food security and nutrition in Russia using an analytical framework of food availability, access to food, and consumption. Results: Agricultural production declined during the period of economic transition, and nutritional habits changed from high-fat animal products to starches. However, per-capita energy consumption remained stable due to increased private expenditures on food and use of private land. Paradoxically, the prevalence of obesity still increased because of an excess consumption of unsaturated fat, sugar, and salt on one side, and insufficient intake of fruit and vegetables on the other. Conclusions: Policy and economic reforms in Russia were not accompanied by a food security crisis or macronutrient deprivation of the population. Yet, unhealthy diets in contemporary Russia contribute to the burden of NCDs and related avoidable mortality. Food and nutrition policies in Russia need to specifically address nutritional shortcomings and food-insecure vulnerable populations. Appropriate, evidence-informed food and nutrition policies might help address Russia's burden of NCDs on a population level.
Krestʹânovedenie, 2022
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