Introduction
Food security is understood as people having access (physical, social and economic) to food, which is 1) sufficient, 2) safe and 3) nutritious. Therefore, food security is not only an economic concern, but also it is socio-political subject, which is essential to address to ensure political-economic and socio-economic stability and progress (Breene, 2016). The understanding and nature of subject change slightly from developing economies to developed economies, as the method of production and consumption, of food, is different in developed and developing countries. Thus, policies regarding food security are different and the means/instruments to address this issue differ slightly (Kruger, 2014).
In this academic exercise, it will be discussed about various aspects of food security; 1) how real a concern food security is? 2) What factors influence the issue of food security? 2) How governments comprehend and address this issue? 3) What role does technology play in addressing food-security? 4) Why and how the approach, about food-security, of developing countries is different from developed countries.
Food and Civilization Growth
Historians, scientists and economists all agree that food has a strong influence on human and social evolutions. Scientists assert that it was searching for food and better habitable conditions, which compelled homo-sapiens to leave Central Africa, around 100, 000 years ago, move to more habitable, less-harsh and food-abundant parts of the world. The study of civilization’s development also suggests that our ancestors left harsh and less habitable regions (with fewer resources) for habitable regions, where food was abundant (Anderson, 2005). In fact, human history is full of migrations for food and better resources. The in-depth study of all these migrations, whether it is a migration of Central-Asian nomadic tribes to India or migration of Europeans to North America, reveals that humans migrate primarily for two reasons 1) better-living conditions and 2) food. The development of large cities, around rivers and seas, also testifies to this hypothesis that food plays a major role in the development of civilization, which is a social-economic progress (Crush, 2013).
In a contemporary world too, it is seen evidence in favor of the argument that 1) food is a serious concern and it motivates people to take extraordinary measures, of various natures, which include migration and revolts. The current pattern and size of migration endorse this viewpoint. For instance, the people of developing countries, in which food and income related issues are strong, migrate to (or desire to migrate to) more prosperous parts of the world. During conflicts too, such as Syrian Civil War, the population attempted to migrate to more stable and prosperous parts of the world, which included Europe and some Middle Eastern countries (that were relatively stable).
This evidence also suggests that for countries, it is imperative to ensure 1) food security and 2) habitable environment that offers progress. Therefore, the policies of governments around the world focus to provide socioeconomic progress, which can be comprehend as food-security and environment that offers healthy socioeconomic opportunities to citizens. However, it is becoming difficult for governments to realize this objective because of economic instability and growing population. Economic instability affects goods market for agricultural and dairy products, whereas an exponential increase in population is putting pressure on food resources (Godfray, et al., 2010).
Food-Security A Real Concern
Studies suggest that availability, of physically-economically-socially-nutritious food, has slimmed over the years. There are several factors, which have played their part; however, some of these factors played a major role than the others. Because of various reasons, Food shortages are frequent, which makes food prices volatile in markets, where demand and supply determine prices and output.
Study of the last four decades reveals that in some parts of the world, food security is a greater issue than other parts of the world. For instance, in African, food-security is a major issue, which dominates all other issues. It has caused various kinds of adverse changes in that continent, which are economic, political, and social. However, most of these changes, in the African continent, can be categorized as adverse changes.
According to the statistics, in the 20th century, around 80 to 90 million people died because of famines. From the beginning of the 20th century in 1965, nine famines, in India-Soviet Union-China, killed around 66 million people, which is a huge figure. However, since 1965, most the famines have occurred in Sub-Saharan Africa. For instance, in the later decades of the 20th century, 34 famines, out of 65, occurred in Sub-Saharan region. In the Far East, the latest of famines occurred in North Korea, which killed 3.2 million people (Greveas, 2017).
Smaller famines, occurred between 2000 and 2010 in Sub-Saharan Africa, killed around 20, 800 people, which is a huge figure in modern times. It also suggests that despite various technological advances famines still strongly and adversely affects agriculture and dairy productions, which cause food-security issues.
As human lives in an age where economies have linked (globalization); therefore, changes in one economy, affect other economies. For instance, famine in South Sudan caused a shortage of lettuce and courgette. Therefore, the food shortage in a country does not limit its effect to that country; in fact, it affects other countries as well, especially those, which directly trade with that country.
The systematic scrutiny of evidence suggests that food-shortages are still occurring frequently and they are occurring all around the world; however, their causes are different as certain factors dominate more in certain parts of the world. It is true that technology has mitigated the effects of famine; however, other food-security related issues, such as hunger and undernourishment keep food-security a critical and a major issue (Greveas, 2017).
What Factors Influence Food-Security
Food Security is a broad and comprehensive subject, and studies suggest that various factors affect it. Some of the factors are more relevant and significant than the others. The list includes 1) famine/drought, 2) Power outages, 3) economic/ instability, 4) chemical pollution, 5) climate change, 6) political instability, 7) war, 8) terrorism, 9) soil erosion, 10) population, etc. It must be acknowledged that it is quite difficult to quantify threat because it is a complicated process and the size of the impact, of threat, is not certain either.
Drought: It is described as less precipitation in a particular region for a particular time. It results in water shortages (cuts in the water supply), as less precipitation cause shortage of water supply in 1) atmosphere, 2) surface and groundwater. All types of shortages of water supply adversely affect agriculture and thus food supplies. Such situations give birth to situations, which can be identified as food-security situations. Like the period, of drought, could be years long; therefore, drought is a serious and a factor, which contributes to food-security related issues in a particular country or even region. As per the report of the Food, Agriculture Organization (FAO), drought-related food insecurity is extreme in Horn of Africa (Sub-Saharan Africa). According to the statistics presented in the report, acute malnutrition had exceeded 50%, in the Bakool and Lower Shabelle areas, whereas the deaths had increased to six per 10, 000 people every day, in 2010. The draught gave birth to a humanitarian disaster, which required an international effort (Fao.Org, 2011).
In those parts of the world, where irrigation is system is robust, draught can cause serious challenges for agriculture and dairy sectors, causing severe food insecurities.
Power-outages: Power-outages, directly and indirectly, affect agriculture and dairy sectors. Their direct impact is through tube-wells, which are popular in Asia (especially South Asia) to irrigate lands. In places, where the irrigation system is not adequate to irrigate agriculture lands, groundwater is used by tube-wells to irrigate farming lands. This groundwater is also used for dairy purposes. However, because of long power outages, which are common in developing countries, tube-wells cannot function, which directly affect agriculture production. As the supply curve, of agriculture products, shift to the left, the prices increase and output decreases. It is imperative to acknowledge that fluctuation in prices of agriculture and dairy products (inflation in their prices) have serious political-social implications, and therefore, governments are very sensitive regarding regulating prices of food products (Anderson, 2005).
The indirect effect of power outages pertains to agriculture and dairy-related industries. Agriculture and dairy products have their industry, which produces various kinds of agriculture and dairy products. These industries are badly affected by power outages, which play their part in inflation of agricultural and dairy products.
Economic Instability: Economic stability affects all sectors of the economy; which include agriculture and dairy sectors. Economic Depressions and Recessions affect both production (availability) and accessibility; therefore, economic instability directly causes challenges to food security. One such prime example is of the Great Depression of the 1920s, which reduced significantly, accessibility of ordinary people to food. There are several other examples, which endorse this inference, that economic-instability, in a country or region 1) affects food-related production and 2) reduces significantly access to food causing food-insecurity at macro-level (Godfray, et al., 2010).
Political Instability: Political instability usually causes challenges related to accessibility of food. In politically disturbed regions, fist the challenge regarding the availability of food occurs, which is then closely followed up by the unavailability of food. It is because political instability breeds economic instability (positive correlation), which causes both unavailability and inaccessibility of food or food-related products. International organizations, such as FAO, have well documented this phenomenon, which occurs similarly, in all parts of the world (Timmer, 2013).
Chemical Pollution: Different studies have inferred that soil and water pollution, caused by harmful chemicals seriously affect the quality of food. As the quality of food deteriorates, this makes it dexterous/unhealthy for consumption, the food insecurity increases. There is need to acknowledge food-security also pertains to notoriousness of food. Food must be notorious and must aid in living a healthy life. It should also provide enough energy to perform regular, average, or normal tasks. However, because of chemical pollution, condition or quality of food products deteriorate, which make these food products unfit for human consumption (International Food Policy Research Institute, 2017).
In developing countries, where industrial pollution is a serious challenge, chemical pollution is causing food insecurities at biblical scale. In some cases, Industrial waste mixes with groundwater, which is used for irrigation purposes.
Climate Change: More and more studies are concluding that climate change subtly affects food-security. Evidence reveals that climate change is causing extreme weathers, which are affecting food production, especially in those parts of the world, which is extremely vulnerable to climate change. In many cases, extreme weathers destroy agriculture, which shifts the supply of agriculture products to the left, causing higher prices for fewer food products (World Food Programme, 2018).
In some cases, sea levels have increased to an alarming level, which has directly affected livelihoods in port cities and coastal areas. Also, because of changes in weather and temperature, glaciers are melting with varying frequency, causing changes in the availability of water and producing powerful floods. For a long period, floods are destroying agriculture. In fact, the ancient city of Monjo Dero that evolved impressively because of their agriculture understanding, destroyed by floods.
War
War is an un-natural factor, which strongly and adversely affects food security. During a war, not food becomes inaccessible, but also unavailable. There are numerous examples, which endorse this argument. For instance, during World War II, which destroyed Europe utterly, food became 1) inaccessible, 2) unavailable, and 3) innutritious. The severity, of food-insecurity, reached its pinnacle when War in Europe was about to end.
In modern times, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Yemen are examples, in which food-insecurity rose to the extent that significant portion of the total population left those countries to seek refuge in neighboring countries, where there was political and economic stability. For instance, many of the Syrians migrated to West, as they believed that the West was more habitable place, which offered lucrative economic and social opportunities. Also, the food-security issue did not exist in extreme nature, in Western and neighboring countries (International Food Policy Research Institute, 2017).
Similarly, a large number of Afghans left their homes, during the Soviet-Afghan War, as living conditions became harsh and food unavailable and inaccessible.
Poverty: Studies, on the subject of Food Security, asserts that in both developed and developing economies and countries, the issue is not food availability, but rather food accessibility. It suggests that poverty is a major factor that influences food-security. Poverty is, in fact, an ability to purchase a product or service, in particular, the quantity and of a particular quality. When the ability to purchase is less, not only a household buys less food, but also the food to which that household has access is of inferior quality. Therefore, poverty is a major issue that is directly correlated with food-insecurity. It implies that whenever poverty increases, in any economy, food insecurity also increases (Kruger, 2014).
Terrorism: Terrorism is not such factor that strongly influences food-security. However, studies suggest that it has some direct and indirect impact on food security. Terrorism deteriorates political stability, which shakes investors’ confidence in the economy, which affects both availability and affordability of food.
Population: The Human population grew significantly in the last two centuries, which is because of improvement in medical and healthcare system. As the infant mortality rate reduced drastically (and average lifespan increased), human population increased at an unprecedented rate that caused enormous pressure on scared resources.
World Popu;ation graph adapted from Worldometers. (2018, April 16). World Population: Past, Present, and Future. Retrieved from http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/
The chart above shows how human population has increased and how this almost exponential increase in population may have pressured economic and food resources around the world (Worldometers, 2018).
Developing and Developed Economies
Food Security is an issue in both Developed and Developing countries; however, the nature of the issue and its size differ slightly. For instance, in Develop economies or countries, the debate regarding food security is influenced or dominated by availability and its affordability. In addition to that, the waste, regarding the food (pattern of consumption) is also a part of that debate.
In developing countries; however, affordability is a greater issue. Availability is not an issue because most of the developing economies are in fact agrarian economies; therefore, availability is not a serious issue. However, the purchasing power affects accessibility to not only food, but also quality food. In developing countries, most of the households have small purchasing power and supply, of food products, is expanding, which keep prices low.
On the contrary, median household income, of developed countries is high, and availability of food or food products is low, which is why food prices are usually high. Also, because of the consumption pattern too, prices of agricultural and dairy products remain significantly high in comparison to developing countries.
In developing countries; therefore, the food-security policy is slightly different from the food-security policy of developing countries, which primarily rely on agriculture exports of developing countries (Saravia-Matus, Paloma, & Mary, 2012).
Use of Technology
From our discussion, it is quite apparent that because of various factors, such as climate change, population growth, and others, food-insecurity has increase increased evidently. This increase in food security is not only affecting developed countries, but also developing countries. One of the reasons why food security has become a universal issue is that all economies are linked (agriculture sectors of developing countries export to goods to the markets of developing countries); therefore, when agriculture sectors of a particular region destabilize, it affects availability and accessibility in almost all markets of the world. Secondly, climate change affects all countries and economies. These two reasons make Food security an international concern or challenge. However, to mitigate the ramifications of these challenges, more countries are employing technology.
Use of technology is not new, but rather quite old. Humans have employed technology to 1) tame nature and to 2) mitigate its harsh ramifications. In the contemporary world, agricultural researchers are emphasizing on the biophysical field to find answers to growing food-security related issues. The existing agriculture strategies, techniques, and technologies also have the potential to increase productivity in developing economies, where agriculture lands are under-utilized. Similarly, technology can be used to produce diverse agricultural products, in harsh environments, such as Western Europe. Therefore, technology offers various kinds of solutions. However, it’s imperative to acknowledge that the major issue is not available, but rather accessibility, in both developed and developing countries or economies (Godfray, et al., 2010).
Measures and Remedies
For developed and developing economies the remedies, about food-security, are different. In developing countries, which are more vulnerable to climate change and chemical pollution, the remedy is technology. Better production techniques and use of technology will ensure high production of quality products. Regarding accessibility to food, in developing countries, must develop economic policies that aim to augment purchasing power or reduce poverty in a developing country. In the short-run, the government can offer subsidies on food products.
In developed economies or countries, governments must focus on the consumption pattern to bring down prices of agricultural and dairy products. Also, emphasis must also be on technology to produce diverse agricultural products even in harsh conditions.
Conclusion
In the end, from the methodical scrutiny of the literature and evidence, it is concluded that food-security, which is physical/social/economic access and availability of food to people, is a major concern. With the passing of time, the size of the challenge, about food-security, has grown evidently. There are numerous factors, it is learned, which affect food-security; however, some factors are more relevant than the others are. For instance, poverty (in developing countries) and consumption pattern (in developed countries).
Summing up, that technology and improved agricultural techniques can address the issue of availability of quality food, which is essential to living a healthy life (nutritious food). However, accessibility issue will remain persistent in the short-run, and it will require extra-ordinary political-economic measures by governments of both developed and developing countries.
Also, governments have to focus on the consumption patterns too, as studies suggest in both developed and developing countries food go waste. However, in developed countries, issue of wastage of food is a serious issue.
Furthermore, because of population increase, food-producing resources will result under tremendous pressure, which will force innovation upon agriculture and dairy sectors. Human being is already witnessing that in developing countries, agriculture techniques are improving, which positively affect the production of agriculture products. However, it is very to project how much different technology will make to the size of production, of agriculture products, at a global scale. Technology is mitigating the force of droughts and the famines these droughts cause.
References
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