This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.
For the second time this century, the interdependence of the global food supply is in sharp focus. In the first instance, the economic crisis of 2008 created high food prices and pushed an additional 100 million people toward hunger.
For many, though, that crisis neither began nor ended in 2008. Now, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the fragility of the globalized system of trade in food is apparent again.
In addition to conflict, climate change and impoverishment, COVID-19 threatens 265 million people with famine and billions with food insecurity.
Ninety per cent of the world's cocoa is grown on small family farms by about 6 million farmers who earn their living from growing and selling cocoa beans.
Hunger was on the rise in 2019 before the pandemic began. Despite ongoing calls for change, trade organizations and top food-exporting countries have yet to acknowledge that the current global food trade system is ill-suited to respond to local needs in an increasingly volatile world.
In the years following 2008, Olivier De Schutter, the then-United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food, argued that food trade should be restructured around the idea of food as a right—not merely a commodity. He advocated returning decision-making power to communities, investing in agro-ecological practices for our health and environment and moving away from a dependence on food imports.
In short, he argued in favor of transforming a system that was ineffective long before the price increases in 2008 were referred to as a crisis.
The same transformative opportunity is presented to us today.
Women harvest tea leaves in India. Most tea is picked by hand for better quality as machines tend to be too rough and end up damaging too many leaves.
Full COVID-19 Impact Still Unknown
Encouraging predictable supplies and stable markets are the stated aims of the trade system. But markets are repeatedly destabilized when financial, energy or health challenges emerge.
While the full impact of the pandemic on food security is still unknown, it’s likely to take different shapes around the world.
The logistical challenges of moving food around the world during the pandemic are exacerbated by the globalized nature of supply chains. Disruptions to planting and harvesting due to illness outbreaks have an impact on food supplies, and restrictions on the movement of migrant farm workers compound the issue as well as reduce worker incomes.
It’s also clear that food availability is easily threatened in a trade system that encourages import dependence and export-oriented agriculture, but cannot require countries to export food.
Restrictions on food exports can lead to price shocks; even if there’s enough food globally, it becomes inaccessible to many people. Even small price increases can push staple items out of reach.
For example, grain-exporting countries like Russia and Ukraine are restricting exports due to domestic supply concerns. These types of restrictions are detrimental to countries that depend on imported food.
Restrictions also lead to price shocks; even if there’s enough food globally, it becomes inaccessible to many people. Even small price increases can push staple items out of reach. As in 2008, low-income people who spend large portions of their budgets putting food on the table are most affected.
Relying on international markets to balance supply and demand has led to food waste. This problem isn’t new, but it’s more pronounced during the pandemic. Because food production is a slow, seasonal process, it takes time to respond to shifting demands—and communicating demands is complex in long supply chains.
Rhonda Ferguson, Research Fellow, Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research, York University, Canada
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
