Overview
In the past year, global food security has been on the radar of world leaders, who often raised food security issues and brought needed attention to the continuing food crisis and long-term concerns. Policy breakthroughs and substantial action, however, were limited.
The challenge was most starkly illustrated by a joint report released by the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and World Food Programme (WFP) during World Food Week (October 12-16) that said that over 1.02 billion in the world are hungry. During a High-Level Expert Panel convened during the week, FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf cited that a fast-growing global population would require 5 times the food production to meet needs by 2050. At the UN’s World Food Summit in November, these challenges seemed to fall on deaf ears, as major global leaders did not attend the meeting and a proposal to direct global food security efforts away from aid toward an expanded local capability to grow food, was rejected.
Another major focus of the blog was food safety in the United States. After several high profile cases of contamination of peanuts and pistachios (by salmonella) and even Nestlé’s Toll House cookie dough, which had batches contaminated by E. Coli, the Obama administration took several steps to address the food safety. The appointment of a new Food and Drug Administration Commissioner, the convening of a Food Safety Working Group and a new clearinghouse for information, www.foodsafety.gov are positive steps, whose true results will take time to measure.
Person of the Year
The Global Food Security blog covered many events and people involved in food security that to highlight any one individual would be a big challenge. Instead, we will choose someone who is often behind the scenes, the food aid workers who each year work to deliver food aid to some of those most in need. They see the faces of the hungry at their most desperate and often operate in remote areas or conflict zones, placing themselves in peril in order to help others.
Most Unexpected Event
Since the global food crisis was first acknowledged roughly two years ago, public awareness about the ongoing supply issue and its effects has been on the steady incline. In recent months, global food security has assumed center stage at a number of U.S. and international government meetings. In March, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a hearing on the food crisis after a bill co-sponsored by Senators Bob Casey, Jr. (PA) and Richard Lugar (IN) was introduced before Congress; in April, President Obama announced a food crisis initiative to include another $1 billion for the development of long-term food security strategy during the annual G-20 summit; and the UN hosted a food crisis summit in Copenhagen in November. Discussing the challenges involved in combating food insecurity is important, and building frameworks for solutions is needed, but this specialized attention to the issue came as a pleasant surprise in the last year.
What to Expect
It is difficult to predict what the coming year will mean for the food crisis, but indicators suggest that the issue will continue to be problematic.
As this blog has often cited, the production of grain for consumption and for the procurement of meat from animals that eat it requires the use of fossil fuels. When oil prices rise, the ability to produce foodstuffs declines, and the food that is produced is sold at higher cost. The International Energy Agency announced on 11 December that the demand for oil in 2010 will be slightly greater than the increase they had already projected, which may make for a bad year in food growth and pricing.
Growth is also thwarted by weather events like droughts or intense storms, such as monsoons. 2010 is projected to be warmer than average – the weather system El Niño is expected to last until May, bringing with it warmer air and water temperatures. Irregular and/or protracted weather patterns may make for inhospitable environments for food growth.
Innovations in food technologies and international efforts to combat insecurity and inaccessibility to foodstuffs have yet to be seen, and the elements that work against these progressions have yet to take hold. In the coming year, the FPA Food Security blog will keep you atuned to all of these developments.
Watch this space…
