Journal of Defense Resources Management (Apr 2017)
THE FOOD RUSH. A SECURITY RISK AND A CAUSE FOR INTERNATIONAL INTERVENTION
Abstract
Access to food is more than ever a question of interest. The world needs to produce at least 50% more food to feed 9 billion people by 2050. The land, biodiversity, oceans, forests, and other forms of natural capital are being depleted at unprecedented rates. Unless we change how we grow our food and manage our natural capital, food security – especially for the world’s poorest – will be at risk. In this context we expect that the struggle for food to generate migration, conflicts and, why not, international intervention defined by the new Copenhagen School of Security Studies paradigm. Since March 2008 governments, UN agencies and many social movements have adopted positions on the causes of the food crisis and the means to address it. Unfortunately, while these parties are trying to coordinate their activities and suggest new approaches, the old recipes for producing more food are often brought up. Contradictory proposals are made and the thought given to the causes underlying hunger and the food crisis (social, economic and political discrimination and exclusion) has gone largely unheeded. The first Millennium Development Goal, which called for cutting the percentage of hungry people by half by 2015, is clearly out of reach. But the food crisis might lead to a new world food order.
