Suchergebnisse

Food Security in Asia provides a comprehensive analysis of the critical dimensions of food security in various countries of Asia. It attempts to draw attention towards the fact that food insecurity is a complex phenomenon, requiring a comprehensive response encompassing increasing food production, expanding economic access to food, especial access to food for disadvantaged groups and most importantly, breaking down the gender-based barriers to accessing food. While highlighting on the pressure exerted by climate change and world population growth, it also prescribes certain ideas which would help in making informed policy decisions.

This volume analyzes food security issues such as agricultural policy, global agricultural trade, international agricultural research and development, biotechnology, climate change, food waste, and nutrition guidelines.

World agricultural resources will be altered by climate change which will require both public and private actions. Global agriculture is affected by invasive alien pest and disease species and by severe weather such as sea-level rise flooding and drought. Rising sea levels will increase salinity in coastal groundwater and the loss of coastal wetlands. Drought will increase the vulnerability of forest ecosystems due to decreased soil moisture and increased evapotranspiration. Many changes will be needed to maintain global food security. Climate change will affect food supply and demand, as well as prices. Research and development have the potential to impact both supply and demand, especially through the adoption of biotechnology. Researching plant and animal breeding for multiple disease resistance against pathogens of global relevance has great evolutionary potential. One such program is aquaculture. Another problem is land constraints as rural and urban areas compete for land. For rural food-insecure households, land competition means necessary changes in production practices. Research and development investments could substantially decelerate food prices to prevent hunger and deteriorating living standards in rural households worldwide. Increasing food security will mean establishing dietary guidelines that alleviate the negative health and economic outcomes associated with malnutrition. It is highly questionable to aggregate all food items based solely on calories per kilogram content when not all calories are equal in their effect on health. Food security also includes increasing diet diversity while decreasing food waste and loss. It is imperative that actions be taken for a food-secure future.

In this challenging work, the author argues that the goal of any food system should not simply be to provide the cheapest calories possible. A secure food system is one that affords people and nations - in both the present and future - the capabilities to prosper and lead long, happy, and healthy lives. For a variety of reasons, food security has come to be synonymous with cheap calorie security. On this measure, the last fifty years have been a remarkable success. But the author shows that these cheap calories have also come at great cost, to the environment, individual and societal.