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'An aphorism, properly stamped and molded, has not been "deciphered" when it has simply been read; rather one has then to begin its interpretation, for which is required an art of interpretation.' -- Nietzsche, 'On the Genealogy of Morals'

food security « Previous | |Next »
May 4, 2011

In The New Geopolitics of Food in Foreign Policy Lester Brown argues that we are entering a new era in which world food scarcity increasingly shapes global politics. He asks: 'What will the geopolitics of food look like in a new era dominated by scarcity?'

His argument is that it is not merely a story about the booming demand for food. Everything from falling water tables to eroding soils and the consequences of global warming means that the world's food supply is unlikely to keep up with our collectively growing appetites. He states:

....as land and water become scarcer, as the Earth's temperature rises, and as world food security deteriorates, a dangerous geopolitics of food scarcity is emerging. Land grabbing, water grabbing, and buying grain directly from farmers in exporting countries are now integral parts of a global power struggle for food security...At issue now is whether the world can go beyond focusing on the symptoms of the deteriorating food situation and instead attack the underlying causes. If we cannot produce higher crop yields with less water and conserve fertile soils, many agricultural areas will cease to be viable.

He says that the increase in grain prices since early 2007 has been driven primarily by two factors: accelerating growth in demand and the increasing difficulty of rapidly expanding production.

The result is a world that will look strikingly different from the bountiful global grain economy of the last century.

| Posted by Gary Sauer-Thompson at 10:05 PM |