Webinar

 Granaries found in ancient Egypt and used by ancient Chinese civilisations for storage of food.  Ancient Greek and Roman cities included granaries to store food.  Records of Greek and Roman city states releasing food at times of famine. ◦ Shows an understanding of food security and planning at the state level

 Article 25.  (1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.

 First defined by1974 World Food Conference  Originally a state level issue: WFC defined food security at the national level, with a state being food secure when there was sufficient food to "sustain a steady expansion of food consumption and to offset fluctuations in production and prices".

 WHO looks to the individual rather than the state  The World Food Summit of 1996 defined food security as existing “when all people at all times have access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life”. Commonly, the concept of food security is defined as including both physical and economic access to food that meets people's dietary needs as well as their food preferences. 

 “The latest FAO estimates indicate that global hunger reduction continues: about 805 million people are estimated to be chronically undernourished in 2012–14, down more than 100 million over the last decade, and 209 million lower than in 1990–92. In the same period, the prevalence of undernourishment has fallen from 18.7 to 11.3 percent globally and from 23.4 to 13.5 percent for developing countries”. ◦

 In the USA, in 2013, at some point in the year 14.3% (17.5m) of households were considered food insecure.  5.6% (6.8m) were considered to have VERY low food security.

 In the past year, 913,138 people in the UK received 3 days emergency food from a food bank.  Up from 346,912 in 2012/13.  Well done to the Coalition Government.

 Nobel Peace Prize winner Amartya Sen published Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation (1981), a book in which he argued that famine occurs not only from a lack of food, but from inequalities built into mechanisms for distributing food.  There is no such thing as an a-political famine.

Developing WorldDeveloped World Climate change = extreme weather Intensive farming = land degradation Global water crisis (due to intensive farming, climate change and foolish use of what we have…) Agricultural diseases (often due to mono-cropping)) Politics / Kleptocracy / corruption Poverty Lack of governmental planning Privatisation of services and price hikes Food wastage Distribution Inadequacies, inefficiencies, inequalities

 The Government does not provide (or intend to provide) support directly to food banks, as outlined by the Parliamentary Under- Secretary of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord De Mauley) in April 2013: ◦ The Government are not considering the provision of funding to support food banks. We do, however, recognise the good work of organisations that redistribute surplus food to help reduce food poverty, assist the homeless and provide access to nutritional meals for those who may otherwise struggle. In addition, most major retailers already have partnerships with redistribution charities. In 2012, Defra held a meeting with retailers and food distribution charities to explore the current barriers to redistribution and the Waste and Resources Action Programme has recently begun working with Fareshare and FoodCycle to deliver a trial to increase food distribution from retail stores.

 The World Bank has helped to turn Ica Valley, one of the driest places on earth, into the largest supplier in the world of asparagus (a wet crop)  Great! More money for Peru!!!  No…  constant irrigation means the water table has dropped by as much as eight meters per year  As a cash crop, asparagus has provided jobs for local people, but most of the money goes to the buyers, mainly the British.  Sustainable? No…  Well done World Bank

 They provide huge benefits to the farmers who use them.  They increase acreage of usable crops.  They can increase yield.  They can include useful traits such as increased content of important vitamins.  They have huge potential for developing countries.

 Rice with added vitamin A to help prevent blindness  ‘Socially’ motivated technology development?  Is it better to eat lots of rice with added vitamins, or eat a balanced diet?

 They may become weedy.  They may cross breed with traditional and conventional plants contaminating them with unwanted traits.  They may be less healthy than conventional.  Their use, particularly in developing countries, could cause economic problems due to lost trade.  There is very little evidence that ‘health’ traits work.  There are very few societal GM products in development.  Many people do not want to eat GM food for religious, cultural and social reasons.  Big business own the patents for these crops, they are no longer part of the ‘commons’.  High technology is not ‘sustainable’…

 Herbicide resistant corn, soya, cotton  Internal pest resistance corn, soya, cotton  ??? WHY ???  These are useful to farmers in the USA  These increase monocropping yields

Developing worldDeveloped world  Food scarcity and food (in)security are not new issues  There is no such thing as an a- political famine  Much food insecurity is caused by the people who should be solving it.  Not much food insecurity is caused by lack of food.  A lot of developing world food insecurity is caused by a lack of access.  Hunger is not just a developing world problem  A lot of 1 st world food insecurity is caused by lack of money  Food wastage and distribution inadequacies exacerbate the issues  Political will to envisage food insecurity as a state problem  Lack of coherent strategy and response