Food Security, Food Fear
Will a "Food Armageddon" happen in the near future? It will be tough to convince Malaysians that such a calamity could happen in a country where food is available round the clock. It is said that Malaysia is the only country in the world where food is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The term “food security” seems to be the preferred term today. Just a few decades ago, journalists weremore familiar with the term “food crisis”. Who authored the change in terminology? Was the currently preferred termspecially coined to be “politically correct” in context or “politically motivated” to accommodate a sinister agenda of institutional structures?
Experts today use this term because it is not just crisis situations which cause “food insecurity” (i.e. lack of security). Almost a billion people go to bed hungry each day, according to the World Bank. Some of these peoplemay live in countries which have food, but they cannot afford to buy the food, meaning, they have no economic access.
And this lack of abilitymay lead to a situation of “chronic food insecurity”, which potentially affects the growth and development of young children, and thereby their ability to learn as well. There have beenmany studies to show the link between under-nutrition and education performance among children. So all these are now included in the term “food security”.
Look At Effects
One possible effect is the disruption or restriction in supply of food or agricultural rawproducts to the country concerned. For specific countries, local policies could be developed, and supportedwith adequate funding and technical support, to increase local production of a particular item. For example, a country responsemay be to increase local rice production in the face of a global reduction in the amount of rice traded.
Most countries have government agencies chargedwith applying food safetymeasures. The challenge is to ensure they are functional.
There is enough food in the world to meet everyone’s needs, but not enough to accommodate everyone’s greed. Should the world be in jitters over an impending “Food-Armageddon” that might not materialise – or should the international community address the tangible problemof wealth and food distribution more emphatically?
Concurrently, the world population will become more urbanised, leading to fewer people farming. With urbanisation, it is also predicted that the percentage of poor people who are food insecure in the cities will also increase.
Organisations like the World Food Programme have advocated safety nets to help the vulnerable poor who cannot afford to buy food even if food is available.
These safety nets operate in the broader context of individual country policies on wealth distribution vis-à- vis job creation, livelihood improvement and generally economic growth. It is difficult for the international community to effectively address country-specific wealth distribution issues.
Individual country governments need to take local action that can meet local situations of unequal wealth distribution. Assuming no disruptions in the food supply chain, whether local or global, people who are economically well off have a better chance of being food secure.
Malaysia has many advantages as a food producing country – bountiful landwith no regular natural disasters such as typhoons or earthquakes, suitable climate for crop, fish and animal agriculture, resourceful people and strong technical as well as financial resources to support farming.
So Malaysia can ramp up significantly its domestic production of agricultural products if it chose to. The challenge is whether it would be cheaper to import or go for local production. In the context of food security, most experts predict increasing prices of raw materials and increased competition for these raw materials due to population demands and the improved economic status of more people, especially in Asia.
Many countries have developed their own food security plans to ensure there is sufficient resilience in supply to buffer any unexpected shocks to the system.
One of the dilemmas that countries likeMalaysia face is whether to increase the level of self- sufficiency in key items evenwhen other countries can produce those items cheaper or continue to depend on imports fromoverseas and find ways tominimise any supply disruption. There is no single solution.
There are also trade-off issues as cash crops like palm oil continue to yield high returns when compared to food crops like rice.
Some agricultural products will require continued importation, such as wheat; while others like soybean and corn could help lessen the impact from supply shortage if Malaysia grew more of its own. But both soybean and cornwould require renewed significant investments in research to produce the right crop varieties andmanagement technologies.
Brazil has shown that it is possible for tropical countries to become agriculture powerhouses if sufficient financial resources are devoted to R&D.
Agriculture will have to be made more attractive, especially, food agriculture via appropriate incentives and supportive policies.
http://203.115.192.117/thesun-epaper/tue/04102011/files/assets/seo/page10.html
I am not worried about long run supply of agriculture production; the big question is about who gets access to it. ~ Peter Timmer
Invest in agri technology, says Harvard don
http://www.thesundaily.my/news/164579
Related:
Food Price http://howtze.blogspot.com/2011/08/ever-wonder-why-malaysians-are-paying.html
Invest In Land
Penang wants control of foodstuff during natural disasters
http://www.thesundaily.my/news/175800
The term “food security” seems to be the preferred term today. Just a few decades ago, journalists weremore familiar with the term “food crisis”. Who authored the change in terminology? Was the currently preferred termspecially coined to be “politically correct” in context or “politically motivated” to accommodate a sinister agenda of institutional structures?
Experts today use this term because it is not just crisis situations which cause “food insecurity” (i.e. lack of security). Almost a billion people go to bed hungry each day, according to the World Bank. Some of these peoplemay live in countries which have food, but they cannot afford to buy the food, meaning, they have no economic access.
And this lack of abilitymay lead to a situation of “chronic food insecurity”, which potentially affects the growth and development of young children, and thereby their ability to learn as well. There have beenmany studies to show the link between under-nutrition and education performance among children. So all these are now included in the term “food security”.
Look At Effects
One possible effect is the disruption or restriction in supply of food or agricultural rawproducts to the country concerned. For specific countries, local policies could be developed, and supportedwith adequate funding and technical support, to increase local production of a particular item. For example, a country responsemay be to increase local rice production in the face of a global reduction in the amount of rice traded.
Most countries have government agencies chargedwith applying food safetymeasures. The challenge is to ensure they are functional.
There is enough food in the world to meet everyone’s needs, but not enough to accommodate everyone’s greed. Should the world be in jitters over an impending “Food-Armageddon” that might not materialise – or should the international community address the tangible problemof wealth and food distribution more emphatically?
Concurrently, the world population will become more urbanised, leading to fewer people farming. With urbanisation, it is also predicted that the percentage of poor people who are food insecure in the cities will also increase.
Organisations like the World Food Programme have advocated safety nets to help the vulnerable poor who cannot afford to buy food even if food is available.
These safety nets operate in the broader context of individual country policies on wealth distribution vis-à- vis job creation, livelihood improvement and generally economic growth. It is difficult for the international community to effectively address country-specific wealth distribution issues.
Individual country governments need to take local action that can meet local situations of unequal wealth distribution. Assuming no disruptions in the food supply chain, whether local or global, people who are economically well off have a better chance of being food secure.
Malaysia has many advantages as a food producing country – bountiful landwith no regular natural disasters such as typhoons or earthquakes, suitable climate for crop, fish and animal agriculture, resourceful people and strong technical as well as financial resources to support farming.
So Malaysia can ramp up significantly its domestic production of agricultural products if it chose to. The challenge is whether it would be cheaper to import or go for local production. In the context of food security, most experts predict increasing prices of raw materials and increased competition for these raw materials due to population demands and the improved economic status of more people, especially in Asia.
Many countries have developed their own food security plans to ensure there is sufficient resilience in supply to buffer any unexpected shocks to the system.
One of the dilemmas that countries likeMalaysia face is whether to increase the level of self- sufficiency in key items evenwhen other countries can produce those items cheaper or continue to depend on imports fromoverseas and find ways tominimise any supply disruption. There is no single solution.
There are also trade-off issues as cash crops like palm oil continue to yield high returns when compared to food crops like rice.
Some agricultural products will require continued importation, such as wheat; while others like soybean and corn could help lessen the impact from supply shortage if Malaysia grew more of its own. But both soybean and cornwould require renewed significant investments in research to produce the right crop varieties andmanagement technologies.
Brazil has shown that it is possible for tropical countries to become agriculture powerhouses if sufficient financial resources are devoted to R&D.
Agriculture will have to be made more attractive, especially, food agriculture via appropriate incentives and supportive policies.
 |
http://203.115.192.117/thesun-epaper/tue/04102011/files/assets/seo/page10.html
I am not worried about long run supply of agriculture production; the big question is about who gets access to it. ~ Peter Timmer
Invest in agri technology, says Harvard don
http://www.thesundaily.my/news/164579
Related:
Food Price http://howtze.blogspot.com/2011/08/ever-wonder-why-malaysians-are-paying.html
Invest In Land
Penang wants control of foodstuff during natural disasters
http://www.thesundaily.my/news/175800
