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More diverse and resilient food systems will safeguard food security

food security

The global food price crisis continues to threaten food security. The FAO Food Price Index is expected to highlight this as food prices reached record highs for April 2022.  

The recently released IPES-Food report highlights the growing food security crisis. Weighty reliance on food imports and extreme commodity speculation are among the drivers of the crisis. These have gone unresolved since 2007 – 2008.

Main drivers:

  • Dietary diversity has been diminishing globally for decades.
  • Over-specialisation, market and governmental promotion of commodity crops and biofuels, and preference for synthetic fertilisers are problematic. They limit farmers’ potential to implement other production practices that could diversify food production.
  • There is no transparency on stocks, and commodity speculation appears excessive.
  • Climate change, conflict, poverty, food insecurity, and short-sighted responses to the crisis make conditions tougher for people worldwide.

The report highlights the need for:

  • Financial assistance and debt relief for vulnerable countries
  • More market transparency and less commodity speculation
  • Development of regional grain reserves
  • Diversification of food production
  • Restructuring of trade flows
  • Reduction of biofuels, livestock totals, and dependence on fertilisers and fossil energy in food production. 

Olivier De Schutter, co-chair of IPES-Food, and UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights advises that making food systems “resilient, diverse and less reliant on fossil fuels will help ensure the next shock does not spark another crisis”.

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