Agricultural liberalisation has played an important part in preparing the ground for the sustained food crisis we face. The WTO’s Agreement on Agriculture helped increase food trade, but did not alleviate global hunger. Then, with strong food price rises, global hunger increased strongly. What responsibility is there for a process which has argued a ‘food security’ which opposes local production and promotes global exchange? In this paper I argue three interlinked ‘high risks’ for food security, which are embedded in agricultural liberalisation. These three are: the rationalisation and undervaluation of land, the exposure to price volatility and the unaccounted costs of large monocultures, including biofuels.
2011 Agricultural liberalisation and its ‘high risks’ for food security PDF
In B. N. Ghosh (Eds.), Global Food crisis: contemporary Issues and Policy Options, (pp. 92-112). Leeds: Wisdom House.