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Issues in the Food Security Debate 1. An integrated approach is needed to stabilize world population growth while at the same time increasing the supply and availability of food. 2. Despite adequate food supplies on a global level, food is neither produced nor consumed equitably. 3. The main cause of malnutrition is poverty. 4. Progress on any of these issues is unlikely without strong support for women, in both productive and reproductive roles. 5. Women must be integrated into the decision-making process in all areas of development. |
The debate over how many people the Earth's limited land and
water supplies can support has been raging at least since Thomas Malthus asserted that
increases in human numbers would eventually outstrip food supply and precipitate the
collapse of society. Malthus's theory was overtaken by quantum leaps in agricultural
technology which have kept food production ahead of population growth. Advances in
irrigation, pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers; genetically superior,
disease-resistant, high-yielding crops, and improved farming techniques have allowed
farmers to increase both the acreage under food crops and the yield from a given amount of
land. Larger and more efficient fishing vessels have increased wild fish catches, and
farming has increased production of inshore seafood. Between 1960 and 1991 global food
production outpaced population growth. While world population climbed from 3.1 billion in
the 1960s to 5.7 billion in 1995, per capita food production grew from the equivalent of
2,300 to 2,700 calories a day. But overall increases in food production have not always translated into more food for the poor. Large-scale production and modern techniques have lowered the price of food--but cheaper food for consumers means lower prices for producers. In high-income countries, even elaborate price-support schemes have not squared this circle, and there is an endemic problem of surplus. Low-income countries on the other hand are finding that modern farming calls for modern inputs, which small farmers cannot always afford, especially in a time of falling prices. FAO has identified 88 "food deficit" countries which can neither feed themselves nor afford the imports they need. The result has been to drive farm families from the land, and in some countries to reduce the land available for subsistence farming even as rural populations are growing. In a number of the poorer countries in Asia and Africa new techniques have made little impact on food crops, and population growth in the 1980s actually outpaced food production. At the same time, small fishing communities have found their livelihoods undercut by commercial fisheries. More people are being fed adequately today than ever before: but it is also true that the numbers of the poor and malnourished have risen. Some observers are now concerned that the cycle of increasing outputs and lower food prices may be over, warning that because of population growth, increased consumption and environmental damage the world is headed for absolute food shortage. Their arguments are countered by optimists who insist that the Earth's capacity to produce food is essentially unlimited, given human ingenuity and constant advances in technology. There is a third point of view, which would place less emphasis on global and long-term considerations and more on the present needs and future capabilities of individual women and men. Many small-scale food producers, and a disproportionate number of the world's poor, are women. Providing them with access to credit, markets and technical advice, as well as education and health care, could both improve the food supply of the world's poorest people and help them escape from poverty. The International Conference on Population and Development and successive international meetings have added that the best prospect for slowing and eventually stabilizing population growth is to put decision-making power in the hands of women. |
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