COVID-19 shows weak points in global food system
COVID-19 shows weak points in global food system
A
new analysis argues for the need to address food insecurity by recognizing the
interconnected nature of global food systems.
In
a commentary for the journal One Earth,
Franziska Gaupp, Ph.D., a research scholar at the International Institute of
Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), argues that global food insecurity is
increasingly susceptible to shocks because of the interdependence of the parts
that make up the global food system.
For
Gaupp, shocks to the supply of food — for example, extreme weather events that
may damage or destroy crops — are challenging.
However,
in our increasingly interconnected, globalized world, these shocks can come
from events not directly related to growing food and can have far reaching
consequences.
Gaupp
— who is working jointly with IIASA’s Ecosystems Services and Management and
Risk and Resilience programs — points to the COVID-19 pandemic as one such
shock that is not directly related to food but has had a significant effect on
global food systems.
Despite
the world producing more than enough food for everyone on the planet,
around one-quarter of
the world’s population does not have access to food that is nutritious and
sufficient.
Gaupp
argues that this extreme inequality will get worse as there is increased demand
for food from growing, affluent populations, placing more stresses on the
environment that secure food systems depend upon.
Climate
change has also placed severe
stress on global food systems, destroying the quality of land,
increasing desertification, disrupting conventional rainfall patterns, and
causing sea levels to rise.
These
stresses will get worse if temperatures significantly increase, as
scientists predict.
However,
while these are pressing concerns for the world’s ability to produce food, the
interconnected nature of global food systems means that many other factors can
affect food security.
According
to Gaupp, the global supply chain of food is concentrated in the hands of fewer
and fewer companies.
Even
so, interconnected sectors that depend on many others to be able to function
properly increasingly make up this global chain.
This
means that while the system functions within conditions understood as “normal,”
efficiency may be increased for those populations who have access to these
markets and the wealth to engage with them.
However,
if conditions are anything other than “normal,” the interconnectedness of the
global food system means that it is increasingly susceptible to shocks from
events not directly related to food.
These
shocks can have a bigger negative effect, as global supply chains cease to
function if parts of the chain break.
In
Gaupp’s words, “[t]rade networks are more interconnected and interdependent
than ever, and research has shown that they can be intrinsically more
fragile than if each network worked independently because they create pathways
along which damaging events can spread globally and rapidly.”
Just
as the global supply chain can be affected by events not directly related to
food, so can major negative effects on the global supply chain affect other
social, cultural, economic, or political issues.
Gaupp’s
commentary highlights the relationship between the failure of wheat crops due
to 2010 droughts in Russia, the Ukraine, and China, and the 2011 civil unrest
in Egypt.
Other
shocks that occur at the same time can also amplify individual shocks around
the world.
Again,
the global interconnection, and climate change, make these shocks more likely
to coincide because of their increased frequency, and their ability to generate
other simultaneous shocks themselves.
For
Gaupp, the COVID-19 crisis has been exemplary at demonstrating the
vulnerability the world faces due to interconnected food systems and the
concentration in ownership of the markets that make up these systems.
The
COVID-19 pandemic is a health crisis first, but its effects have also shaken
global food systems.
According
to Gaupp, “[a]lthough harvests have been successful, and food reserves are
available, global food supply chain interruptions led to food shortages in some
places because of lockdown measures.
“Products
cannot be moved from farms to markets. Food is rotting in the fields as
transport disruptions have made it impossible to move food from the farm to the
consumer. At the same time, many people have lost their incomes, and food has
become unaffordable to them.”
–
Franziska Gaupp, Ph.D.
To
respond to these challenges, Gaupp argues, it requires first understanding the
way the global food system is deeply interconnected with various other systems
operating across the world.
Improving
the models that can predict the complex effects of significant shocks to
interconnected systems may help populations avoid the worst consequences.
Having
the tools to predict and understand the effects of major shocks better could
also help in the development of taxes that accurately reflect the damage done
by the actions of major businesses and corporations, Gaupp writes.
This
intervention might, hopefully, ameliorate some of this damage and dissuade
these businesses from causing the harm in the first place.
However,
while recognizing the complexity of the global food system is necessary for
solving global food insecurity, it is unlikely to be sufficient on its own.
Understanding
the political economy of global food systems — that is, the structural effects
that economic systems have on both the efficient distribution of food and the
justice of this distribution, as well as the chances of governments and
international institutions holding large companies to account — is also likely
to be a part of the puzzle.
Overall,
the paper calls for collaboration: “We need global collaboration to work toward
better management of trade barriers to ensure that food value chains function
even in moments of crises.”
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