Food Security in the Developed and the Developing World - Essay Example

FOOD SECURITY] [Name] [Course] [Lecturer] [Date] Developing countries, especially in the African and Asian continents are threatened with food security as a result of both the natural and artificial factors. Political and social instabilities, civil and war strive, economic imbalance in natural resources, trade, gender inequality, poor health, natural disasters, poverty, poor governance, inadequate education and ineffective human resource base are some of the factors that have posed a threat to the national and regional food securities in the developed countries. The farm policies mainly from the industrialized countries have had a negative agricultural impact on the developed countries. The industrial nations have imposed high and tough barriers that do not favor the developed countries especially on the agricultural products that are to compete with the domestic sectors. The competitions posed by the subsidized exports and the provision of food aids that are based on clearance of the domestic market products coupled up with the unstable price tags on food products for the temperate zones by the industrialized developed nations have not spared the developing nations either (UN, 2010). The increase in population and the change in the environmental conditions, the developed nations need to take a bold step in ensuring the countries have food security. The developing nations will witness the adoption of new technological advances in the agricultural sector to have them generate enough food products and a reasonable fee for the world market. The developed nations are projected to impose pressure on the developed nations to develop new food and farm policies that are compatible with the food security. The policies that govern the trade rules are to be adjusted to eliminate the existing conflict between the food security and the industrialized country policies. This is to ensure that enough food is available and in sufficient quantities to meet the increasing population’s food needs. International Food Policy Research Institute (2002) maintains that, food security refers to a situation where all individuals at all times have economical and physical access to safe, nutritious and sufficient foods to effectively meet both their food preferences and dietary requirements for a healthy life. Food security is based on three pillars; food access, availability and use. Achievement of food security has been a great challenge to the developing and developed countries (UN 2010). The essay will quest to compare and contrast the food insecurity in the developing and developed world. This will be done in reference to the specific factors and evidence that impact on the food security. Developed country refers to those countries that have achieved a degree of industrialization in relation to their population while developing country refers to a country that has a low level when it comes to material well-being. The country has not achieved a degree of industrialization in relation to a country’s population (UN 2010). These countries are believed to have a large physical capital stock and where its people undertake highly activities that are highly specialized. People in these countries are thought to have high living standards. The developing countries as classified by the World Bank are those whose GNP per capita income is low and are less industrialized. In developing countries, especially in Africa and Asia continents, there are factors that have threatened food security and these includes; political and social instabilities, civil and war strive, economic imbalance in natural resources, trade, gender inequality, poor health, natural disasters, poverty, poor governance, inadequate education and ineffective human resource base. The United Kingdom has had a highly effective and successful industry in agriculture. However the domestic and global factors have had an effect on the agricultural production as well as the prices of the agricultural commodities for the consumers in the country. Despite the country boasting to have exported agricultural outputs worth £ 12 billion the country is still not self sufficient in the production of food. The country imports 40% of the food that is consumed by the population and this portion is expected to rise with the increased changes in the climate and population. The changes in the weather and climatic patterns have resulted in either increased or decreased rainfall patterns thus having a drastic effect on the agricultural outputs. The country has witnessed an increase in the food prices from 2008 by nearly a ⅓ has since resulted to the end of long term declines in the relative food prices in the country. This rise of food commodities especially in the frequently used products like wheat, soya, and rice has significantly impacted on the UK consumers. This has had even more drastic effects on the less wealthy families who comprise of 10% of the total population in the country as they spend a total of 15% of their total earnings on food. This will have an even more effect on the population as the prices of the commodities that they highly rely on like milk, eggs and bread as well as the other staple foods has experienced a sharp increase in their price tags (Grocery Hikes, 2011). The pressure on food security in the country is projected to persist as the population changes their consumption patterns and the increased demand on foodstuffs that is to push the prices even further. The problem is expected to persist and even worsen if the global and other potential problems are to be combined. The persistent of the bluetongue infections on sheep is expected to have the meat prices to hit a record high as the market experiences low supplies. The wheat rust on the other hand has affected the wheat agricultural output and as a result the prices of wheat cereals are not expected to reduce. The situation is expected even to double as the imports that the country relies on are expected to decrease as the exporting countries hold back on their food exports in order to secure their food security. The United Kingdom’s quest to have a safe environment free from carbon emissions is also expected to impact heavily as the country quests to rely on the Bio-fuel (UK Threat, 2011). Compared to Kenya, the consumers have witnessed a steady rise in prices on the agricultural products especially in the staple food products. The poor climate conditions that were witnessed during the 2008 and key production lands that had been taken up for other purposes as well as the increase in production costs which recorded a high of 20% greatly contributed to increase in the food prices. The country is not self sufficient despite it exporting a portion of its agricultural products to the COMESA and the international market relies heavily on agricultural imports to meet its growing food demands. Much of its increased prices have been blamed on the rising fuel prices in the international market as the Kenya shilling heavily relies on the Dollar for its imports. The country has ill integrated markets due to the heightened costs of transaction coupled up with a limited number of participants in the market. The agricultural sector suffers from increased production costs and reduced and on which the farmers are to use for the agriculture. The country has an over reliance on maize as a staple food crop has also had an effect on the pricing as the product is on high demand despite the increased population that is chocking the already limited production land (Oxfarm, 2011). In addition, the input and output markets in the regions covered by the pastoral communities who do little agricultural activities have highly affected the prices of the food products in the country. Most of the Kenyans are to suffer as their salaries remain stagnant despite the rising inflation levels. Lastly, some of the families have been adversely affected by the HIV and AIDS scourge. Some families in this case have been left without bread winners. The problem is projected to worsen given the fluctuation in the fuel market prices and the instability of the Kenyan shilling among the hard currencies in the world (Oxfarm, 2011). Japan has had a stable food security but the effects of the natural calamities which include the recent earth quake and the tsunami has since had an effect to its agricultural outputs. Rice which is considered the staple food of the country has declined in production from 20,000 yen down to 15,000 yen. The price of rise has since sharply risen due to the increasing demand. The shrinking population has caused a worry as the country exports much of its Japonica rice as it takes advantage of the free trade. The country however experienced a shortage in the food as a result of panic caused as people rushed to stock up for the food commodities as it was projected that the country will experience a shortage in food. This lead to the sky rocketing of prices on the food commodity. The farmers had to flee the large areas severely hit by the quake thus the production from these regions is expected to drop drastically. In Haiti, the food security has been hit as a result of natural calamities that have since had an artificial contribution. Much of the forest land was destroyed to pave way for the sugar cane plantations most of which is exported to other international use for the manufacture of rum, sugar or ethanol. The destruction of the forests have led to massive soil erosion and climatic changes that have resulted in low productions as the existing farms that were highly productive lack the nutrients to support agricultural activity. The country heavily relies on rice as the countries staple food but the produce has been greatly affected by the cheap imports from the American states that are cheap compared to their rice. This has lead to the rice farmers to shift from the rice farming thus reducing the countries rice production (Haiti history, 2010). Food security is vital and has to be achieved for the world to alleviate hunger and poverty. This will be able to attain meaningful economic development. Food security can be enhanced by reviewing the domestic and international laws that govern trade among the developing nations. This will include the policies that are aimed at increasing the production of food through use of appropriate technology. The international community is to lift the economic barriers, improve governance, timely responses to projected and existing emergencies as well as greatly investing in innovative technologies that are aimed at targeting the poor in alleviating hunger (Josling, 2010). References BBC News (2010) ‘Haiti’s history of misery’. Available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8456728.stm Global Food Security, (ND), ‘UK Threat’ Available at: http://www.foodsecurity.ac.uk/issue/uk.html Oxfam Briefing Note, (20th July 2011), ‘East Africa Food Crisis; Poor rains, poor response’ Available at: http://www.oxfam.org/sites/www.oxfam.org/files/bn-east-africa-food-crisis-200711-en.pdf T. Josling, ICTSD (International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development), (April 2010), ‘Trade Policy for Food Security: Farm Policies of Developed Countries’ Available at: http://ictsd.org/downloads/2010/04/timjoslingpdf.pdf United Nations, 2010, Mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food: Mission to the peoples Republic of China from 15 - 23 December 2010. Available at: http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/5CEA70A608AE05A4C1257802003794DC-Full_report.pdfGlobal Yahoo! News, Press Association, (19th July 2011), ‘Grocery price hikes hit households’, Available at: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/grocery-price-hikes-hit-households-132901286.html Read More