Food fights for life: Food diplomacy for food security

Vortrag

Abstract

Stored food production is critical to food security. Food security refers to the physical availability of, the economic and physical access to, and the ability to utilize food (FAO, 2008, available at; http://www.fao.org/docrep/013/al936e/al936e00.pdf). Stored food production is a vital link in that chain: enabling the protection of (surplus) harvest to be made available when needed. Indeed, the means of stored food production constitutes an incentive for (surplus) harvest itself. However, food, food security, and alongside both, food diplomacy are not only practical concerns and challenges but also political. Furthermore, the politics of food are intrinsically related to health security, water security, and climate security, issues with increasing effects across the globe if at different orders of magnitude. Food insecurity may be measured higher in arid regions without adequate water and harvests and storage, but it also exists in ‘urban deserts’ without affordable access to (fresh) produce. In this presentation, I outline a cartography to depict the interconnections between local and global food securities using the characterization of diplomacy of food and for food, and food science for diplomacy. The aim is to enhance exchange of ideas and experiences to benefit food security – and reduced waste – in both food secure and food insecure settings.