International Food Security

International Food Securtity

Food Security is one of man’s oldest concerns. The first homo sapien farmers spiced and salted their meat to prevent decay. The ancient Harrpans used
granaries to make sure that their agricultural produce was accesible whenever needed. With such good examples from the past, why is food securtiy in such a
dire situation today? Over 167 million people in East Asia, 234 million in sub-saharan africa 304 million peaole in southern asia are in need of food
securtity! (c. en.wikipedia.org/Food_insecurity#/media/File:FAO_food_security_2012.jpg). Food insecurity is in part, of course, driven by the law of supply and
demand. As the world population increases, more people need to eat,but the supply does not increase at the same rate. We need to meet a larger demand with a
smaller supply, and this drives cost up. (Right now, commodity prices have been driven down, but it’s most probably not going to last). Droughts also
contribute, making it nigh impossible to farm.
But this is not the only reason why so many people are starving.
Over the past century or so, economic mismanagement has proably been one of the biggest contributors to starvation. Rulers in many countries keep food prices
in the cities artificially low, decimating the profits of farmers and contributing to poverty in rural areas. They stop privatisations and allow corrupt,
badly run SOFs (state owned firms) run food production, cheating farmers of much needed money. Ration systems allow the government (or other non-state actors)
to control the lives of farmers and rural people. And dictators use their control of food production system to direct food to their cronies and away from
opposition.In this way, hunger is the sword of the dictator.

Of course, progress is being made. More people came out of poverty and starvation this in the 21st century than at any other time. But their is still much to
do. Lots of food is still under the control of autocrats and dictators. We need to increase food production, improve economic management and alleviate more
people out of poverty.

Thank’s for reading.