Food insecurity has increased greatly during the COVID-19 pandemic and was rising before it (see here). Creating food security for all is a key challenge that the high-level panel of experts (HLPE) of the Committee on Food Security of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation has been grappling with. In this conversation, HLPE member, Professor Jennifer Clapp*, who holds the Canada Research Chair in Global Food Security and Sustainability at the University of Waterloo, discusses the meaning of food security (0-10’25”), the impact of COVID-19 (10’25”-16’10”), issues arising for the Food Systems Summit (16’10”-25’02”) and the challenges to current trade, finance, industry, and research structures posed by the need to achieve food security for all and reach the Sustainable Development Goal of Zero Hunger and achieve sustainable farming systems.
You can download “Food Security and Nutrition – Building a Global Narrative towards 2020” by clicking here. The impact of COVID-19 on food security is summarised in these 3 figures:
From: HLPE Issues Paper, ‘Impacts of COVID-19 on food security and nutrition: developing effective policy responses to address the hunger and malnutrition pandemic‘ September 2020
You might like to read (2020) This food crisis is different: COVID-19 and the fragility of the neoliberal food security order, The Journal of Peasant Studies, 47:7, 1393-1417, DOI: 10.1080/03066150.2020.1823838
If you want to know more about the Civil Society Mechanism of the Committee on Food Security Prof Clapp mentioned click here. The CSM policy response to COVID-19 is here.
*The third edition of her book Food was published in 2020 by Wiley
Geoff Tansey blog 