If wheat and maize production do not rise substantially in 2011, global food security could be uncertain for the next two years, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has warned in its latest Food Outlook report. Wheat and maize prices have passed their 2009 highs, with FAO adding that international food import bills could surpass one trillion US dollars in 2010. Food imports last topped the trillion dollar mark during the 2007/2008 food price crisis. The FAO anticipates that world cereals stocks will shrink by 7%, with barley declining by 35%, maize by 12% and wheat by 10%. Six percent more maize will have to be produced in 2011 than in 2010, while wheat stocks need to rise by more 3.5% to ensure the world has enough reserves to tide it over 2011. The FAO has cautioned that its calculations have not taken into account the possibility of unfavourable weather conditions in 2011.
Poverty and health
A combination of new and ongoing forces is driving global food prices up. Recent studies in Botswana, Swaziland, Malawi, Zambia and Tanzania have shown associations between acute food insecurity and unprotected transactional sex among poor women. Sudden increases in food insecurity often lead to ‘distress migration’ as people search for work and food. Mobility is a marker of enhanced risk of HIV exposure and food insecurity at the household level is likely to translate over time into higher rates of adult malnutrition with possible detrimental effects on immune status.
Food prices are at their highest since the 2008 global food crisis, according to this report released by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). In mid-2008, international food prices reached their highest level in 30 years, sparking one of the worst food crises in recent times and pushing more than a billion people into hunger. The global average price of food - including cereals, cooking oil, meat and dairy products - was 25% higher in December 2010 than in December 2009, according to the report. FAO suggests that countries with bumper crops or ample stocks of staple foods should maintain strategic reserves, and food-importing countries should think strategically and negotiate favourable trading terms. Rising fuel prices could also have a negative impact on food production and distribution in 2011. In Kenya and Tanzania, maize prices remained stable and at low levels in December 2010, mostly reflecting the good 2010 main harvests. However, in Uganda prices have risen considerably, driven by demand from Kenya, a traditional importer, as well as from southern Sudan and Rwanda. In Mozambique, maize prices continued their upward trend during December 2010. Madagascar also reported a significant increase in the price of the country’s main staple, rice, which is imported.
This study determined the food security status, coping strategies, food intake and the nutritional status of the Kenneth Gardens community, in urban KwaZulu-Natal. Residents are low income bracket earners and many rely on state disability and pension grants for survival. The research tools included; a food security questionnaire, anthropometric measurements, a socio-demographic questionnaire, a food frequency questionnaire, and 24-hour recall questionnaires conducted in triplicate. The most commonly used coping strategy during periods of food scarcity was “Rely on less expensive and preferred food”. The second used coping strategy was “Reduce the number of meals eaten in a day” , followed by “Contribute to a food stokvel in order to ensure food over a scarce period" and “Restrict consumption by adults in order for small children to eat”. Utilisation of these food coping strategies indicate a degree of food insecurity. Low income and high unemployment increased the prevalence of food insecurity, leading to the coping strategies reported.
Poverty and hunger continue to characterise life for most Africans who are denied agency over their livelihoods as a result of a complex mix of reinforcing structural, political and environmental factors. This article identifies HIV and AIDS and food insecurity (particularly in rural areas) as the two most severe and interrelated humanitarian issues currently facing southern Africa. It argues that the current situation must be seen as an entangling crisis of climatic factors, chronic poverty, the failure of economic and political governance, and the impact of HIV and AIDS on the ability of individuals to respond independently.
The objective of this study was to assess the status of food security in South Africa. The authors conducted a systematic search of national surveys that used the Community Childhood Hunger Identification Project (CCHIP) index to measure food security in South Africa over a period of 10 years (1999–2008). Anthropometric data for children aged 1–9 years were used to assess food utilisation, and household food inventory data were used to assess food availability. The authors found that only three national surveys had used the CCHIP index, namely, the 1999 and 2005 National Food Consumption Surveys (NFCS) and the 2008 South African Social Attitudes Survey. These surveys showed a relatively large decrease in food insecurity between 1999 and 2008. However, the consistent emerging trend indicated that in poorer households women were either feeding their children a poor diet or skipping meals so their children could eat. In terms of food access and availability, the 1999 NFCS showed that households that enjoyed food security consumed an average of 16 different food items over 24 hours, whereas poorer households spent less money on food and consumed fewer than 8 different food items. Moreover, children had low mean scores for dietary diversity and dietary variety scores. In terms of food utilisation, the NFCS showed that stunting in children decreased from 21.6% in 1999 to 18% in 2005. Despite these improvements, the authors conclude that the South African government still needs to implement measures to improve the undesirably high level of food insecurity in poorer households.
This paper is intended both for managers and technical staff working either in food security and livelihoods or in HIV/AIDS and reproductive health who require an introduction to the linkages between the two areas, and as a guide to the many issues that need to be considered when carrying out assessments (or reviewing others’ assessments) and when planning interventions. The focus is specifically on economic impacts of AIDS, and does not address important emotional, psychological and social impacts.
The authors have two main policy messages from this study for food security and trade for low and middle income countries. First, as evidence shows that poverty and hunger materialise at household and individual levels, the special and differential treatment for developing countries in trade negotiations at the national and/or crop levels may not be sufficient to reach the households and individuals at risk. Secondly, they argue for a balance between protections that help small producers with protections for poor consumers. They propose increased investments in physical capital and human development, land tenure, water access, technology, infrastructure and general services (such as health and education), especially focusing on poor and female headed households. They call for state support to non-agricultural rural enterprises and also well-designed safety nets, including conditional cash transfers (CCT), school lunches, women and infant nutrition and food-for-work. They propose strengthening of organisations of small farmers and women and supporting their participation in policy and political processes. This is argued to demand financial, human and institutional capacity support.
The different explanations given for Africa’s current food crisis seem to miss the real causes of the problem, according to this article. The crisis is not of an economic nature. Rather, it is the endpoint of the dismantling of Africa’s agricultural sector and its linking to the international market and brutal liberalism. The article cautions that there are huge risks associated with linking African agriculture to global markets dominated by subsidised produce from the United States and the European Union. There is also the threat of genetically modified organisms and other industrial hybrids that could wipe out tradition systems. Radical measures are necessary to safeguard local production and producers, who make up close to 80% of the population in some countries. Based on an analysis of the political choices that have contributed to the current situation, notably the structural adjustment programmes of the 1980s, the article proposes solutions and decisions that need to be taken to achieve food sovereignty in Africa, such as re-nationalising agri-food industries that are strategic to agricultural development and setting in place agricultural policies that are based on food sovereignty and that make all issues related to food human rights issues.
The vast majority (70%) of the world’s population is fed and nourished by local, ecological systems of food production, according to this paper. But these systems are severely threatened and undermined by industrial systems of agriculture that are controlled by corporations and promoted by governments. These industrial systems have exacerbated or even created the multiple crises of rising food prices, poverty, climate change and biodiversity loss. The Food Sovereignty movement prioritises the protection of domestic and local agricultural production. This will require a fundamental shift in global trade rules, resulting in less international trade. Long-distance trade in foods should focus on those things which cannot be produced in every region, such as traditional ‘cash crops’ of coffee and tea. And if international trade in goods such as coffee, tea and bananas is to continue, and to still contribute to food sovereignty through the rediversification of local economies and environmental protection, it must follow the principle of ‘Fair Trade Miles’. This involves a mixture of ‘fair trade’ and the limiting of ‘miles’ between producer and consumer in order to minimise fossil fuel contributions to climate change. The creation of national and regional common markets is crucial, as well as a changing the aim of international trade to favour localism, rather than global competitiveness.