The recent escalation of world food prices – particularly for cereals - prompted mass public indignation and demonstrations in many countries, from the price of tortilla flour in Mexico to that of rice in the Philippines and pasta in Italy. The crisis has important implications for future government trade and food security policies, as countries re-evaluate their reliance on potentially more volatile world markets to augment domestic supplies of staple foods. This book examines how government policies caused and responded to soaring world prices in the particular case of rice, which is the world's most important source of calories for the poor. Comparable case studies of policy reactions in different countries, principally across Asia, but also including the USA, provide the understanding necessary to evaluate the impact of trade policy on the food security of poor farmers and consumers. They also provide important insights into the concerns of developing countries that are relevant for future international trade negotiations in key agricultural commodities. As a result, more appropriate policies can be put in place to ensure more stable food supplies in the future. Published with the Food and Agriculture (FAO) Organization of the United Nations

'This volume is a welcome and timely contribution to a topic of enduring importance. The global consequences of recent food price crises underscore the need to examine food security issues from diverse perspectives. This volume meets that need, featuring accessible yet cutting-edge analyses of food security by leading experts in fields as diverse as trade, nutrition, public health, production, political economy, and behavioral economics. It will be of interest to a wide range of scholars and practitioners.' --Steven Block, Tufts University, US. 'This excellent volume offers a compact but wide-ranging survey of recent research on important changes in global food markets. Its 20 chapters accurately capture important areas of scholarly agreement as well as on-going debates among economists studying agriculture and nutrition, with several provocative original contributions from other fields. The book draws particularly on the authors' long experience in Asia, offering widely-applicable insights for scholars and policy analysts seeking to understand the past, present and future of food around the world.' --William A. Masters, Tufts University, US. The global population is forecasted to reach 9.4 billion by 2050, with much of this increase concentrated in developing regions and cities. Ensuring adequate food and nourishment to this large population is a pressing economic, moral and even security challenge and requires research (and action) from a multi-disciplinary perspective. This book provides the first such integrated approach to tackling this problem by addressing the multiplicity of challenges posed by rising global population, diet diversification and urbanization in developing countries and climate change. It examines key topics such as: the impact of prosperity on food demand, the role of international trade in addressing food insecurity, the challenge posed by greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture and land degradation, the implication on labor markets of severe under-nutrition, viability of small scale farms, strategies to augment food availability. The Handbook on Food would be a welcome supplementary text for courses on development economics, particularly those concentrating on agricultural development, climate change and food availability, as well as nutrition.

East, South and Southeast Asia are home to two-thirds of the world’s hungry people, but they produce more than three-quarters of the world’s fish and nearly half of other foods. Through integration into the world food system, these Asian fisheries export their most nutritious foods and import less healthy substitutes. Worldwide, their exports sell cheap because women, the hungriest Asians, provide unpaid subsidies to production processes. In the 21st century, Asian peasants produce more than 60 percent of the regional food supply, but their survival is threatened by hunger, public depeasantization policies, climate change, land grabbing, urbanization and debt bondage. *Where Shrimp Eat Better than People: Globalized Fisheries, Nutritional Unequal Exchange and Asian Hunger is now available in paperback for individual customers.

Food security is one of the greatest challenges of our time. The food price crisis of 2008 exposed the vulnerabilities of the global food system. Governments across Asia acerbated the crisis by imposing export restrictions based on a policy of self-sufficiency. This book assesses whether self-sufficiency is an adequate response to the food security challenges we face. Pricing volatility drives isolationism at a time when climate change and increasingly uncertain weather patterns make it difficult for any single nation to guarantee adequate food production for itself. Through a collection of commissioned studies which draw upon the experience of leading experts and scholars in trade, investment, law, economics, and food policy, this book analyses the impact of this trend on the most essential crop in the Asian region - rice. It suggests that food security policy should be reconceptualised: from the national to the regional and even the global level. It also provides its own proposals as to how this new paradigm of collective food security should be understood and developed. The book calls for a new conversation in the region, acknowledging that the challenges we face are global and the solutions must be found in collective action. This state-of-the-art study will appeal to lawyers, economists and political scientists, as well as food security specialists by providing expert analyses and enlightening solutions for the future.

“This timely volume chronicles and analyses the intersection of rice policies and the pandemic through case studies of a diverse range of Southeast Asian countries: rice exporters, rice importers and city-states. There is no group of eminent researchers better suited to carrying out this work, and they conduct the analysis by illuminating the historical context that is essential to an understanding of rice policies in the region. This volume is a must-read for anyone interested in rice policies and politics in contemporary Southeast Asia.”--David Dawe, Former Senior Economist with the International Rice Research Institute and the Food and Agricultural Organization. “This is highly recommended reading for those interested in an up-to-date and in-depth treatment of the political economy of rice policies in five major ASEAN countries, one chapter per country. While the book title indicates a topical focus on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Southeast Asia’s rice sector, these chapters are much more than this, giving considerable historical context leading up to the outbreak of the pandemic and looking forward after the pandemic.”--Howarth Bouis, Laureate, World Food Prize; Emeritus Fellow, International Food Policy Research Institute

For half a century, ten dynamic nations in Southeast Asia have been implementing a shared vision of economic growth, sustainable development, and cultural progress. Today, the economies of those nations are linked inextricably with the future of greater Asia as well as with the United States and the other Western countries. With authoritarianism and protectionism on the rise around the world and the catastrophic effects of global warming making action urgent, the nations that form the Association of Southeast Asia Nations are more relevant and under greater political and social stress than ever. In these illuminating pages, David Carden, the first American resident ambassador to ASEAN, paints a vivid portrait of the regional and global cooperation required to meet today, and interconnected future. Carden takes us behind the scenes as the leaders of these ten nations work to prepare their countries and their region for the 21st century. Carden persuasively argues that the unfolding story of the ASEAN nations is a story for the entire worldthat we are all increasingly interdependent and confronted with the existential need to solve the same set of challenges.

An in-depth investigation of the complex relationships among food, culture, and society, Communicating Food in Korea features contributors from a variety of disciplines, including economics, political science, communication studies, nutrition research, tourism research, and more. Each chapter presents a unique interpretation of food’s economic, political, and sociocultural relevance. Situated in Korea’s shifting historical contexts, contributors explore themes, such as colonialism, food symbolism, gastronationalism, multiculturalism, food tourism, food security, and food sovereignty to research the ways food intersects with social issues in Korean society.