This book explores the potential for policy reform as a short-term, low-cost way to sustainably enhance global food security. It argues that reforming policies that distort food prices and trade will promote the openness needed to maximize global food availability and reduce fluctuations in international food prices. Beginning with an examination of historical trends in markets and policies, Anderson assesses the prospects for further reforms, and projects how they may develop over the next fifteen years. He pays particular attention to domestic policy changes made possible by the information technology revolution, which will complement global change to deal directly with farmer and consumer concerns.

Gain new insight on alleviating food insecurity in one of the poorest areas of the world! This book analyzes various facets of economic reforms in South Asia and their implications for attaining food security. It illuminates relevant issues regarding the constraints and challenges in achieving food security, focusing on South Asian countries where a large percentage of the world’s poor reside. This timely resource examines possible future courses of action involving trade and new technological advances to improve agriculture-led development in the region. Economic Reforms and Food Security: The Impact of Trade and Technology in South Asia focuses its attention on the economic reforms and experiences of six nations: Bangladesh Bhutan India Nepal Pakistan Sri Lanka Economic Reforms and Food Security: The Impact of Trade and Technology in South Asia includes the most relevant presentations made at the South Asia Regional Conference held in New Delhi in April of 2002. The book features experts who present lively, important debate on such significant issues as: current economic reforms—have they really enhanced food security? trade liberalization—can the WTO and new trade opportunities handle food security concerns? new technological options—how they contribute to agricultural production and food security the challenges of water—pricing, subsidies, and other issues in irrigation agricultural diversification and market reforms-how they increase food availability interventions in food and nutrition security—short-term solutions to reduce food insecurity and more! Economic Reforms and Food Security: The Impact of Trade and Technology in South Asia contains numerous tables and figures to demonstrate the current food situation in this area of the world and offers projections of where improvements can be made. Students and faculty of economics or South Asia will find this book extremely useful; it will also benefit development researchers, policymakers, and governmental officials who are searching for answers to poverty and starvation in developing countries. This text shows you how a concerted effort by governments, agencies, organizations, industries, and individuals—backed by adequate resources and changes in policies—can accelerate progress toward achieving sustainable food security for all.

The links between trade-related policy reforms and food security is of key concern to many developing countries. This publication sets out the findings of 15 country case studies from Cameroon, Chile, China, Ghana, Guatemala, Guyana, India, Kenya, Malawi, Morocco, Nigeria, Peru, Senegal, Tanzania and Uganda. The coverage includes countries at different stages of development with the main focus on low-income countries that are likely to be at greater risk of food insecurity. The studies examine the impact of trade-related policy reforms on agricultural prices, production and trade, and the consequences for food security issues for each country.

"Over the past decade, developing and formerly centrally planned economies have embarked on fundamental economic reforms. The reforms at the macroeconomic level - notably in fiscal, monetary and trade policies - have been at the heart of the policy and analytic debate. Yet, this book shows that while these macroeconomic reforms are a necessary condition for growth, they are not in themselves sufficient or sustainable: reforms in the productive sectors of the economy - agriculture, industry and services - are also required, and the sequencing of these reforms is a vital issue. This volume examines the relationship between macroeconomic and trade reforms and adjustments in food and agricultural policies. Comparative perspectives are provided, based on a wide range of developing and formerly centrally planned country studies." "The volume addresses a critical lacunae in the literature concerning economic adjustment and demonstrates the need for economy-wide perspectives. The neglect of critical linkages, and notably the macro-agro linkages, is shown to have undermined reforms in a wide range of countries. The daily challenge facing economists is evident from the stalled and increasingly vulnerable reform experience. To be effective, reforms must embrace the whole economy, and not least agriculture and the food-producing and food-processing sectors. This book shows how greater emphasis on the productive sectors, and the adoption of an economy-wide perspective to reform, will greatly enhance the prospects of food security and equitable and sustainable growth."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

What are the implications of the WTO's Agreement on Agriculture for food security in poor countries? Are economic reforms and high growth rates in some countries protecting the well-being of the poor by improving the status of nutrition? Are we measuring hunger adequately? Do we need new tools and indicators? Does women's socio-economic status matter for child-health? Are targeted programmes successful in identifying and helping the truly needy? Despite the scale of human suffering inflicted by malnutrition, the fight against world hunger has recently been overshadowed by the campaign to end poverty. The emergence of the WTO and the freeing of agricultural trade, for example, have serious implications for hunger and food security in many countries, yet this is an area that is relatively understudied. This book aims to fill this gap by providing a significant collection of essays from mainstream academia and prominent international organizations working for food security. Examining food security across regions, the book tackles food security at three distinct levels-national, household, and individual. Other topics included are: attempts to improve measurement tools; the applications of existing tools for empirical analysis using household data, and; the impact of trade openness on national food security.

The Economics of Sustainable Food details the true cost of food for people and the planet. It illustrates how to transform our broken system, alleviating its severe financial and human burden. The key is smart macroeconomic policy that moves us toward methods that protect the environment like regenerative land and sea farming, low-impact urban farming, and alternative protein farming, and toward healthy diets. The book's multidisciplinary team of authors lay out detailed fiscal and trade policies, as well as structural reforms, to achieve those goals. Chapters discuss strategies to make food production sustainable, nutritious, and fair, ranging from taxes and spending to education, labor market, health care, and pension reforms, alongside regulation in cases where market incentives are unlikely to work or to work fast enough. The authors carefully consider the different needs of more and less advanced economies, balancing economic development and sustainability goals. Case studies showcase successful strategies from around the world, such as taxing foods with a high carbon footprint, financing ecosystems mapping and conservation to meet scientific targets for healthy biomes permanency, subsidizing sustainable land and sea farming, reforming health systems to move away from sick care to preventive, nutrition-based care, and providing schools with matching funds to purchase local organic produce.--Amazon.

Despite technological advances in agriculture, nearly a billion people around the world still suffer from hunger and poor nutrition while a billion are overweight or obese. This imbalance highlights the need not only to focus on food production but also to implement successful food policies. In this new textbook intended to be used with the three volumes of Case Studies in Food Policy for Developing Countries (also from Cornell), the 2001 World Food Prize laureate Per Pinstrup-Andersen and his colleague Derrill D. Watson II analyze international food policies and discuss how such policies can and must address the many complex challenges that lie ahead in view of continued poverty, globalization, climate change, food price volatility, natural resource degradation, demographic and dietary transitions, and increasing interests in local and organic food production. Food Policy for Developing Countries offers a "social entrepreneurship" approach to food policy analysis. Calling on a wide variety of disciplines including economics, nutrition, sociology, anthropology, environmental science, medicine, and geography, the authors show how all elements in the food system function together.