Description
Book SynopsisMost scholars attribute systemic causes of food insecurity to poverty, human overpopulation, lack of farmland, and expansion of biofuel programs. However, as Chen argues here, another significant factor has been overlooked. The current food insecurity is not absolute food shortage, since global food production still exceeds the need of the entire world population, but a problem of how to secure access to resources. Distorted agricultural trade undermines world food distribution, and uneven distribution impedes people's access to food, particularly in poor developing countries. Examining EU and US agricultural policies and World Trade Organization negotiations in agriculture, the author argues how they affect the international agricultural trade, claiming that current food insecurity is the result of inequitable food distribution and trade practices. The international trade regime is advised to reconcile trade rules with the consideration of food security issues. Several other enforceab
Trade Review’This book discusses global food issues from a unique perspective. It builds a link between human rights and international trade. The solutions proposed in this book offer policymakers practical advice to reduce world hunger and malnutrition. This book is a must read for policymakers from India to Indiana!’ Scott Bates, Center for National Policy, USA 'Ying Chen’s book starts with a simple premise - the primacy of food for the survival of humans - and then provides an expansive and thorough coverage of the complexities of the global food system that reminds us that food policies and legal frameworks matter when it comes to food security.' Michael T. Roberts, Resnick Program for Food Law and Policy, UCLA School of Law, USA ’This exposé documents how hunger in poor nations is made worse by rich nations. Protectionist trade rules, and subsidies to agribusiness, put steak on affluent tables, but leave many of the world’s poor bereft of beans. To end hunger we need, not so much another green revolution, as a policy revolution.’ Douglass Cassel, University of Notre Dame, USA
Table of ContentsTrade, Food Security, and Human Rights
