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94 CHAPTER 5 Figure 5.1 Does the global food system need fixing?


Are farmers equipped to address resource degradation and climate change?


Are affluent diets a threat to staple food production?


Will biofuels keep food prices too high for too long?


Is the distribution of global food production sufficiently balanced?


Do international input


markets (for example, fertilizers) function efficiently?


Do trade policies ensure adequate access to food?


Food production


Markets and trade


Are grain reserves sufficiently high and well distributed?


Global food system


Are donors helping to improve trade and food production?


Source: Constructed by the authors.


Figure 5.1 breaks down the global food system into three components: food production, food markets and trade, and the foreign aid system as it relates to food policies. It is important to point out that these three compo- nents are intimately interlinked. At a global level food production and trade are primarily private-sector activities, but they are heavily influenced by national and international policies. Foreign aid is just one component of the broader policy environment, but it merits being treated as a separate com- ponent of the global food system, because food aid is a large component of food imports in many developing countries and donor efforts to improve food production in developing countries constitute an international flow of resources rather than a purely national policy.


Near each component of the global food system, Figure 5.1 lists the most significant questions facing the global food system. Figure 5.1 illustrates a long- term perspective rather than the narrower view of those problems that directly relate to the world food crisis. That said, both the 2008 and 1972–74 food crises have revealed weaknesses in the global food system, so the remaining discussion focuses more narrowly on these issues.


Predicting the Next Crisis


Whether either food crisis could easily have been predicted is debatable, given that it took most observers by surprise, even most experts (although


Foreign aid


Are donors providing food aid effectively?


Are donors improving information flows and early warning systems?


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