The world trade organization and food security after the global food crises

Abstract

Following the 2008 and 2011 global food crises, the relationship between world food security and the international trade system has emerged as a significant issue in global policy. The global food crises, most closely associated with the end of low food prices and a massive increase in the number of hungry people worldwide to more than 1 billion, have put the relationship between food security and international trade, and its implications for global food policy, under much greater scrutiny. Although states and international actors have not called for a return to national self-sufficiency or an end to free trade in agriculture, the new global food policy consensus indicates a significant erosion of international confidence in the status quo of trade in foodstuffs. The primacy of international trade in agriculture as an element of food policy has become more deeply contested since the establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Behind the new consensus lies an ongoing contest about the relationship between food security and international trade and its impact on the future of global food policy. The debate on food security remains at the top of the international agenda. It is extensively debated in key forums such as the United Nations, the World Bank, the WTO, and the G8/G20. The consensus is reshaping the purpose and destination of official development assistance and private philanthropy for food security. The consensus is also rescaling the politics of food security advocacy across traditional international NGOs and the rising food sovereignty movement.