Food security in the Mediterranean countries
New Medit, vol 14, n.4, (December 2015), pp. 2-10
Language: EN
Jel classification: Q18
We have experienced a period of great agricultural capacity almost on a global scale, called “the Green Revolution”. This is a term used to refer to the remarkable increase in the world agricultural production between the early 1960s and the end of the 1980s. The technological progress experienced in the more developed economies and its transfer to other regions, especially Asia and Latin America, led, at that moment, to the doubling of yields for some cereal crops which are basic for the human diet, like rice, wheat and maize, besides the productivity of other plant species and livestock. This real production boom has been able to meet rising food demand in the past 30 years and has also ensured a certain stability to food prices. What has changed? How can we account for an alarming situation that today goes well beyond the ever-neglected issue of hunger in the world’s poor areas? What has compromised the reaching of internationally-agreed goals regarding the war against malnutrition? The international markets for agricultural commodities are the stage on which the new scarcity is shown in all its clarity. The roller-coaster ride of commodity prices fully expresses the tensions between demand and supply which are responsible for price rises. Since for many years these changes have not been perceived or have been at the very least underestimated, in this paper we try to address the impact on food security in Mediterranean Countries of this “new paradigm”, emphasizing the most critical aspect drawn from major indicators in the field.
food security, food consumption, food supply, food prices, Mediterranean countries
