The global food challenge resurfaces in 2022. In 2007-2008, a food crisis shook a part of the planet and its social repercussions subsequently helped catalyze the revolts in several Arab countries. These events, coinciding with the international financial upheaval of the time, served as a wake-up call to the still essential role of agriculture in the 21st century. This reclassification in priorities has not always persisted, neither in multilateral strategic agendas, nor in public policies or media vigilance.
Since February 2022, the conflict in Ukraine is raising awareness about the acuteness of agricultural challenges and the fragility of food security. The dynamics of instability triggered by this war must be put into perspective: the current turbulence cannot be separated from a combination of tensions that, gradually and over a longer time, complicate the overall equation of agricultural production and the quest for food.
Fundamentals of food security
Human security
No one can escape this food imperative, from day to day and from generation to generation. This unavoidable and universal dimension is based on the oldest of human sedentary activities: agriculture. It may seem obsolete in a world turning towards services and the immaterial; yet the agricultural response remains the determining factor for individual and collective food security. For everyone to consume food, there has to be individuals producing it. In fact, over a billion people work in the agricultural, agri-food, fishing, or aquaculture sectors. Therefore, on the rural lands or seas of the planet, it is by far the largest employer.
PLAN
Fundamentals of food security – Human security – Inequalities and violence – Strategies and power games
The 4C’s that intensify pressure – When China asserts and becomes autonomous – Pandemic and relocations – When the climate gets out of control – Ukraine flares up and the Black Sea closes
An agricultural compass for Europe
Sébastien Abis is the director of Club DEMETER. As a research associate at the Institute of International and Strategic Relations (IRIS), he teaches at the Catholic University of Lille and at Ecole Junia. He is also a scientific advisor at Futuribles International.
Diane Mordacq is a mission and research officer at Club DEMETER.
