Laurier Press - The Global Food Crisis

The global food crisis is a stark reminder of the fragility of the global food system. The Global Food Crisis: Governance Challenges and Opportunities captures the debate about how to go forward and examines the implications of the crisis for food security in the world’s poorest countries, both for the global environment and for the global rules and institutions that govern food and agriculture.

In this volume, policy-makers and scholars assess the causes and consequences of the most recent food price volatility and examine the associated governance challenges and opportunities, including short-term emergency responses, the ecological dimensions of the crisis, and the longer-term goal of building sustainable global food systems. The recommendations include vastly increasing public investment in small-farm agriculture; reforming global food aid and food research institutions; establishing fairer international agricultural trade rules; promoting sustainable agricultural methods; placing agriculture higher on the post-Kyoto climate change agenda; revamping biofuel policies; and enhancing international agricultural policy-making.

Co-published with the Centre for International Governance Innovation

About Jennifer Clapp, and Marc J. Cohen

Jennifer Clapp is CIGI Research Chair in International Governance and a professor in the Balsillie School of International Affairs, Waterloo. Among her recent books are Paths to a Green World: The Political Economy of the Global Environment (MIT Press) and Corporate Power in Global Agrifood Governance (MIT Press). She is co-editor of the journal Global Environmental Politics.

Marc Cohen is Humanitarian Researcher at Oxfam America. His research focuses on the links between humanitarian emergencies and climate change, protection of civilians in situations of armed conflict, and humanitarian assistance reform. He is also an adjunct faculty member in the international development program at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University.

Reviews

“The Global Food Crisis amasses a nice set of thoughtful papers by respected authorities. Collectively, they offer useful insights on the genesis and implications of the global food crisis that began in late 2006 and exploded on the world stage in 2008. This book especially highlights underlying governance questions that are fundamental but far too often overlooked.”

— Christopher B. Barrett, Director, African Food Security and Natural Resources Management Program, Cornell University

“This fine collection of essays puts the food crisis into the ecological, social, political, global and institutional context that the debate so urgently needs.”

— Raj Patel, author of Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System