The global food challenge has resurfaced in 2022. In 2007-2008, a food crisis rocked part of the planet and its social repercussions subsequently helped catalyze uprisings in several Arab countries. These events, concurrent with the international financial turmoil 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 the strategic agendas of multilateralism, nor in those of public policies or media vigilance.
Since February 2022, the conflict in Ukraine has raised awareness of the urgency of agricultural challenges and the fragility of food security. The dynamics of instability generated by this war need to be put into perspective: the current turbulence cannot be separated from a combination of tensions that, gradually and over a longer period, complicate the overall equation of agricultural production and the quest for food.
The basics of food security
Human Security
No one can escape this food imperative, day by day and from generation to generation. This essential and universal dimension is based on the oldest of human sedentary activities: agriculture. This could seem outdated in a world turning towards services and the immaterial; yet the agricultural response remains the determinant of individual and collective food security. In order for everyone to consume food, women and men must produce it. In fact, it is so necessary that more than a billion people work in the agricultural, agri-food, fisheries or aquaculture sectors. On the rural lands or seas of the planet, this is, by far, the largest employer.
PLAN – The basics of food security – Human Security – Inequalities and violence – Strategies and power games – The 4Cs that increase pressure – When China asserts itself and becomes self-sufficient – Pandemic and relocations – When the climate is out of control – Ukraine flares up and the Black Sea closes – An agricultural compass for Europe
Sébastien Abis is the director of the DEMETER Club. A research associate at the Institute of International and Strategic Relations (IRIS), he teaches at the Catholic University of Lille and at the Junia School. He is also a scientific advisor to Futuribles International.
Diane Mordacq is a mission and research officer at the DEMETER Club.
