The information

This August saw the launch of Britain’s first food security assessment by Defra, and included the cheering news that, with domestic production and European imports together accounting for over three-quarters of consumption, British food supply is “very resilient to supply interruptions” (as caused by anything from price hikes to domestic terrorism). There are, however, a few goods whose supply remains rather more tenuous. They are identified by three key criteria: their domestic production is impossible, a “substantial” consumer demand exists for them (over £100m per year), and at least 75 per cent of our total consumption of them comes from outside the EU. Defra has ranked seven “vulnerable” commodities (left) in order of the percentage of each arriving in Britain through a single port. For three of these—soya, cane sugar and tea—the majority of imports arrive through a single port, making them especially at risk compared to other consumables. Time for a national soya bunker?

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How the global food crisis helped the rural poor

Cassava: Nigeria's staple crop

At the summit meeting that opens in Italy on Wednesday the leaders of the G8 are expected to announce a “food security initiative”—an effort to reverse “the tendency of decreasing official development aid to agriculture” and increase investment in third world food production instead. According to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, Washington spends 20 times more on food aid in Africa than on long-term agricultural programmes to develop local food production. A similar bias exists in the policies of the EU which believes that in food aid it has a good way of dumping its surpluses.

Nothing may come of the new promises, as nothing came of the big hoo-ha at the G8 summit four years ago when a massive increase in aid, especially to Africa, was agreed. But if these promises were to be honoured, this will be just what the poorer countries need. Read more »

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