From Food Production to Food Security - Global Environmental ...

Agronomic research in relation to food security policyFood security is the state when ‘all people, at all times, have physical and economic access tosufficient, safe, and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences foran active and healthy life’ (FAO, 1996a). So, while production is clearly a critical elementcontributing to food security, other factors dealing with access to food and food utilisation arealso important (Ericksen, 2008a); too often discussions on food security policy appear to bebased on a relatively narrow agronomic perspective because the links between climate changeand the broader issues related to food security have, to date, been relatively unexplored(Gregory et al., 2005). There is therefore a fourth important role for agronomy, namely tocouple research on impacts and adaptation more effectively to food security policy,particularly given the increasing prominence of the agriculture/biofuels debate. To overcomethe limitation of current agronomic research outputs in this arena there are several scientificchallenges where further agronomic effort is necessary. As food security is underpinned by aneffective food system, setting food production research within the context of food systemsprovides a promising way forward. ‘Food systems’ are a set of dynamic interactions betweenand within the biogeophysical and human environments. They include a number ofactivities (producing food; processing, packaging and distributing food; and retailing andconsuming food) which lead to a number of associated outcomes some which contribute to foodsecurity (i.e. food availability, access to food and food utilisation), and others which relate toenvironmental and other social welfare concerns (Ericksen, 2008a). While agronomicresearch clearly has a leading role in activities relating to producing food, there is also a needto consider agronomic input to other aspects of the food system. Examples include foodquality (in relation to, e.g. storage and processing characteristics), timing of production(in relation to, e.g. market opportunities) and diversity (in relation to, e.g. nutritionalbalance). As food security is diminished when food systems are disrupted or stressed, foodsecurity policy needs to address the whole food system. To this end, agronomic researchneeds to be better linked to wide-ranging interdisciplinary studies (e.g. vulnerability of foodsystems; Figure 4, right hand column) and across sectors of the food industry. This willfacilitate the building of integrated socioeconomic-biophysical models that will enableanalysis of adaptation options to food systems, thereby underpinning policy formulationfor improved food security.This raises another major challenge, namely understanding how best to address theinformation needs of policy makers and report and communicate agronomic research results ina manner that will assist the development of food systems adapted to climate change. To beof use in supporting policy formulation, research on the development and assessment ofpossible strategies to adapt food systems to the impacts of climate change should be elaboratedin the context of the policy process. As the food security–climate change debate encompassesmany complex and interactive issues, a structured dialogue is needed to assist thecollaboration among scientists and policymakers.32