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Food security and international trade

food security and international tradeDecember 2015J. ClappThe State of AgriculturalCommodity Markets2015-16 Background paper Unpacking disputed narrativesFood security and international trade Unpacking disputed narratives Jennifer Clapp Background paper prepared for The State of Agricultural Commodity Markets 2015 16. food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Rome, 2015 ii The designations employed and the presentation of material in this information product do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) concerning the legal or development status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The mention of specific companies or products of manufacturers, whether or not these have been patented, does not imply that these have been endorsed or recommended by FAO in preference to others of a similar nature that are not mentioned.

Food security and international trade . Unpacking disputed narratives . Jennifer Clapp . Background paper prepared for . The State of Agricultural Commodity Markets 2015

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1 food security and international tradeDecember 2015J. ClappThe State of AgriculturalCommodity Markets2015-16 Background paper Unpacking disputed narrativesFood security and international trade Unpacking disputed narratives Jennifer Clapp Background paper prepared for The State of Agricultural Commodity Markets 2015 16. food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Rome, 2015 ii The designations employed and the presentation of material in this information product do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) concerning the legal or development status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The mention of specific companies or products of manufacturers, whether or not these have been patented, does not imply that these have been endorsed or recommended by FAO in preference to others of a similar nature that are not mentioned.

2 The views expressed in this information product are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of FAO. FAO, 2015 FAO encourages the use, reproduction and dissemination of material in this information product. Except where otherwise indicated, material may be copied, downloaded and printed for private study, research and teaching purposes, or for use in non-commercial products or services, provided that appropriate acknowledgement of FAO as the source and copyright holder is given and that FAO s endorsement of users views, products or services is not implied in any way. All requests for translation and adaptation rights, and for resale and other commercial use rights should be made via or addressed to FAO information products are available on the FAO website ( ) and can be purchased through iii Contents iv Executive summary .. v 1. Introduction ..1 2. Shifting understandings: food security and trade in historical context.

3 2 food security : from national to international to individual conceptualizations ..3 trade norms: food exceptionalism and trade liberalization ..7 3. trade as an opportunity for food security ..9 Comparative advantage ..9 trade as a transmission belt .. 11 Agricultural protection imposes costs that harm food security .. 12 Potential limitations and inconsistencies in the trade as opportunity narrative .. 12 Global value chains change the equation .. 13 Factors of production within agricultural sector are inflexible .. 14 Externalities matter .. 15 Dynamic considerations are left out of the picture .. 16 Efficiency gains overshadow other goals .. 16 4. trade as a threat to food security .. 17 Sovereignty and the right to prioritize food security over trade .. 18 Multifunctionality of agriculture .. 19 Liberalized food trade brings risks .. 20 Potential limitations and inconsistencies within the trade as threat narrative.

4 22 Greater food self-sufficiency may not be a feasible goal for all countries .. 22 Extra-territorial impacts of protection can harm the food security of others .. 23 Farmers right to choose .. 24 Challenges of ensuring small-scale production produces sufficient food for all .. 24 Distributional questions .. 25 5. Bridging the divide?.. 25 Polarizing tendencies .. 25 Is there a way to get past binary approaches to trade and food security ?.. 27 Focus on more open-ended 27 Develop joint language .. 28 Explore new indicators .. 29 Use global governance forums to strengthen areas of convergence .. 29 6. Conclusion .. 30 References .. 33 iv Acknowledgements This document was commissioned as a background paper for the preparation of the 2015 16 edition of FAO s flagship report The State of Agricultural Commodity Markets. It was prepared by Jennifer Clapp, Canada Research Chair in Global food security and Sustainability and Professor, Environment and Resource Studies Department, University of Waterloo, Canada.

5 Its preparation was guided by a terms of reference prepared by FAO. The paper benefited from comments by participants at a series of meetings held by FAO in the first half of 2015 to provide input into the drafting of the report. The author would especially like to thank Eleonora Canigiani, Jamie Morrison, Ekaterina Krivonos, Susan Bragdon, Ryan Isakson, and Matt Gaudreau for helpful comments on earlier drafts. Thanks are also due to Rachel McQuail for editorial support. v Executive summary Is trade a threat or an opportunity for food security ? Longstanding debates over this question remain unresolved. This is understandable when one considers that the agricultural sector serves a range of vital functions in society. It provides food , which is essential for human survival, and it provides a livelihood for approximately 30 percent of the world s active workforce. At the same time, agricultural exports are a significant source of revenue for some states, and imports are crucial for food security in other states.

6 Agriculture also has deep ecological connections as well as important cultural dimensions. For these various reasons, there has long been concern about the ways in which international trade might improve or hinder society s ability to balance different social and economic goals as they relate to agriculture and food security . This paper seeks to shed light on this debate by providing an overview of the main opposing narratives and the rationale behind them. It does not seek to advocate one viewpoint over the other. Instead, it seeks to examine the contours of the debate with a view to uncovering why it is so polarized, and how we might move beyond the current impasse in international policymaking. The first section of the paper briefly maps out the historical context of the different understandings of the links between food security and trade . It shows that norms and ideas around the concepts of both food security and trade in agriculture have shifted over time, both independently and in relation to each other.

7 The second and third sections of the paper explain the conceptual basis of two distinct narratives: one that sees trade as an opportunity to enhance food security ; and another that sees trade as a threat to food security . These sections examine the arguments put forward in support of these viewpoints and discuss some of the potential limitations and inconsistencies of each approach. Each of these narratives emerges from different scholarly traditions grounded in their own notions of science. The trade as opportunity narrative emerges largely from the discipline of neoclassical economics and relies on the ideas of gains from trade as predicted by trade theory, the practicality of trade in a diverse world, as well as the perceived costs of trade protection. The trade as threat narrative emerges from a range of social science disciplines as well as agroecological science and draws on ideas of the sovereignty of states and communities to determine their own food policy, the multifunctional nature of agriculture in society, and the perceived costs associated with trade liberalization.

8 Each of these approaches raises valid arguments, but each also has weaknesses and inconsistencies. The final section of the paper considers some of the factors that help to explain why this debate has been so polarized in policy settings, and suggests some possible avenues for advancing the policy dialogue. These include asking more open-ended questions, the development of joint language and indicators, and strengthening areas of convergence in institutions of global governance through more collaborative processes. The paper concludes that an assessment of the interplay between food security and international trade benefits from evaluation that draws on multiple disciplinary and methodological perspectives, and it is through such an exercise that common ground in the debate is most likely to be found. 1 As so often in economic debates between two alternatives, history provides the answer which economists abhor, both.

9 Charles Kindleberger, 1975 1. Introduction What is the appropriate role for trade in meeting food security objectives? This question has been debated for centuries. From the highly charged debates over Britain s Corn Laws in the 1800s, to more recent political wrangling over agriculture in the World trade Organization (WTO), the international trade in food and agricultural products has been a particularly sensitive topic. The frequently heated nature of this deliberation is understandable when one considers that the agricultural sector serves a range of vital functions in society. It provides food , which is essential for human survival, and it provides a livelihood for approximately 30 percent of the world s active workforce, with a much higher proportion engaged in the sector in many developing countries (World Bank, 2014a). At the same time, agricultural exports are a significant source of revenue for some states, and imports are crucial for food security in other states that do not have an agricultural base that can support their population.

10 Agriculture also has deep ecological connections as well as important cultural dimensions within countries. For these various reasons, there has long been concern about the ways in which international trade might improve or hinder society s ability to balance different social and economic goals as they relate to agriculture and food security . The relationship between food security and international trade is highly complex and policy directions are not always straightforward or unified across countries. There are many factors to consider. For example, trade barriers can restrict food availability in regions experiencing food deficits, leading to higher prices and reduced access to food . High levels of subsidy support to agriculture in some countries can put downward pressure on world prices and reduce incomes for other agricultural exporters. Lower food prices that result from subsidy support may benefit urban consumers in importing countries at the same time they may hurt farmers incomes in those same countries.


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