The Environmental Food Crisis

AVAILABILITY OF FOOD The availability of food within a specific country can be guar- anteed in two ways: Either by food production in the country it- self or by trade. The first option has been discussed extensively in the previous chapters. The second option has become more and more important (Figure 29), with increasing transport possibilities and storing capacities and the growing challenges faced by some countries in their domestic production, includ- ing because of limitations in available cropland. International trade in agricultural products has expanded more rapidly than global agricultural GDP (FAO, 2005).

The past several decades have witnessed a major increase in the integration of the world economy through trade. Many parts of the world have experienced high economic growth in recent years. For example, Asia’s GDP has increased by 9% annually between 2004 and 2006, and growth is especially high in China and India. Sub-Saharan Africa experienced 6% annual growth in the same period, after a long period of re- cession in many countries. Even countries with a prevalence of hunger reported some economic growth, although this is not always reflected in social conditions. However, global eco-

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Figure 29: World cereal trade in agriculture has increased steadi- ly in the past decades. OECD has always been the major net exporter and Asia has become a major net importer. (Source: FAOSTAT, 2009).

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