Guest editorial: Food (in)security and international law

• Date: 08 December 2023
• Pages: 89-94
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/JITLP-09-2023-064
• Published date: 08 December 2023
• Subject Matter: Strategy,International business,International business law,Economics,International economics,International trade
• Author: Leila Choukroune,James J. Nedumpara

Guest editorial: Food (in)security

and international law

After steadily decliningfor more than a decade, world hunger is now on the rise. The United

Nations (UN) Sustainable DevelopmentGoals (SDGs) number 2, which aims for a world free

of hunger by 2030, is unlikely to be met. According to recent estimates, 735 million people,

that is roughly 10% of the world’s population, suffer from hunger (Food and Agricultural

Organization, 2023). In 2022, 2.4 billion people faced severe food insecurity, an alarming

394 million people more than in 2019 [1]. Extreme hunger and malnutrition have multiple

causes; including climate change, politically motivated restrictions to food access, gender

discrimination, poorgovernment planning and support, corruption, transportation,complex

regulation, lack of regulatorycapacity, and State sanctions.

In the past few years, food production and access to food have been used as political

instruments. Before the world fully recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic, it was indeed

pushed into yet another crisis: the Russia–Ukraine war. The conf‌lict greatly impacted the

production and transportation of grains grown in the black sea region. In reaction, several

countries introduced public stockholding measures and, in certain cases, economic coercive

instruments such a s air and sea blockades. Ac cording to the Food and Agr iculture

Organization(FAO), prolonged disruptionof exports from Ukraineand Russia could increase

the number of undernourished people to the extent of 8 to 13 million in a year alone (Glauber

and Laborde Debucquet, 2023). At the timewe write these introductory remarks, conf‌licts in

other geographies further jeopardize food security. In Sudan, 20 million people are food

insecure while the World Food Programme (WFP) estimates that 5 million people are

displacedboth inside and outside thecountry [2][3].

Whilst political instability and conf‌licts gravely impact food production and supply,

climate change becomes yet another great concern. Food security is being increasingly

impacted by climate change–related episodes and disasters. Changes in weather patterns,

unseasonal rains and regularity of droughts are already creating major stress on

agricultural production and output. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate

Change (IPCC), these developments are projected to adversely impact the four key pillars of

food security: availability, accessibility, stability and utilisation [4]. The increasing

occurrences of extremeclimate events are disrupting global supply chains,especially in low-

income countries. In addition, the increase in food and energy prices produce signif‌icant

adverse effects bothfor developing and developed countries.

These destressing realities however hide a complex paradox: there is more than enough

food producedin the world to feed everyoneon the planet. But food, or enoughand nutritious

food, is not alwaysaccessible. Accordingto the FAO, “food security”existswhen “all people,

at all times, have physical,social and economic access to suff‌icient, safeand nutritious food

that meets theirdietary needs and food preferencesfor an active and healthy life”. TheFAO

also uses the Prevalence of Undernourishment to estimate hunger. Irrespective of the

methodologies or benchmarks, hunger’s indicators point out that there are complex and

challenging bottlenecks including, to name a few, government interventions, transportation

and distribution, inadequate storing and warehousing facilities, corruption and pilferage, in

ensuringaccess to food for the needy.

A large percentage of the global populationdepends on imported food. Nearly 1.3 billion

people rely entirely on imported food. This dependency is not caused by changes in eating

habits or the wish to increase food variety, buta simple mean to f‌ight against the threat of

Guest editorial

89

Journalof International Trade

Lawand Policy

Vol.22 No. 3, 2023

pp. 89-94

© Emerald Publishing Limited

1477-0024

DOI 10.1108/JITLP-09-2023-064