The diplomacy of world food: goals, capabilities, issues and arenas

1978 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 775-809 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry R. Nau

Food is a factor in international diplomacy as a direct instrument of policy and as a condition underlying policy. Grain trade is particularly important. For most of the postwar period, principal grain exporting countries pursued policies designed to support domestic prices, using foreign agricultural policy to dispose of accumulated surpluses and to pursue broader non-food (political and economic) objectives. Grain importing countries came to rely on cheap food supplies in international markets, neglecting incentives to stimulate domestic production. Worldwide food shortages in 1973–74 made clear the need to consider international as well as domestic food requirements. Food considerations acquired a foreign policy dimension, while foreign policy considerations sparked a debate about the use of food for power. A return to surplus conditions in world food markets reduces the opportunities for the exercise of food power, while creating the conditions to meet historically unattainable food goals. To accomplish this, a system of international coordination and review of separate national food policies may be needed. Such a system would ensure greater accountability of private groups to governments and governments to one another without relying excessively on either automatic market forces or a centralized world food authority.

2010 ◽  
Vol 01 (02) ◽  
pp. 265-285 ◽  
Author(s):  
KYM ANDERSON ◽  
SIGNE NELGEN

Food prices in international markets spiked upward in 2008, doubling or more in a matter of months. Evidence is still being compiled on policy responses over the following two years, but new time series estimates of government intervention for the previous five decades allow insights into past policy responses to price fluctuations and spikes. This paper reviews the distortionary impacts of policies used by governments attempting to stabilize their domestic food markets. It then focuses on policy responses in the mid-1970s, as reflected in domestic prices and various annual indicators of distortions to producer and consumer incentives, before drawing out some policy lessons.


2017 ◽  
Vol 17(32) (1) ◽  
pp. 206-215
Author(s):  
Piotr Szajner

Economic activities are featured with certain cycles. The cycles can concern the whole economy as well as particular sectors. The dairy industry is one of the branches that are of high importance in Polish and the world as regards food sector. Polish dairy industry faced deep structural changes and modernisation. After the accession to the EU domestic market is strongly linked to both the EU and the world markets. The production in Poland exceeds consumption by ca 20%. The surplus is exported, which ties up the situation on the domestic market with the situation on international markets. Conducted analysis of the domestic and the world markets of milk skimmed powder showed parallel fluctuations. Domestic prices and the prices on the world markets are strongly correlated. The knowledge on the characteristics of those fluctuations allows stakeholders for a proper risk management as well as elaboration of suitable policy options by government administration.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olha Shulha ◽  

The state and contradictions of the development of the agricultural sector of the national economy are investigated. Challenges at the micro-, macro- and global levels for the agricultural sector in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic have been identified. It is noted that the main problems for the domestic agricultural sector in a pandemic were: reducing the purchasing power of the population, limiting the functioning of agri-food markets during quarantine, complicating the logistics of agricultural products. It is established that changes in the markets of countries that are major importers of agricultural products from Ukraine (China, India, the EU, Turkey, Egypt) in a pandemic will have the greatest impact on the development of Ukraine’s agricultural sector. It is concluded that among all sectors of the national economy, agriculture is the least affected by quarantine restrictions. It is shown that small and medium-sized farms suffer the greatest losses in a pandemic. The tasks facing agricultural enterprises and the state in the conditions of a pandemic are determined. The strategic directions of agricultural policy in Ukraine are indicated.


2018 ◽  
pp. 185-207
Author(s):  
Jeff Garmany ◽  
Anthony W. Pereira

Author(s):  
Robert Paarlberg

Is there a single world food system? There is not yet a single centrally governed world food system. Food is still produced and consumed mostly inside separate and separately governed nation-states. International food markets have grown, but international trade still supplies on average only 10...


Worldview ◽  
1977 ◽  
Vol 20 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 42-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Petersen Spiro

Human rights is at present a.much discussed issue in American foreign policy. What has not been discussed is the extent to which this represents a major change in American foreign policy. Consider: In 1974 the Secretary of State devoted exactly one sentence to human rights in his speech to the United Nations General Assembly. In 1975 there were four paragraphs of fairly standard rhetoric, apart from the proposal to establish a U.N. study to determine how widely torture was used as an officially sanctioned instrument of government. In addition there was an intimation of change in this sentence: "There is no longer any dispute that international human rights are on the agenda of international diplomacy." Yet there was then no evidence that Secretary Kissinger had changed the approach characterizing his tenure in office; nameiy, that American foreign policy cannot concern itself with the domestic policies of the governments with which it deals, even if they entail gross violations of human rights. We can, he insisted, only use private methods of persuasion and pressure. Foreign policy deals with the foreign policies of governments.


2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 591
Author(s):  
Aigul TLESOVA ◽  
Saule PRIMBETOVA ◽  
Aigul KAZAMBAYEVA ◽  
Saltanat YESSENGALIYEVA ◽  
Farida MUKHAMBETKALIYEVA

In the past few years, we have experienced a transition from the decades-long period of falling real prices of grains, and food more generally, to a new market environment in which commodity and food prices are higher, more volatile and more highly influenced by petroleum prices. The problems of reaction for price volatility, both in the short- and long-run, are complex and multifaceted. Looking back at the 2007/08 crisis, countries responded through a spectrum of policies, but were largely unprepared, resulting in ad hoc and short-term mechanisms. Countries maintaining food reserves used these to intervene directly in the market to stabilize domestic prices. Many food importing countries reduced import tariffs, while several surplus producing countries limited, or even banned, exports in order to avoid food shortages and further domestic price increases. For whatever actions governments consider taking, it is always important to keep in mind the full set of policy measures, the wider risks and possible responses for the targeted population. The following suggests that choosing appropriate policies requires a deeper understanding of the issues at stake. This paper analyses the various theoretical approaches to the planning of agricultural and food areas of Kazakhstan. The authors consider that the method of forecast scenarios is the most effective one.


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