Global Food Security Counteracts Crises

By Leila Lemghalef Reprint | | Print |

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 26 2015 (IPS) - Global food security is an antidote to conflict, the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Director-General José Graziano da Silva said in a special meeting of the U.N. Peacebuilding Commission in New York.

He traced the FAO back, recalling that it was founded in 1945 to help alleviate the devastation of war “with the belief that with peace it would be possible to end hunger”.

Agriculture and food security are essential factors in peacebuilding and conflict resolution, he said in the speech entitled “Peacebuilding and Food Security”.

On top of remaining tied to post-conflict and recovery solutions, food security is a driving force in peace, political stability and sustainable development, he said.

“It is working to make sure that hunger is not the spark that ignites further conflict and that, if conflict happens, the food systems in place are more resilient and have a greater chance of enduring.”

In summary, “what we truly need to do is create conditions that can prevent a crisis from happening. This includes guaranteeing food and nutrition security”.

He drew attention to the fact that spikes in food pricing gave way to civil unrest in more than 40 countries at the time of the 2008 crisis.

Furthermore, conflicts and emergencies such as natural disasters can escalate into crises, unless vitiated by existing resiliency frameworks.

“In post-conflict situations, persistent high food insecurity is a factor that can contribute to a fall back into conflict,” said Graziano da Silva.

In this context, food security is relied on as a mitigation tool.

“In the history of humanity, time and time again we have seen vicious circles linking violence and hunger. And these are conflicts that are not restricted by national borders.”

He underlined that hunger, which is estimated to have killed more than 250,000 people in Somalia alone between 2010 and 2012 due to drought-induced famine, “is a global issue that requires global action and responses”.

The dialogue has come ahead of the Sustainable Development Goals, which will be formulated in 2015.