Food Security and Sustainability

Food security deals with issues of food quality, sustainable agricultural practices and accessibility to impoverished populations. In many developed countries, many large cities are surrounded by high quality farmland resources in temperate climates (e.g., in North America and Western Europe). A rapidly emerging reality is the differential impact of Climate Change and Variability (CCV) on farming in different areas and the need for appropriate agricultural adaptation to CCV and the need for appropriate agricultural adaptation to CCV. In many developed countries, appropriate adaptation can maintain food production levels even though crop composition may change. However, in many developing countries (e.g., in North and West Africa) existing climate conditions and CCV can reduce peri-urban areas’ ability to contribute to national and local food security. Two challenges are: (1) Short of reversing CCV, many developing countries will become more dependent upon food imports from developed countries and so we need to ask what does this imply for developed countries? (2) And this increases the need to conserve farmland resources in developed countries, a real challenge given the continuing urban development pressures. How can agricultural management and development planning in such areas integrate food security both locally and internationally and conserve their farmland resources? This is illustrated using a number of pertinent examples from different countries.