Food Security in an Increasingly Urban World: The Case of Bolivia

Maria-Teresa Nogales is the Founder and Executive Director of Fundación Alternativas, a non-profit organization dedicated to generating sustainable approaches to greater food security in Bolivia. Nogales has a Bachelor of Science and Masters of International Relations from Baylor University.

A Spanish translation of this article can be found here.

According to population estimates, we need to increase worldwide production of food by 60 percent in order to meet the basic food diet of all people on the planet in 2050. Your organization is dedicated specifically to urban food security. Why do you specifically stress the need for urban agriculture?

The developing world has witnessed an important and significant rural to urban migration. Bolivia is a great example of this demographic transition. Today, approximately 70 percent of the country’s inhabitants are concentrated in urban areas as opposed to the inverse 50 years ago, where only approximately 30 percent of the population inhabited urban areas. This is a huge shift with serious and important economic, policy, and planning implications.

Bolivia today is classified as the most food insecure country in Latin America, with approximately one in four inhabitants categorized as hungry. If 70 percent of the population lives in cities, then certainly food insecurity is no longer an issue that is only linked to rural poverty and underdevelopment, but rather it is an issue that is also moving into cities and is linked to urban poverty. For this reason, Alternativas has decided to focus on urban food security and work towards bringing this growing issue to the forefront in the largest urban centers of the country. We believe it is important for policy makers to begin addressing this challenge and, in response, adopt the policies and actions needed to guarantee people’s right to food.

What are the major challenges to accomplishing this need to increase food production?

There are several factors that challenge the ability to increase worldwide food production including climate change, water availability, a reduction in land apt for traditional agriculture, increased soil erosion, and a growing urban population, among others.

Climate change is and will continue to impact agricultural production by reducing water availability while also leading to greater variability in climate patterns. For example, rainfall is predicted to rise in the tropics and decrease in other regions, making these hotter and drier. This may mean that what once used to grow in a certain place may not fairly soon. Unless we take steps now and in the near future to identify transition crops or varieties that are resistant to harsh climates, there may be a huge impact on productivity and food security.

As this preparation takes place however, one must also keep in mind that efforts may be trumped because soil available for agriculture is not what it used to be, and already 40 percent is classified as degraded or seriously degraded. According to some sources, the current levels of soil erosion already mean the world will produce approximately 30 percent less food over the next 20 to 50 years, which is worrisome considering that we are aiming to find ways to double our current production by 2050.

Finally, it is important to highlight that the developing world, where most food is produced, has witnessed significant migrations from rural to urban areas in recent years. This certainly means that there has been a reduction in the agricultural work force as well as a brain drain regarding agricultural “know-how.” Whereas mechanized agriculture has come a long way and contributes to food production around the world, small-scale agriculture is still responsible for somewhere between 50 and 70 percent of the world’s food according to sources like the United Nations Environmental Program.

A new concept in the field of food policy is food sovereignty. Can you explain this concept and why it is so heavily emphasized in developing nations?

The concept of food sovereignty as opposed to food security entails that people have a say in how their food is produced as well as have the right to grow it in a sustainable fashion. Food sovereignty basically puts food producers and consumers in an active role rather than a passive one in which they are merely recipients of what is offered and controlled by others in the food chain. The term food sovereignty arose in the 90s through La Via Campesina (the International Peasant’s Movement), an international organization that defends small-scale sustainable agriculture as a way to promote social justice and dignity.

This concept of food sovereignty is heavily emphasized in developing nations, as well as by certain groups in advanced economies and developed nations, because it advocates for and takes into account the rights that all people have in regards to determining how food is produced and where it comes from. For developing nations, this is particularly important because many often fall prey to external influences– political, economic, cultural, etc. – particularly when internal governance is weak.

Take Africa for example. The continent is currently being parceled out to food companies and outside governments that are in search of land and water for agricultural investments so as to feed their own populations and consumer networks. These land grabs and deals are made, in most cases, unbeknownst to local citizens and will certainly have an effect in the medium and long run on the continent’s ability to feed itself. India provides another great example. The country has the highest farmer suicide rate, predominantly associated to a loss of ownership over seeds, land, and agricultural production. This phenomenon is not limited to India and is happening in many other countries around the world.

Does food security have a place in national security policy? What role does food security have to play in the readiness and resiliency of a nation?

Let me start out by saying that in the years 2007 and 2008, the world witnessed a record high in food prices. During this same period, food protests and riots broke out in almost 50 countries around the world. It is events like these, perhaps, that remind us and underscore the popular saying: “A hungry people are an angry people.”

Certainly food security has a place in national security policy and plays a role in fostering peace and stability versus conflict and instability. Fluctuations or radical changes affecting food security can generate tension and conflict within a country. They can also influence regional stability as people flee hunger in one country and into another or, for example, seek much needed water for agricultural production along transnational borders or disputed territories.

Recently, Bolivia and its farmers have gotten significant news attention because of the escalating prices of quinoa on the global market. Has this international demand affected Bolivian food security and the market for native foods? Have you seen a change in diets as a result that is affecting health?

I was reading an interview with a Bolivian farmer the other day in which he is asked whether some of the quinoa he grows is consumed at home. To my surprise (and likely to other readers’ as well), he responds, “Why would I eat gold?”

As global demand for quinoa has increased, so has the price of this nutritious Andean food. In what has transpired of 2013, the price of quinoa has increased by 32 percent, and the best harvests are reserved for export rather than local consumption. In a poor country where close to one in four persons is hungry, removing a staple item that offers an abundant nutritional contribution to one’s diet has serious and profound repercussions on food security. In addition, as global demand for more quinoa continues to rise, many Bolivians are concerned with ensuring that the means to guarantee greater production is done in a sustainable fashion that does not erode or contaminate the scarce arable land and fresh water sources that Bolivia possesses.

Feature Photo: cc/(FAOALC)