Routledge Global Food Security: What Matters? (Routledge Textbooks in Environmental and Agricultural Economics)

This book looks at food security from a socio-economic perspective. It offers a detailed and systematic examination of food security from its historical backgrounds, concepts and measurements, to the determinants and approaches to achieve food security. The book also introduces the key challenges and root causes of food insecurity. Through country-specific cases, the book highlights instances of both successful and disastrous national food security management and their outcomes. The invaluable learning experiences of these countries shed light on food security practices, and the straightforward demand-supply framework effectively guides readers in understanding food security issues. This is an essential resource for anyone who is keen to learn more about food security, particularly researchers and university students who are new to the field. The book endeavours to help us reflect on the current phenomenon and strategize better for the future. Review “Global Food Security: What Matters? is a timely textbook on a topic that remains of utmost importance. University students and scholars gain tools and knowledge toward an understanding of how food security and food systems are related, with essential country case studies that are truly global in scope.” ― Dr Shenggen Fan, Director General, IFPRI (International Food Policy Research Institute), Washington, USA “Zhang-Yue Zhou’s Global Food Security: What Matters? is an amazingly complete and comprehensive reference text book on the subject of food security in the world today. It covers every aspect and dimension of the subject from history, concepts, and experience to challenges, policy, and institutions in an easy-to-understand way. What makes the book outstanding is also the clear conceptual presentation of policy choices and their consequences and impacts, with numerous real-country examples from across the world. I very strongly recommend this book as a complete international text and reference book on food security, as well as the related food policies and economics.”  ― Vasant P. Gandhi, PhD (Stanford), NABARD Chair Professor, Centre for Management in Agriculture, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, India “The issue of secure food supply across the world is often presented and explained in parts. The author has done an immense service by tackling the issue of global food security in a whole system, multi-disciplinary way, taking careful note of all the dimensions and influences involved in determining the access to daily food, or lack of it, of people all around the world. Solutions to parts are not solutions to wholes: this multi-dimensional problem of food security can only be understood, explained, and solved using the comprehensive perspective presented in this extremely useful work.Global Food Security: What Matters? is a masterly primer with a whole-of-system, global perspective. A comprehensive work providing readers with a useful and useable understanding of the detail and principles – all that matters – about the scientific, economic, and institutional factors that determine the current state and future of world food supply and demand.This succinct, well-written book leads readers through the meaning, detail, determinants, and solutions to problems of the current state of global food security. Readers are introduced, almost by stealth, to understanding the key economic principles at play. The importance of institutions and politics to causing problems of food security, and solving them, is prominent, while detailed carefully chosen case studies make the book an invaluable pedagogical source.” ― Dr Bill Malcolm, Associate Professor, Department of Agriculture and Food Systems, University of Melbourne, Australia “Food security is a hot topic at public policy debates in many countries due to its importance in national security, agricultural and rural development, general welfare of the population, poverty alleviation, and more. As s