Food to Mouth

Ensuring food security in an age of plenty 

By Barry Desker, Published The Straits Times, 8 Sep 2012

THIS weekend's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit in Vladivostok will see leaders from 21 nations around the Pacific Rim discuss ways to free up trade and investment flows.

Also high on the agenda is food security, flagged by host Russian President Vladimir Putin in a commentary in the Wall Street Journal as a key priority issue.

As a country dependent on food imports, Singapore too needs to pay great attention to the issue of food security. We have to ensure an uninterrupted supply of food from overseas and its availability at affordable prices all year round, whatever the climatic and political conditions affecting the producing countries.

When I served as the CEO of the Singapore Trade Development Board from 1994 to 2000, one of our responsibilities was oversight of the rice stockpile for Singapore. The Government had established a rice stockpile soon after independence because of the fear of shortages of supply during a crisis. Stockpiling succeeded because rice traders were required to keep two months' stock in the stockpile managed by Intraco, based on their average monthly imports.

For Singaporeans, stockpiling rice increased costs, an average of $14 per family annually. But it reduced price volatility when there were major crop failures and it ensured access to the staple food of the man in the street when panic buying occurred globally.

One side benefit was that when Indonesia had a massive crop failure leading to a risk of famine and popular discontent in 1972 and Singapore was approached by President Suharto for the urgent supply of 10,000 tonnes of rice, with a promise to repay in kind within six months, the rice could be delivered within a week.

As international rice prices went through the roof in the following months, Singapore policymakers concluded that the loan was unlikely to be repaid. However the rice was returned on time, with a higher quality to boot. At a time when there had been no direct interactions with President Suharto, as the first exchange of visits at head of government level occurred only in May 1973, it left the impression that Suharto was a man whose word could be trusted.

New challenges

WHILE Singapore has ensured a stable and secure supply of rice, it faces new challenges because of the global environment, both in availability of food sources and stability of food prices. The current drought in the United States has revived fears of food shortages and rising food prices worldwide, especially of soya bean, wheat and corn.

From the Green Revolution of the 1960s with its promise of food abundance, we have moved to an era where there are fears that supply shortfalls will occur, especially as more wealthy Chinese, Indians, Brazilians and citizens of other emerging countries increase their intake of calories and move to meat-based diets. These fears have resulted in a sharp increase in grain prices. The food crisis of 2007-2008 saw world food prices soar to their highest levels since the 1970s.

Aside from fears of supply shortfalls, that crisis arose from a combination of crop failures, export restrictions, the increasing diversion of supplies of corn, sugar cane and palm oil for bio-fuel production, financial speculation and panic buying.

Rising powers like China and food-importing countries like Saudi Arabia attempted to secure assured supplies through purchases or leases of large parcels of agricultural land in impoverished states like Mozambique, Sudan, Cambodia and Myanmar. This highlighted the challenges faced in expanding food production and the risks of displacement of subsistence farmers.

Although the G-20 has said it wants to focus on food security, there has been little movement in promoting more open markets. Agriculture remains a highly contentious issue in international negotiations. Despite promises to liberalise agricultural trade at the end of the Uruguay Round, protectionism, subsidies and import controls continue to dominate policy thinking in Europe, Japan and South Korea as well as many developing countries.

Need for holistic view

THE trend in global discussions on food security has increasingly focused on productivity (which relates to the availability of food supply) rather than price volatility (which is related to access to food).

However, these are really two strands of an inter-connected problem. The G-20 as well as governments in Asia need to take a holistic view of food security which addresses the issue of access as well as availability of food.

Contemporary food-related challenges are particularly relevant for Asia. Problems of undernourishment and poverty continue to plague food sectors in pockets throughout Asia, even as much of the region continues to enjoy steady economic growth. These challenges exist in the context of an Asian population that is growing by approximately 50 million persons per year.

At the same time, urbanisation and economic development are boosting food requirements at an unprecedented rate. There is a need to combat food waste and inefficiencies in the supply chain, increase food production, and pursue policies that can ensure that food is both available and affordable throughout Asia.

Nearer home, South-east Asia presents a picture of contrasts when it comes to food security. The region is home to the world's largest rice exporters, as well as the largest importer and consumer of rice per capita globally. South-east Asia continues to enjoy the benefits of vibrant regional economic growth and poverty reduction, yet over 15 per cent of the Asia-Pacific's undernourished can be found in the region. South-east Asia is endowed with natural resources that are valuable for agriculture. However, there are structural economic factors undermining food security.

Environmental stresses

ENVIRONMENTAL stresses continue to threaten many eco-systems and, by extension, future food production. Increased constraints on natural resources in Asia, such as land degradation and water scarcity, put severe pressure on agricultural sustainability and threaten food security in the region. These economic challenges are set to become more pronounced as food demands continue to rise, and new threats emerge as a result of climate change.

Moreover, the growing demand for bio-fuels has stimulated the expansion of palm oil acreage, especially in Indonesia, resulting in the destruction of primary forests and conversion of land devoted to food crops. One side-effect is the annual haze affecting Malaysia and Singapore, which results from the practice of burning forests as a cheap form of land clearing for oil palm plantations in Indonesia.

With industrialisation, the manufacturing and services sectors have been growing rapidly. These shifts have seen agriculture's contribution to economies shrink significantly in relation to other sectors during recent decades, while the demand for more and higher-quality food has continued to rise.

As South-east Asian cities have developed in areas with fertile soil and high levels of rice production such as Jakarta and Surabaya in Indonesia, Bangkok in Thailand, Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi in Vietnam, and Yangon in Myanmar, urban sprawl and industrialisation will result in the loss of some of the most fertile rice-growing areas.

With such formidable challenges faced by the region in feeding its people, it becomes evident that preventing and minimising food wastage is essential, not only for food access and availability, but also for environmental protection and economic resilience. Food wastage occurs because of poor storage and inefficient distribution systems. The estimated 30 to 50 per cent of global food that is wasted has significant implications for energy, land, water and human resources.

Food wastage also impacts food availability on many levels, potentially impacting prices and availability internationally, and affecting small-scale farmers who depend on the food that they produce for both livelihood and sustenance. Addressing this issue is therefore an important part of enhancing both human and environmental security throughout South-east Asia and the Asia- Pacific region.

Doing our bit

WHILE many of the challenges to food supply access and availability are beyond Singapore's remit, we have contributed our bit to ensuring food security for people in Singapore and our Asean neighbours, such as through the Asean Food Stockpile. We have shared our expertise in maintaining the rice stockpile, encouraged research in food science, facilitated the marketing of rice and other staple foods through the development of agri-business, encouraged the intensive urban farming of vegetables and fisheries and the cold storage and efficient distribution of food products. For Singapore, food security should be seen as part of our efforts to create a sustainable environment.

As Singapore's domestic political environment becomes more competitive and Singaporeans become more vocal on issues directly affecting them, we can expect that the availability and affordability of food will be a perennial issue of domestic concern.

The writer is dean of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University.