Global Food Security and Supply

The aim of this book is to quickly deliver the facts required for food policy leaders, commercial managers in the food industry and students, to help them to better understand the need for secure food supply, and to appreciate how this might be achieved. The book will show how specific tools can be used to understand how food supply works. The overall message of the book is that we underestimate the importance of a simple truth - namely, that everything we use is either mined or farmed. However, we are now in a position, through methods including LCA (life cycle assessment), carbon footprinting and other eco-system service-based tools, to accurately measure and assess our use (or misuse) of natural resources, including food.

Chapter 1 defines food security and outlines the current situation regarding food security and details the factors driving the food security agenda, chiefly the rising global population. It also covers the history of food supply, showing the transition from local to global. Chapter 2 describes the global food supply chain system, and Chapter 3 outlines the scientific basis of food security, looking at factors like food life cycles, footprints and food safety initiatives. Chapter 4 then discusses the sociological basis of food security, i.e. how we as consumers play a part in dictating the terms of food supply, thanks to the demands we place upon our food (e.g. to be fresh, to be ethical, to be healthy, etc.). Chapter 5 considers the main challenges facing global food supply and brings some possible solutions which can be put into practice by food producers, food processors, manufacturers and retailers. The final chapter draws conclusions about delivering food security in the 21st century, and looks at the potential to use spatial technologies to map food resources.

This book will provide robust, succinct information for people who wish to understand how the food system works now. It will be aimed in particular at food policy leaders, commercial managers in the food industry, and students. As such, it will be a concise and accessible text which focuses on recent data and findings from a range of international collaborations and studies, which draws upon the author's own expertise and research interests. It will be both a snapshot of the current global food supply/security situation, and a projection of where these issues may lead us in the coming decades.