Food production : food security and agricultural development

Abstract

Conceptualizations of the ethical issues surrounding food production have evolved from a preoccupation with hunger and economic development to relatively new formulations that emphasize food security and food sovereignty. This chapter traces this evolution from work by economists, population ecologists and philosophers from the 1960s through critiques of the Green Revolution and technology-focused approaches to transforming food production in relatively less-industrialized regions. In the present day, the food security focus emphasizes individual or household capabilities for acquiring and consuming adequate nutrition and evaluates social institutions for processing and distributing nutrients in terms of both biophysical food requirements and cultural appropriateness. Food sovereignty has emerged as a philosophical approach that challenges the food security approach as lacking sufficient sensitivity toward vulnerable or marginalized groups to assert or maintain political control over the structure of their food system.