ABSTRACT

International food prices peaked in 2008, only to be matched again last year. Indeed, in February 2011, the World Bank Food Price Index reached its 2008 peak, after rising by 47 percent since June 2010. In addition, price volatility has posed a fundamental food security risk for consumers and governments, as the variations are large and unpredictable. Over the past decade, the factors driving food prices have become more complex, extending beyond traditional factors of supply and demand and causing both short-term and long-term food price volatility. This has led to global hardship and (in some cases) unrest. The Gulf region faces a clear food security challenge. Demand has motivated many of the countries in the region to produce a share of food for domestic consumption. As a result, a major share of the region’s total water supply is consumed by agricultural projects, which has led to a rapid and significant depletion of water resources. Feeding the population is not only a challenge to the countries of the Middle East, but it is also a major concern in East Asia. Factors such as rising consumption, environmental degradation, climate change, and a demand for biofuels have raised red flags amongst policy-makers in the region. Yet the policy-makers’ focus on the industrial and manufacturing sector, has further pushed agriculture to the background. This has resulted in worsening rural-urban disparities and has unwittingly encouraged overconsumption. In many countries in East and Southeast Asia, including the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam, watersheds have been destroyed and soil has been degraded in the absence of natural resource management. In this event the Middle East Institute invites a number of globally-known experts to comment on the topic from various perspectives.