Food security, sustainability and agriculture
KGA171 The Global Geography of Change
Presented by Associate Professor Elaine Stratford
Semester 1
YouTube Introduction
Part 1
LOOKING BACK, LOOKING FORWARD
Revising Lecture 5.1
1. What is the ecological footprint?
2. With reference to language explain why
declining cultural diversity is an
environmental problem.
3. Define sustainability. How does it differ
from sustainable development?
4. Why are these terms contested? Is that
contestation necessarily negative?
5. What are Jacobs’ four faultlines of
contestation over sustainable
development and how do they gain
expression in conservative and radical
forms?
6. How was sustainable development fully
defined in Our Common Future by the
World Commission on Environment and
Development/Brundtland Commission?
Why does this definition – more than the
popular one – matter?
7. List and briefly explain the six principles
of sustainability.
8. What is Agenda 21?
A Woman Thinking
Learning Objectives
Module 5 Lecture 2

be able to
• explain the meaning, possible
causes and spatial expressions of
hunger and over-consumption of
food
• describe and elucidate the main
features of the third agricultural
revolution
• comprehend the ways in which food
security and modern agricultural
practices are key considerations for
sustainable development
KGA171




demonstrate knowledge of geographical
concepts, earth and social systems and
spatial patterns of change
create and interpret basic maps, graphs
and field data
identify and analyse different viewpoints
to contribute to debates about global
development
communicate in reflective and academic
writing, referencing literature when
needed
Textbook Reading
Bergman and Renwick (2008) pp.312-51
Food and Agriculture Organization (2006)The
State of Food Insecurity in the World 2006,
FAO, Rome.
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Success
stories.
Critical reading
1. What is the author’s purpose?
2. What key questions or problems does the author raise?
3. What information, data and evidence does the author
present?
4. What key concepts does the author use to organize this
information, this evidence?
5. What key conclusions is the author coming to? Are those
conclusions justified?
6. What are the author’s primary assumptions?
7. What viewpoints is the author writing from?
8. What are the implications of the author’s reasoning?
[from Foundation for Critical Thinking]
Old Woman Reading a Lectionary, Gerard Dou
Part 2
FOOD SECURITY: AN IMPERATIVE OF
SUSTAINABILITY
Agenda 21
3. Combating poverty
4. Changing consumption patterns
14. Promoting sustainable agriculture and
rural development
32. Strengthening the role of farmers
What’s at issue?
Chronic hunger
Acute hunger
Starvation
Obesity
Food (in)security
Unsustainable
development
Geopolitics of
deprivation
Poverty
Environmental degradation
Depletion of natural resources
Population growth
Loss of ownership or access
to land
Marginal agricultural land
Cash cropping
Social conflict
Corruption
Agri-food markets
Hunger is not new
Progress Toward Millennium
Goal 1 Eradicate extreme
poverty and hunger
Undernourishment
Bergman and Renwick (2008) p.339.
Agricultural Labour Force
Bergman and Renwick (2008, p.494)
Human development
Food crises
FAO (2008)The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2008, FAO, Rome, p.18.
An unequal world
Target
420m
FAO (2006) The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2006, FAO, Rome, p.5.
2005-2007 food prices rising, hunger increasing
number of undernourished people in 2007 923 million – up 75 million from 2005
FAO (2008)The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2008, FAO, Rome, p.6.
Geopolitics of excess?
Peak water
Peak oil
Price setting
World trade
Consumerism
Social conflict
Excess is not new
OECD obesity levels
Unprecedented production: grain
WorldWatch Institute (2007) Vital Signs 2007-08: The
trends that are shaping our future, WW Norton, New
York, p.21.
Unprecedented production: meat
WorldWatch Institute (2007) Vital Signs 2007-08:
The trends that are shaping our future, WW Norton,
New York, p.21.
Unprecedented production: fish
WorldWatch Institute (2007) Vital Signs 2007-08:
The trends that are shaping our future, WW Norton,
New York, p.21.
Part 3
OF REVOLUTIONS AND BUSINESS
The geography of human history:
from local to global
Three
agricultural
revolutions
1st 10,000-5,000 BP
Hunter-gatherers
Local
mini-systems
Spatial independence
2nd 1600-1900
3rd 1900 to present
 Tribes  Chiefdoms  Empires  World-system
Regional
world-empires
Global
world-system
Spatial interdependence
Global spatial integration of agriculture
has concentrated control of the world’s food in the core
See also
Svalbard Seed
Bank
The Third Agricultural Revolution
Robots packing bread onto palettes
The Green Revolution
Food in the modern world system:
inequality and agriculture
Bergman and Renwick (2008) p.327.
Food supply chain:
Five components and
mediating forces
At the heart of the matter