Editorial note from the FOODSECURE coordination team
 The FOODSECURE research team and review board look back on a period of intensive action. Besides the conference in Addis Ababa to discuss frameworks for analysing food insecurity and malnutrition in Africa and beyond, team members were in Brussels a few times to discuss our research with EU-policy makers. Between February 25-28, 2014, FOODSECURE researchers met in Prague for a second workshop with a group of European stakeholders to develop exploratory scenarios on a more food secure future. Around this meeting in Prague, modellers and experts in technical change convened to streamline their work.
You can read more about the conference in Addis and still find all presentations, photos, interviews and a short movie on the conference blog. A separate Addis Newsletter and a short movie, summarizing discussions and outcome, are also available now on the FOODSECURE Website. From our point of view, the conference enabled us to:
- receive guidance from our scientific board members on the shortcomings in our research framework, and the need to focus on specific contributions to the research field, such as integrating nutrition into agricultural analysis, and analysing how technological change in agriculture affects agricultural supply response to scarcities;
- adapt our conceptual research framework of drivers and determinants as well as research questions and concepts within the different work packages following feedback and suggestions made by peers;
- interact with African colleagues and stakeholders, whose attendance was kindly facilitated by the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) and receive their valuable input, criticism and contributions. The African round table panellists, talking on day 3 of the conference, called upon the EC and African science policy makers to establish long-term collaboration for agricultural science between the African and European science community, going beyond the current programs to a more structural collaboration and exchange.
- to prepare us well to discuss and present our scientific work to the DG AGRI of the European Commission at a lunch presentation on December 18, 2013 (see more information below).
The project’s scientific contributions
FOODSECURE strives to go beyond the scope of research conducted to date - by producing policy-relevant scientific outcome and by looking into research gaps that are important to address but have been neglected or not put into context so far. Working paper 20 for example reveals that most food security scenario studies only deal with food availability and food accessibility, largely ignoring food utilisation and stability. The rich interaction with a knowledgeable group of stakeholder representatives is certainly helping us to define the need for making amends in this area. We still have a lot of challenges in our research agenda to meet the expectations. But our meeting in Addis showed that we are on the right track.
We thank our collaboration partners for their continued interest in the FOODSECURE project.
Your LEI coordination team: Hans van Meijl, Thom Achterbosch and Ewa Tabeau*), LEI Wageningen UR, the Netherlands
Any comments or suggestions? Please feel free to contact us at foodsecure@wur.nl
News
The second FOODSECURE stakeholder workshop took place in Prague on February 27-28, 2014. Sixteen high-level representatives of a number of international o rganisations and businesses, including OECD, Copa-Cogeca, EC, Biovision Foundation, Ethanol Europe, Oxfam and BioCoop joined the meeting. They continued the discussion on scenarios for global food and nutrition security that was started in the first workshop in Bruges in September 2013. Modeller teams of LEI, IIASA, IFPRI and PBL observed and supported the workshop, which was designed and facilitated by Prospex. The scenarios and stakeholder input to the quantification of drivers will be taken up by the FOODSECURE modelling team and will be feeding into the next session of stakeholder workshops that will focus on the development of visions and options.
Contact: marc.gramberger@prospex.com and Katharina Zellmer katharina.zellmer@prospex.com
 Meet and talk: FOODSECURE in Brussels
Hans van Meijl, Ewa Tabeau, Thom Achterbosch, Marc Gramberger and Anne-Celia Disdier briefed the EU DG AGRI on the latest research outcome of the FOODSECURE project at a meeting in Brussels on December 18. Read more about the discussion in the Addis Newsletter.
Distinguished lectures, keynote addresses, and invited plenary presentations
Maximo Torero (IFPRI) gave a seminar at ZEF on the topic “Children's influence on adult behavior in the household: Evidence from a randomized information on health intervention in Peru” on February 4, 2014.
Joachim von Braun (ZEF) gave the key note address on “Weltagrarhandel für Wertschöpfung und Ernährungssicherung” (“International agricultural trade for value added and food security”) at the annual meeting of DLG (German Agricultural Association) in Munich, Germany, on January 15, 2014.
Joachim von Braun (ZEF) gave a speech on “Bio-economy—science and technology policy for agricultural development and food” at a seminar in honor of Per Pinstrup-Andersen – New directions in the fight against hunger and malnutrition” of the Cornell University in Ithaca, USA, on December 13, 2013.
Jean-Christophe Bureau presented a paper with S. Jean and H. Guimbard on "What has Regionalism Left to Multilateralism? A Comprehensive Picture of the Trade and Protection Effect of a Decade of Preferential Trade Agreements", at the International Agricultural Trade Research Consortium (IATRC) in Tampa in December 2013.
Jo Swinnen (KU Leuven) gave a lecture on "The Food Crisis and the Global Development Policy Agenda", at the Indian Econometric Society Conference 2013, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR), Mumbai, December 2013.
Jo Swinnen (KU Leuven) gave a lecture on "The Food Crisis and the Global Policy Agenda", at the African Association of Agricultural Economists (AAAE) Conference, Hammamet, Tunisia, September 2013.
Jo Swinnen (KU Leuven) gave a lecture on “The Impact of Mass Media and Political Reforms on Global Agricultural and Food Policies”, 5th European PhD Congress of the European Association of Agricultural Economists, Leuven, May 2013.
Expert presentations and policy panels for international organizations
Matthias Kalkuhl (ZEF) presented work on price transmission (how strongly do food prices in developing countries depend on international commodity prices) and early warning systems that indicate local food security risks due to global commodity price changes at WFP and FAO in Rome from February 10-15, 2014.
Joachim von Braun (ZEF) delivered the concluding statement for the expert panel on „Food and nutrition systems for a sufficient and healthy diet” organized by FAO at the GFFA in Berlin, Germany, on January 17, 2014.
Joachim von Braun (ZEF) was elected vice chair of the board of GAIN (Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition) at its meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, on December 4-5.
Jo Swinnen (KU Leuven) gave a talk on "Supply and Demand Aspects of Global Food Security", at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) workshop on "Food Security 2030 Foresight" in December 2013.
Research outcome
As global climate continues to change, a major question for scientists is what will be the potential economic consequences of climate change on the world’s food supply. FOODSECURE contributes to the Agricultural Model Comparison Project (AgMIP) and the OECD on this agenda. Seven studies recently published in a special issue of Agricultural Economics, and a paper in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, report on a global economic model intercomparison exercise, which harmonized the input datasets for 10 global agro-economic models to better evaluate the model results and reduce future uncertainties. Read more at the AgMIP website, http://www.agmip.org/feature-view/agmip-global-economic-research-published-in-agricultural-economics/
The Joint Research Centre (The European Commission’s in-house Science Centre) Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (JRC-IPTS) recently carried out economic analyses to provide insights into how different policy options could potentially foster growth and enhance food security in the Southern Mediterranean region. Simulations were viewed within the context of the Euro-Med integration and trade liberalisation between the EU and Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia respectively. See: http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/jrc/index.cfm?id=1410&obj_id=18710&dt_code=NWS&lang=en&ori=HLN (published on January 8, 2014).
At the First International Global Conference on Food Security, Noordwijkerhout, 29 September – 2 October 2013, the following FOODSECURE team members presented papers: Michiel van Dijk (senior researcher, International Policy Division, LEI – WUR) presented a follow-up paper of working paper no. 2, which illustrates graphically, compares outcomes of major scenarios exercises, and discusses omissions, etc. The paper has been invited for a special conference issue to be published in the journal Global Food Security. See: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/global-food-security
Matthieu Brun and Sebastian Treyer of IDDRI presented a paper on the 2009 reform of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) that represents a new way of considering food security governance by involving all stakeholders and a science-policy interface. See: http://www.iddri.org/Publications/The-Committee-on-World-Food-Security-reform-impacts-on-global-governance-of-food-security
Publications and book chapters
Disdier, Anne-Célia, Lionel Fontagné, and Olivier Cadot. ‘North-South Standards Harmonization and International Trade’. The World Bank Economic Review, 20 January 2014, See: http://wber.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2014/01/20/wber.lht039.short?rss=1.
Kornher, L. and M. Kalkuhl (2014), Food price volatility in developing countries and its determinants, Quarterly Journal of International Agriculture, 52(4) – which explains the causes of food price volatility in developing countries (conference paper accessible under http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/bitstream/156132/2/B4-Kornher-Food_c.pdf)
Macours, K. "Adoption and adaptation in developing country agriculture”, Review of Agricultural and Environmental Studies, 95-1 (2014), 13-24.
Negash, M. and J. Swinnen, 2013, Biofuels and Food Security: Micro-evidence from Ethiopia, Energy Policy, 63: 963–967.
Squicciarini, M. P., Guariso A. and J. Swinnen, 2013, Global Hunger: Food crisis spurs aid for poverty, Nature, 501(7468): 492.
Swinnen, J. and P. Squicciarini, 2012, Mixed Messages on Prices and Food Security, Science, 27 January 2012: 335(6067), 405–406.
Swinnen, J. and K. Van Herck, 2013, Food Security and Sociopolitical Stability: Eastern Europe and Central Asia, in Christopher B. Barrett (ed.), Food Security and Sociopolitical Stability, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 381–405.
Tadessea, Getaw, Bernardina Algieri, Matthias Kalkuhl, Joachim von Braun, 2013, Drivers and triggers of international food price spikes and volatility. See:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306919213001188
von Braun, Joachim, Bernardina Algieri and Matthias Kalkuhl, 2014,
World Food System Disruptions in the Early 2000s: Causes, Impacts and Cures
World Food Policy. Volume 1, Number 1. Policy Studies Organization.
See: http://www.ipsonet.org/images/WFP/3.%20von_Braun.pdf
FOODSECURE working papers
 FOODSECURE working paper no. 20.
A review of global food security scenario and assessment studies: results, gaps and research priorities. Twelve food security scenario studies (2000-2014) were compared. Most of them address food availability and accessibility, ignoring food utilisation and stability. Also, drivers such as bio-energy, shift in diets and climate change are only partly dealt with.
 FOODSECURE working paper no. 19.
The role of U.S., China, Brazil's agricultural and trade policies on global food scupply and demand. Any agricultural and environmental policy tool of these three players influence the global food scupply and demand system as consumers, producers or traders. This study identifies and analyzes the dynamics and impact of policies relevant to water and land resources.
 FOODSECURE working paper no. 18.
Impact of domestic support and border measures for developing countries’ food security. This paper sheds light on the determinants of national food security of developing countries by combining a theoretical framework with an empirical analysis of the impact of national policy responses to the 2008 price surge of 42 countries between 1995-2010.
 FOODSECURE working paper no. 17.
National food security: a framework for public policy and international trade. This study looks into links between food security and international trade by analyzing a) the relations between food security, international trade and public polices and b) checking the widely used food security indicators in their function of monitoring the impacts of government interventions and external trade shocks on national food security levels.
 FOODSECURE working paper no. 16.
The consequences of trade openness on the availability of seafood resources: Methodology and evidence based in the case of Turkey.
The study investigates the link between the decline of 57 fish species in Turkey between 1996-2009 and trade liberalization. The results could contribute to the debate over the potential effects of international trade on fishery resources. The method employed could be easily applied to other countries.
Other relevant discussion papers and reports from FOODSECURE researchers
Andrea Guariso, Mara P. Squicciarini and Johan Swinnen, 2013, Food Prices and the Global Policy Agenda: Can High and Volatile Prices be Good for the Poor? LICOS Discussion Paper DP 340/2013.
Swinnen, J. and H. Pieters, 2013, Supply and Demand Aspects of Global Food Security, Report for the EU Commission, DG JRC.
Calendar/upcoming events
Cancelled: March, 26, 2014. Brussels. Unfortunately, the FOODSECURE briefing for DG RTD and other EC stakeholders has been cancelled for logistical reasons, pertaining to difficulties of reaching venues in Brussels on that particular day. The event will be rescheduled.
September 2014. The Rossi-Doria Centre of Excellence is going to host an international workshop on “Global value chains and trade policies for food and nutrition security” at Roma Tre University in September 2014. The event is prepared by the Center on Globalization, Governance, & Competitiveness (Duke University), IFPRI and the Rossi-Doria Centre of Excellence (Roma Tre University) to guarantee a strong research base for this policy-oriented conference. Contributions from FOODSECURE colleagues are welcome! Please feel free to contact Luca Salvatici - Università degli Studi Roma Tre, Dipartimento di Economia: Via Silvio D'Amico, 77 Roma 00145 – Italy, E-mail: luca.salvatici@uniroma3.it
*) Important message about FOODSECURE
coordination team
 Ewa Tabeau has been called for duty at the Yugoslavia Tribunal and, with regret, has had to resign as the day-to-day manager of the project. We have said farewell to Ewa at the project meeting in Prague, thanking her for her tremendous contribution to the successes of the project in the first two years (see picture at right). Pending the appointment of a new deputy coordinator, her responsibilities will be taken up by the following persons in the coordination team at LEI:
• Hans van Meijl and Thom Achterbosch (as they have been so far) will deliver the content management.
• Denise Helmes is the project assistant (as of early December 2013). She will handle all organizational and administrative matters and will be the first contact for deliverables, milestones, time sheets and project reporting. Denise will help to find the right person for your queries, if she herself won’t be able to provide you with the answer.
• Inge Borgonjen is an experienced financial controller and used to act as an advisor on FP7 projects. Inge will take the responsibility for the financial matters of the consortium, financial reporting to the EC and related correspondence with the EC and the partners. She will handle any finance-related questions and changes in the financial regulations of EC.
Because of this change, we kindly request you to use foodsecure@wur.nl in all your communication with the coordination team at LEI. Thank you for your cooperation.
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