|
Editorial:
Checks and balances in Brussels
The FOODSECURE coordination team briefed the project’s main
partners in the European Commission on the scientific progress
achieved so far in Brussels April 26. Project leader Hans van Meijl
from LEI Wageningen
UR gave a presentation
on the main achievements of the first project year. Besides
producing 14 deliverables contributing to the conceptual
framework (such as determinants and drivers, long-term modelling,
innovations) and a considerable number of FOODSECURE publications, much has been done
to set up a collaborative and productive research network.
A presentation
on Food and nutrition indicators raised particular interest with
the Commission’s participants, especially in the selection
process for outcome indicators on food and nutrition security
(FNS) that will be used throughout the project. The research team
responded to questions posed
and argued for including food price-related indicators and
gender-specific data into the set, and for addressing both the
short and long term outcomes of FNS. See also FOODSECURE working
paper no. 5.
Scientific coordinator Joachim
von Braun (ZEF)
presented new research findings on price volatility and
FNS. They included evidence that price spikes lead to
increasing malnutrition; that risk produced by price volatility
reduces price incentives for farmers, thereby perpetuating supply
and productivity problems; and that there are substantial
macroeconomic impacts. FOODSECURE contributes to
several of these lines of research that can have major
implications for policy.
A further presentation on long-term scenarios
for global agriculture, food, and the environment showed that
these scenarios provide a key reference for policies on
agriculture and food security (see FOODSECURE working
paper no. 6). But scenarios tend to tell diverging –
seemingly contradicting – stories, making relevant conclusions
hard to draw. In addition, it was pointed out how FOODSECURE,
AgMIP and OECD bring together nine different economic modelling
approaches for long-term scenarios and
compare a reference scenario with alternative socio-economic,
climate change and bioenergy scenarios in a consistent way.
The meeting showed that we are on the (right) track. However, it
is important to stay in close contact with our main target
audience, to adjust tools and strategies where necessary and
possible.
We are looking forward to our next major event, the FOODSECURE
conference on: “Challenges in Food and Nutrition
security in global and local African perspectives" in Addis
Ababa, Ethiopia, October 7-9, 2013. Please find
the program on our Website. We
will brief European policy makers on the results of this meeting
towards the end of this year. Before that, the FOODSECURE
research teams will be presenting work in the conference season.
We look forward to discussions on our approach and wish you a
pleasant summer.
Your LEI coordination team
Hans van Meijl, Thom Achterbosch and Ewa Tabeau.
LEI Wageningen UR, the Netherlands. Contact: foodsecure@wur.nl
FOODSECURE
in action
Brussels meeting of project coordination team
On April 26, The FOODSECURE coordination team briefed the
project's main partners in the European Commission on
scientific progress, and discussed events ahead as well as the
research challenges in global food and nutrition security that
could be addressed under Horizon 2020 (see editorial). For more
information visit the FOODSECURE Website or contact Thom
Achterbosch at foodsecure@wur.nl.
Workshops
to engage experts setting off
The first of a series of
FOODSECURE expert engagement workshops will take
place in Brugge, Belgium on September 5 and 6, 2013. The
workshops will bring together a range of different international
stakeholders from a variety of backgrounds such as business,
government, civil society, and research. In the first workshop in
Brugge participants will develop future scenarios on global food
and nutrition security integrating narrative storylines and
quantitative modelling. The workshop will be professionally
facilitated by Prospex.
Contact:
Katharina Zellmer (Prospex) and Gerdien
Meijerink (LEI),
gerdien.meijerink@wur.nl
Activities @ INRA
(Versailles-Grignon)
The FOODSECURE research team at INRA has
been working on the issue of second generation of biofuel chains in
France with the support of micro-economic spatial modeling.
You can download the publication (FOODSECURE working paper no.
10) by Laure Bamière, Vincent Martinet and Christophe Gouel here or
below in "Selection of publications".
Contact:
Christophe Gouel, INRA, christophe.gouel@grignon.inra.fr
Activities @ ZEF
On May 14, ZEF sent the results of its online stakeholder
survey on the impacts of innovations for FNS to
the respondents. The survey, conducted in February 2013, targeted
stakeholders in the agricultural and food sector. Insights from
the survey point to the important role of institutional
innovations in improving food and nutrition security with minimum
social, economic and environmental trade-offs. The results will
help informing the design of science scenarios under FOODSECURE.
Read more on the FOODSECURE Website.
Contact:
Nicolas Gerber, ZEF, ngerber@uni-bonn.de
FOODSECURE scientific coordinator and ZEF-director Joachim von Braun was
invited to talk together with Professor M.S. Swaminathan at the
7th "Jülich Lecture"
on the topic of "Feeding
10 Billion with Less". The event on global
Food Security took place in Jülich, Germany, on Juny 28. The
video will be released on ZEF's Website soon.
You can look at von Braun's presentation here.
Activities
@ IFPRI
In the context of research for Work Package 4, the IFPRI team of FOODSECURE is working
closely with partners at CIRAD, CCAP, and EMBRAPA to generate a
detailed policy database for US, Chinese, and Brazilian
agricultural policies.Contact:
Simla
Tokgoz, IFPRI, s.tokgoz@cgiar.org
The FOODSECURE team at IFPRI is also working with LEI and IIASA
for Work Package 7 Deliverable 7.1
“Assessment Framework and Operational Definitions for Long-Term
Scenarios”.
Contact: Simla
Tokgoz, IFPRI, s.tokgoz@cgiar.org
FOODSECURE researcher Luca Salvatici from University Roma Tre will be
visiting IFPRI from June to December 2013 in order to carry out
research related to the FOODSECURE project. Contact: Luca
Salvatici, lsalvatici@uniroma3.it
In April, David
Laborde of the FOODSECURE team at IFPRI gave a presentation titled
“Challenges of
achieving Food Security” at the flagship
training of the World Bank Institute
on Frontiers of Development Policies, Washington D.C. Contact: David
Laborde, IFPRI, d.laborde@cgiar.org
The
IFPRI team also participated in the OECD workshop
on “Shared Approaches to Measuring the Agricultural Policy
Environment" held in Paris on June 24- 25, 2013. Contact:
Simla
Tokgoz, IFPRI, s.tokgoz@cgiar.org
Activities @ KU Leuven
The LICOS-CEPS project at the FOODSECURE partner institute KU Leuven organized several
events related to the topic of FNS: Walk the talk: Food
policy development in 2012 and outlook for 2013
during which the IFPRI 2012 Global Food Policy Report was
launched
on April 30
and an event on CAP reform: Sowing
the seeds of future growth for European agriculture
on May 15. On June 19, Jo Swinnen chaired an event on "Global Food Security
and the Role of Innovation Systems".
For more information visit the Website. Contact: Hannah
Pieters, KU Leuven, Hannah.Pieters@kuleuven.be
FOODSECURE researcher Jo Swinnen also gave a presentation
at the ‘The annual enterprise, technology, finance (ETF)'
research theme group workshop on institutions, governance and
development hosted by the University of Manchester treating the
topic 'Are high (and volatile) food prices bad for the poor?' on
May 10. Contact:
Hannah Pieters, KU Leuven, Hannah.Pieters@kuleuven.be
Activities @ LEI
A team of data experts and software specialists has prepared a
prototype for the data
management system (DMS) that will store the
databases created in FOODSECURE. The prototype comprises a rich
set of data on FNS indicators for dozens of countries, delivered
by the team of KU Leuven, and FAO data. The research teams will
be able to access the data through a user-friendly interface.
Contact:
Thom Achterbosch, LEI, Thom.Achterbosch@wur.nl
Conference
activities
FOODSECURE researchers at IAIEAA conference in
Italy
At the IAIEAA conference on "Between Crisis and
Development: Which Role for the Bio-Economy" held
in Parma, Italy, June 6-7, there was a full FOODSECURE session
with different presentations, organized by Luca Salvatici of Roma
Tre University. The session included presentations on Food security and trade policies (Luca
Salvatici), on Food Security and social protection in sub-Saharan
Africa (d'Agnostino et al.) and on preferential trade policy and its impact on
increasing exports (Laborde et al.) . For a
complete overview of all presentations please look at the
respective NEWS item
on the FOODSECURE Website. You can download all
presentations from there.
Contact:
Luca Salvatici, Roma Tre University, lsalvatici@uniroma3.it
Selection
of publications
FOODSECURE working
paper no. 10
Stochastic
viability of second generation biofuel chains: Micro-economic
spatial modeling in France.
Laure Bamière, Vincent Martinet, Christophe Gouel
FOODSECURE working
paper no. 9
Food
price volatility and domestic stabilization policies in developing
countries
Christophe Gouel
FOODSECURE working
paper no. 8
International
Agricultural Trade and Negotiations : Coping with a New Landscape
Jean-Christophe Bureau and Sébastien Jean
Gouel, Christophe. 2013a. ‘Optimal Food Price Stabilisation
Policy’. European
Economic Review 57 (January): 118–134. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.euroecorev.2012.10.003
Gouel, Christophe. 2013b. ‘Rules Versus Discretion in Food
Storage Policies’. American
Journal of Agricultural Economics (May 15). http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ajae/aat016.
For a full overview of FOODSECURE publications please look at
"Publications" on our respective Webpage.
Calendar
Next FOODSECURE conference on: “Challenges in Food and Nutrition
security in global and local African perspectives" in Addis
Ababa, Ethiopia, October 7-9, 2013.
The conference will take place at the ILRI campus of Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia, on October 7-9, 2013. Professor Assefa
Admassie from the Ethiopian Economic Policy Research Institute (EEPRI) is
our host and co-organizer. Also, the IFPRI regional office in
Addis Ababa contributes to organizing the conference. On the last
day of the conference (October 9), there will be a round table
discussion with African experts and stakeholders, who will
be discussing issues of essential importance to food and
nutrition security in Africa.
For more information on the conference and for the agenda of the
conference (October 7-8) as well as the agenda for the round
table (October 9) please look at our Website.
Contact:
Ewa Tabeau, LEI, ewa.tabeau-kowalska@wur.nl
Conference on Global
Food Security in Noordwijkerhout, September 29, 2013
Several researchers from the FOODSECURE project will present
papers at the
First
International Conference on Global Food Security
to be held in Noordwijkerhout, the Netherlands, from
September 29 - October 2, 2013.
Contact:
Luca Salvatici, Roma Tre University, lsalvatici@uniroma3.it
ICN2
at FAO
The ICN2 Preparatory Technical Meeting will be held in the FAO
headquarters in Rome, Italy, from November 13-15, 2013.
FOODSECURE researchers are encouraged to engage in discussions to
be held for preparing the ICN2. More details are available at: http://www.fao.org/ICN2.
Contributions
can be either sent via email to: fsn-moderator@fao.org or posted
online on the FSN Forum (upon registration on the homepage).
FOODSECURE research partners
Find a complete list of research partner involved in the
FOODSECURE project at our respective Webpage.
FOODSECURE
flyer
For an overview of our project's objectives and strategy please download and read our flyer.
|
