Food Security

"In this crisply written, insightful book, McDonald brings our notions of security up to date by demonstrating how current global food systems undermine the world's ability to provide sufficient, safe, and nutritious food for everyone. Timely, sophisticated, and necessary, Food Security explains how this leaves all of us more vulnerable and offers important ideas for what to do about it." Paul Wapner, Associate Professor and Director of the Global Environmental Politics Program, American University

"Bryan McDonald must be read if one wants to understand the complexity of the global food system and its sweeping impacts on human security." Erika Weinthal, Duke University

"McDonald breaks free of the disciplinary and sectoral shackles that so commonly plague analyses of key global challenges like food security. His explicit integrated approach to impacts and implications for food security makes this contribution more robust and more useful to a wider set of actors." Geoff Dabelko, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

"Bryan McDonald's excellent narrative of how global changes are impacting food security provides a valuable addition to better understanding the larger changes in the nature of security, and offers wise guidance for improving food security." Kenneth Rutherford, Director, Center for International Stabilization and Recovery and Professor of Political Science, James Madison University

Throughout history, human societies have struggled to ensure that all people have access to sufficient food to lead active and healthy lives. Despite great global effort, rising food prices have motivated unrest in many parts of the world and increased the number of people who do not receive proper nutrition. National and international food safety incidents have raised awareness of the ability of the food supply to transfer health threats to people and animals. Agricultural and food production activities are key drivers of environmental and climate change while also being likely to face significant impacts from these changes in coming decades.

In this book, Bryan McDonald explores how processes of globalization and global change have reshaped food systems in ways that have significant impascts for national and human security. Local, regional, and national food systems have increasingly become interwined in an emerging global food network. This complex web of relations includes the production, harvest, processing, transport, and consumption of food. While this global food network provides new opportunities for improving health and well-being, it also gives rise to new sources of security threats and vulnerabilities.

This detailed and comprehensive introduction to the major issues impacting global food security will be essential reading for students and scholars in security studies, international politics, and environmental studies.