About the Book
This book looks at food security from a socio-economic perspective. It offers a detailed and systematic examination of food security from its historical backgrounds, concepts and measurements, to the determinants and approaches to achieve food security. The book also introduces the key challenges and root causes of food insecurity.
Through country-specific cases, the book highlights instances of both successful and disastrous national food security management and their outcomes. The invaluable learning experiences of these countries shed light on food security practices, and the straightforward demand-supply framework effectively guides readers in understanding food security issues.
This is an essential resource for anyone who is keen to learn more about food security, particularly researchers and university students who are new to the field. The book endeavours to help us reflect on the current phenomenon and strategize better for the future.
Table of Contents:
Part 1: Introduction 1. Food security: concept and measurement 2. Global food security: an overview Part 2: Food security: demand side 3. Population and food demand 4. Income and food demand 5. Other determinants of food demand Part 3: Food security: supply side 6. Natural resources and food supply 7. Technological progress and food supply 8. Other determinants of food supply Part 4: Coordinating demand and supply for food security 9. Balancing food demand and supply for food security: approaches used at the national level 10. Coordinating demand and supply for food security: collaboration at the international level Part 5: Quest for food security: country experiences 11. Country cases: low and medium level of food security 12. Country cases: high level of food security 13. Why countries’ food security levels differ Part 6: Achieving food security: what ultimately matters 14. Achieving food security: the importance of institutions
About the Author :
Zhang-Yue Zhou is a Professor at the College of Business, Law, and Governance at James Cook University, Australia. He is Founding Director of the Asian Agribusiness Research Centre at the University of Sydney and the Centre for AusAsia Business Studies at James Cook University. His recent publications include Food Insecurity in Asia: Why Institutions Matter and Achieving Food Security in China: The Challenges Ahead, Routledge.
Review :
"Global Food Security: What Matters? is a timely textbook on a topic that remains of utmost importance. University students and scholars gain tools and knowledge toward an understanding of how food security and food systems are related, with essential country case studies that are truly global in scope." — Dr Shenggen Fan, Director General, IFPRI (International Food Policy Research Institute), Washington, USA
"Zhang-Yue Zhou’s Global Food Security: What Matters? is an amazingly complete and comprehensive reference text book on the subject of food security in the world today. It covers every aspect and dimension of the subject from history, concepts and experience to challenges, policy and institutions in an easy-to-understand way. What makes the book outstanding is also the clear conceptual presentation of policy choices and their consequences and impacts, with numerous real-country examples from across the world. I very strongly recommend this book as a complete international text and reference book on food security, as well as the related food policies and economics." — Vasant P. Gandhi, PhD (Stanford), NABARD Chair Professor, Centre for Management in Agriculture, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, India
"The issue of secure food supply across the world is often presented and explained in parts. The author has done an immense service by tackling the issue of global food security in a whole system, multi-disciplinary way, taking careful note of all the dimensions and influences involved in determining the access to daily food, or lack of it, of people all around the world. Solutions to parts are not solutions to wholes: this multi-dimensional problem of food security can only be understood, explained and solved using the comprehensive perspective presented in this extremely useful work.
Global Food Security: What Matters? is a masterly primer with a whole-of-system, global perspective. A comprehensive work providing readers with a useful and useable understanding of the detail and principles – all that matters – about the scientific, economic and institutional factors that determine the current state and future of world food supply and demand.
This succinct, well written book leads readers through the meaning, detail, determinants and solutions to problems of the current state of global food security. Readers are introduced, almost by stealth, to understanding the key economic principles at play. The importance of institutions and politics to causing problems of food security, and solving them, is prominent, while detailed carefully chosen case studies make the book an invaluable pedagogical source." — Dr Bill Malcolm, Associate Professor, Department of Agriculture and Food Systems, University of Melbourne, Australia
"Food security is a hot topic at public policy debates in many countries due to its importance in national security, agricultural and rural development, general welfare of the population, poverty alleviation, and more. As such, it has stimulated interest across different population groups. This book certainly meets the needs of a large audience, especially that of non-professionals.
It provides a comprehensive and quite complete review of the evolution of the concept of food security, a set of widely accepted measurements of food security, a detailed comparative analysis of the status of food security across the globe, as well as major reasons behind the disparity of food security among nations and regions. The contents of the book will help readers understand fundamental information regarding food security, and the book also provides very useful information for those who are interested in further study in the field." — Dr Funing Zhong, Distinguished Professor, College of Economics and Management, Nanjing Agricultural University, China
"This textbook appears timely when the COVID-19 Pandemic foreshadows looming global famines of "biblical proportion,"… Zhang-yue Zhou offers the world a comprehensive examination of food security at national and global levels. Presented in a straightforward manner, this book does a great job of explaining the historical backgrounds of food security, key concepts, and measurements, as well as the determinants of, and approaches to achieve, food security…
This textbook has many great features that are handy to both students and teachers. Each chapter begins with a summary of key points and ends with sections of review questions, discussion questions, and recommended readings. A few appendices further explain some concepts, such as food system and its difference from food security, demand and supply, price ceiling, and procurement quota. This is a crucial resource for undergraduate students and researchers who are new to the field." ─ Food, Culture & Society, 2 July 2020
"it is nevertheless a well-crafted textbook that will allow the diligent reader to understand the fundamentals of food security, the basics of supply and demand, and the rudiments of graphical welfare analysis. This makes it a book worth adding to course lists as either a required or a supplementary text in relation to food security, agricultural development or agricultural economics." ─ R. Quentin Grafton, Australian National University, for Economic Record, 2021
“Global Food Security: What Matters? is a timely textbook on a topic that remains of utmost importance. University students and scholars gain tools and knowledge toward an understanding of how food security and food systems are related, with essential country case studies that are truly global in scope.” — Dr Shenggen Fan, Director General, IFPRI (International Food Policy Research Institute), Washington, USA
“Zhang-Yue Zhou’s Global Food Security: What Matters? is an amazingly complete and comprehensive reference text book on the subject of food security in the world today. It covers every aspect and dimension of the subject from history, concepts, and experience to challenges, policy, and institutions in an easy-to-understand way. What makes the book outstanding is also the clear conceptual presentation of policy choices and their consequences and impacts, with numerous real-country examples from across the world. I very strongly recommend this book as a complete international text and reference book on food security, as well as the related food policies and economics.” — Vasant P. Gandhi, PhD (Stanford), NABARD Chair Professor, Centre for Management in Agriculture, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, India
“The issue of secure food supply across the world is often presented and explained in parts. The author has done an immense service by tackling the issue of global food security in a whole system, multi-disciplinary way, taking careful note of all the dimensions and influences involved in determining the access to daily food, or lack of it, of people all around the world. Solutions to parts are not solutions to wholes: this multi-dimensional problem of food security can only be understood, explained, and solved using the comprehensive perspective presented in this extremely useful work.
Global Food Security: What Matters? is a masterly primer with a whole-of-system, global perspective. A comprehensive work providing readers with a useful and useable understanding of the detail and principles – all that matters – about the scientific, economic, and institutional factors that determine the current state and future of world food supply and demand.
This succinct, well-written book leads readers through the meaning, detail, determinants, and solutions to problems of the current state of global food security. Readers are introduced, almost by stealth, to understanding the key economic principles at play. The importance of institutions and politics to causing problems of food security, and solving them, is prominent, while detailed carefully chosen case studies make the book an invaluable pedagogical source.” — Dr Bill Malcolm, Associate Professor, Department of Agriculture and Food Systems, University of Melbourne, Australia
“Food security is a hot topic at public policy debates in many countries due to its importance in national security, agricultural and rural development, general welfare of the population, poverty alleviation, and more. As such, it has stimulated interest across different population groups. This book certainly meets the needs of a large audience, especially that of non-professionals.
It provides a comprehensive and quite complete review of the evolution of the concept of food security, a set of widely accepted measurements of food security, a detailed comparative analysis of the status of food security across the globe, as well as major reasons behind the disparity of food security among nations and regions. The contents of the book will help readers understand fundamental information regarding food security, and the book also provides very useful information for those who are interested in further study in the field.” — Dr Funing Zhong, Distinguished Professor, College of Economics and Management, Nanjing Agricultural University, China
"This textbook appears timely when the COVID-19 Pandemic foreshadows looming global famines of "biblical proportion,"… Zhang-yue Zhou offers the world a comprehensive examination of food security at national and global levels. Presented in a straightforward manner, this book does a great job of explaining the historical backgrounds of food security, key concepts, and measurements, as well as the determinants of, and approaches to achieve, food security…
This textbook has many great features that are handy to both students and teachers. Each chapter begins with a summary of key points and ends with sections of review questions, discussion questions, and recommended readings. A few appendices further explain some concepts, such as food system and its difference from food security, demand and supply, price ceiling, and procurement quota. This is a crucial resource for undergraduate students and researchers who are new to the field." ─ Food, Culture & Society, 2 July 2020
"it is nevertheless a well-crafted textbook that will allow the diligent reader to understand the fundamentals of food security, the basics of supply and demand, and the rudiments of graphical welfare analysis. This makes it a book worth adding to course lists as either a required or a supplementary text in relation to food security, agricultural development or agricultural economics." ─ R. Quentin Grafton, Australian National University, for Economic Record, 2021
