Handbook on Food: Demand, Supply, Sustainability and Security

The global population is forecasted to reach 9.4 billion by 2050, with much of this increase concentrated in developing regions and cities. Ensuring adequate food and nourishment to this large population is a pressing economic, moral and even security challenge and requires research (and action) from a multi-disciplinary perspective.This book provides the first such integrated approach to tackling this problem by addressing the multiplicity of challenges posed by rising global population, diet diversification and urbanization in developing countries and climate change. It examines key topics such as: the impact of prosperity on food demand the role of international trade in addressing food insecurity the challenge posed by greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture and land degradation the implication on labor markets of severe under-nutrition viability of small scale farms strategies to augment food availability. The Handbook on Food would be a welcome supplementary text for courses on development economics, particularly those concentrating on agricultural development, climate change and food availability, as well as nutrition. Contributors include: Anshuman Adheleya, Alok Adheleya, M. Das, D. Dawe, O. Ecker, C.L. Gilbert, D. Goswami, J.E. Gready, D. Headey, K.S. Imai, S. Jha, N. Kaicker, S. Kaur, V.S. Kulkarni, A. Mahal, K. Mathur, K. Otsuka, S. Pfuderer, A. Sarris, C. Sathyamala, J. Schmidhuber, P.V. Srinivasan, L. Sutton, G. Thapa, P. Timmer, J.-F. Trinh Tan, F.N. Tubiello, P. Warr, J. You

Table of Contents:
Contents: Preface 1. Overview: Handbook on Food Demand, Supply, Sustainability and Security Raghbendra Jha, Raghav Gaiha and Anil B. Deolalikar 2. The Political Economy of Food Security: A Behavioral Perspective C. Peter Timmer 3. Shocks to the System: Monitoring Food Security in a Volatile World Derek Headey, Olivier Ecker, and Jean-Francois Trinh Tan 4. Food Price Inflation, Growth and Poverty Shikha Jha and P.V. Srinivasan 5. Transmission of Global Food Prices, Supply Response and Impacts on the Poor David Dawe 6. The Financialization of Food Commodity Markets Christopher L. Gilbert and Simone Pfuderer 7. Financialization of Food Commodity Markets, Price Surge and Volatility: New Evidence Kritika Mathur, Nidhi Kaicker, Raghav Gaiha, Katsushi S. Imai and Ganesh Thapa 8. Dietary Shift and Diet Quality in India: An Analysis based on 50th, 61st and 66th Rounds of NSS Raghav Gaiha, Nidhi Kaicker, Katsushi S. Imai, Vani S. Kulkarni & Ganesh Thapa 9. Dietary Change, Nutrient Transition and Food Security in Fast Growing China Jing You 10. Poverty-Nutrition Traps Raghbendra Jha, Katsushi S. Imai & Raghav Gaiha 11. The Political Economy of Dietary Allowances C. Sathyamala 12. Economic Prosperity and Non-Communicable Disease: Understanding the Linkages Ajay Mahal and Lainie Sutton 13. Trade Food and Welfare Alexander Sarris 14. Enhancing Food Security: Agricultural Productivity, International Trade and Poverty Reduction Peter Warr 15. Best-fit Options of Crop Staples for Food Security: Productivity, Nutrition and Sustainability Jill E. Gready 16. Emissions of Greenhouse Gases from Agriculture and Their Mitigation Francesco N. Tubiello and Josef Schmidhuber 17. Land Degradation, Water Scarcity and Sustainability Manab Das, Debashish Goswami, Anshuman and Alok Adheleya 18. Viability of Small-Scale Farms in Asia Keijiro Otsuka 19. Food Entitlements, Subsidies and Right to Food: A South Asian Perspective Simrit Kaur 20. Global Middle Class and Dietary Patterns: A Sociological Perspective Vani S. Kulkarni Index

About the Author :
Edited by the late Raghbendra Jha, formerly Emeritus Professor of Economics, Arndt-Corden Department of Economics, Australian National University, Australia, Raghav Gaiha, Visiting Scientist, Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University and Anil B. Deolalikar, University of California, Riverside, US

Review :
‘The Handbook on Food: Demand, Supply, Sustainability and Security makes a significant contribution to academic, policy and public interests in food security. It does not avoid the hard questions, proposes much-needed research direction and policy reform, and most importantly identifies crucial links between food security, poverty, trade, globalisation, environmental sustainability, climate change and the politics that create a complex space. This comprehensive and courageous book is a must-read for those interested in the issue of food security now and in the future.’ ‘This volume is a welcome and timely contribution to a topic of enduring importance. The global consequences of recent food price crises underscore the need to examine food security issues from diverse perspectives. This volume meets that need, featuring accessible yet cutting-edge analyses of food security by leading experts in fields as diverse as trade, nutrition, public health, production, political economy, and behavioral economics. It will be of interest to a wide range of scholars and practitioners.’ ‘This excellent volume offers a compact but wide-ranging survey of recent research on important changes in global food markets. Its 20 chapters accurately capture important areas of scholarly agreement as well as on-going debates among economists studying agriculture and nutrition, with several provocative original contributions from other fields. The book draws particularly on the authors’ long experience in Asia, offering widely-applicable insights for scholars and policy analysts seeking to understand the past, present and future of food around the world.’ ‘This Handbook on Food is highly recommended to scholars, students and policy-makers alike who want to familiarise themselves with recent evidence on the important issue of food security worldwide. It is also welcome supplementary reading for courses on development economics, agricultural economics, and environmental economics. It is a very rich compendium of information on the food situation in general so from that perspective it rightly deserves to be called a Handbook on Food.’