Lugar's Focus on Food Security

Senator Lugar, Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has long been concerned with the causes and consequences of global food security and the effects it has on security and poverty alleviation.

The spikes in food prices that occurred in 2007 and 2008 demonstrated the fragility of global agriculture, and how quickly disruptions in one region can spread to others. Nearly 1 billion people are considered chronically hungry. Population growth rates indicate that food demand will double by 2050.

The international community has failed to understand the necessity of maintaining investments in agriculture, both for food production and poverty alleviation. People have been lulled into complacency by decades of low food prices without looking ahead to expected increases in population growth, urbanization, environmental degradation, energy supply disruptions, and demand for non-food crops.

Farmers around the world will be asked to meet the demands created by these factors, even as they may be contending with a degrading agricultural environment that significantly depresses yields in some regions.

Unless much greater effort is devoted to this problem, the world is likely to experience more frequent and intense food crises that increase migration, stimulate conflicts, intensify pandemics, and exacerbate poverty. Solving hunger is both a moral and national security imperative.