AGRICULTURE

Agriculture: Assessment Paper

Question 1

The relationship between food security and wider socio-economic development is strong since stable food security would imply positive human capital for work and progress. With food insecurity, there would be less to eat for people and more negative consequences on health that would incur high governmental costs for medical treatments and management (Torero, 2014).

Without food security, there would be inequality in food distribution, leading to a particular area being more prone to chronic illness conditions. Poverty in those areas would not help them gain the required treatments, and with this unavailability of resources, social safety programs are of no use.

With the significant health benefits that food security provides, it would prevent the economic burden of the costs of treatment and prove to be a growth factor for running the economic wheel. It is said that it serves as a coordination feature among various economy departments, such as nutrition, finance, agriculture, infrastructure, etc., that would be naturally regulated for improved working so that all the citizens are provided the necessary facilities.

The wider socio-economic development is only possible when different sectors of the economy come together to eliminate food insecurity and help reduce chronic malnutrition. Collaboration for policy-making is required at all levels in various sectors, such as food strategy for the poor, transport, supply chains, agricultural departments, and government authorities, all working in cohesion to ensure short and long-term food security. Fiscal costs for food spending should be minimized with a carefully devised strategy at all national, regional, and global levels.

Question 2

The relationship between the expansion of the food system and food price shocks is such that a reduction in food price shocks would decrease the investment in agricultural production (Kalkuhl, von Braun & Torero, 2016). It would directly negatively affect the food supply in the long run. The volatility in food prices would force the government to make ill-designed decisions and unplanned market interventions that might not suit people and inflation rates.

The global food system is becoming easily affected by food price volatility since agriculture markets in each country have to cater to the food needs of the growing populations. Food price volatility depicts inefficient investment decisions that are a consequence of adverse behavior in the price market. It becomes beyond the capacity of the producers to keep the prices low and beyond the acquisition of the consumers to buy food at high prices, especially in poor and underprivileged areas of the country. Hence, it leads to food insecurity that represents the hindered expansion of the food system.

Over the long run, price stability is expected by the government for which policies and strategies are devised that should not affect the poor communities. At a macroeconomic level, price shocks would impact the final total food output, employment in the agriculture sector, trade and government revenues in the same segment, etc., creating an influence on international food prices (Special Focus, 2019). On the other hand, at a microeconomic level, food insecurity would increase since the poor segments of the population would be affected due to price shocks, and inequality in food availability would increase.

Question 3

Food insecurity depicts itself as a market failure due to bad policy-making. If people in one household are food secure, it does not imply that all of its members are food secure; there still could be some individuals who would be food insecure. Similarly, the same vice versa rule stands for food-insecure households. In this way, market demand for food for certain individuals could not be met. National food security for a particular age group or segment of the population might remain food insecure,...

…become the representatives of their local areas contribute to making a policy and enforcing laws to fulfill equal food distribution. In this regard, New York States 2019 Food Recovery and Recycling Act was enacted to recycle food scraps and donate the waste food for the needy ones (Food Print, 2019).

The administrative branch makes another example of the food policy of the government. The administrative body of the government includes governors, mayors, and commissioners that highlight the need for food policies for issuing regulations for agricultural production, for instance. One of such laws was passed for the agricultural sector to promote locally grown food production and distribution, and those who did not comply with it had to pay a hefty fine (Food Print, 2019).

One more distinct type of food policy is the federal policy that inculcates Congresss re-authorization of the previous policies every five years. The bills are passed and revised after a certain period to guarantee that the policies remain updated with the increasing needs and the changing governments. The support of framers, insurance of the crops, and grants and subsidies are considered in the revised plans after a fixed period (Food Print, 2019). Further, federal policies are taken care of with special food plans such as those in schools to prevent child obesity and encourage healthy eating, supplemental food programs for women, and high-level food primacies for special populations (Food Print, 2019).

Each tye of policy intends to improve the finer facilitation of food at all levels, even with minute details and their speculations, so that the enablement of refined estimates of food demand and household incomes and nutritional requirements could be made possible for higher efficacy in the food policy all over the country.

References

Cirera, X., & Masset, E. (2010). Income distribution trends and future food demand.Philosophical Transactions of the Royal…