Urbanization and Global Food Security in Developing Nations

Introduction

Thanks to innovations in agricultural technologies, the dire predictions of global famine made by Stanford University Professor Paul R. Ehrlich in his book The Population Bomb (1968) have not materialized to date. Nevertheless, hunger continues to persist in many regions of the world, especially in major cities, due in large part to urbanization — and 7.5 million people die of hunger each month (Holmes, 2008). The hunger that does exist in the world today is largely the result of increased urbanization and national political leadership that either uses food as a weapon or lacks the resources or will to ensure that adequate food distribution is achieved within their countries (Wurwag, 2014).

To determine the facts, this paper provides a review of the relevant literature concerning urbanization and urban structure in order to identify those factors most responsible for preventing adequate distribution of food to urban residents. A summary of the research and important findings is presented in the conclusion.

Historical Context of Food Security

Since time immemorial, food security has always been a problem for humankind. According to Quinn (2014), "Throughout history, the quest for daily sustenance has often been precarious. Food shortages caused by crop failures or extreme weather were (and are) common enough" (p. 19). These issues became even more pronounced following the Industrial Revolution, when millions of people relocated from farms to urban environments and population levels exploded (Quinn, 2014).

At the time, Adam Smith considered how all of these millions of people would be fed, and conceptualized the "invisible hand" as the major operative force involved in food distribution. In his seminal 1776 work The Wealth of Nations, Smith explained that self-interest guides the distribution of food: "It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest" (cited in Quinn, 2014, p. 20).

By sharp contrast, Thomas Malthus's "An Essay on the Principle of Population," published a few years later in 1798, cautioned that the explosion in human population would inevitably result in massive food shortages. Malthus argued that, "Unless kept in check, human reproduction would outrun the best efforts to increase the food supply and would lead inevitably to famine and mass death" (Quinn, 2014, p. 20).

In truth, Malthus's dire predictions became harsh reality following the publication of his essay. As Quinn points out, "Between 1845 and 1961 — a span of little more than a century — the number of deaths from hunger and its effects exceeded the total in all of preceding human history" (2014, p. 21). These hunger-related deaths were no accident, but were rather the direct result of national policies and economic theories that denied certain populations food supplies to the benefit of others. A salient example is the Irish potato famine, during which Ireland remained a net exporter of food to Great Britain while millions of its own population starved to death (Quinn, 2014). Likewise, both Stalin and Hitler used food as a weapon during World War II, resulting in yet more millions of deaths from starvation (Quinn, 2014).

Urbanization and Food Distribution Challenges

More recently, there has been another mass migration of people into the major cities of the world, and this urbanization has profoundly challenged the ability of national governments in developing nations to provide an adequate infrastructure that ensures the basic needs of living for tens of millions of the global poor, including sufficient food supplies. According to Tucker (2005), "Urbanization refers to the transition from a rural economy to an urban economy on a national scale [and] has been the benchmark used by the United Nations in determining and forecasting growth in developing countries" (p. 11).

Although adequate global food supplies exist to ensure that all nine billion people in the world have enough to eat, there is an enormous disconnect between available food supplies and hungry people in many developing countries today (Tucker, 2005). Tucker emphasizes that, "Urbanization is a serious challenge in addressing the hunger and poverty concerns of the developing world. Urban saturation in developing countries means a slowing urban economy and therefore rising urban poverty" (2005, p. 11).

Certainly, urbanization is taking place around the world, but the trends are especially pronounced in developing countries, where the process can exact a serious toll on already marginalized populations. As Wurwag (2013) reports, "With more than half of the world's population urbanized and two-thirds of urbanites in developing countries, populations are moving away from agriculture-based livelihoods. However, people still must eat" (p. 75).

Conclusion

The Green Revolution helped to produce enough food to feed the world's growing population, but like peak oil, it appears that a juncture in human history has been reached wherein the world's population growth has finally outpaced the ability of its finite supply of arable land to feed nine billion people, with millions more hungry mouths being born each year. Besides the profound challenges represented by globalization and urbanization on food distribution systems, the political agenda in many countries still uses food as a weapon against various demographic segments of their populations.