Climate change, international trade and food and nutrition security
The effect of climate change is increasing food and nutrition insecurity, especially in developing countries, where diets are already deficient in many essential nutrients. Changing the global food system, from agriculture to consumption, is essential to reduce food and nutrition insecurity, and politics and international trade play an import role.
Modelling a range of future scenarios can help understand the potential effects of agriculture on food and nutrition security under future climate prediction. Jennie Macdiarmid is a collaborator of the GCRF-AFRICAP project (Agricultural and Food-system Resilience: Increasing Capacity and Advisory Policy) working with local organisations and governments in Malawi, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia, to create an evidence base to underpin new country-specific policies in agriculture and food production and to assess the consequences for food and nutrition security.
Many countries have come to rely on international trade to provide sufficient food. However, the creates global inequalities where poorer countries are often unable to compete in these markets or import sufficient nutritionally adequate food to meet their population dietary needs. Jennie Macdiarmid is collaborating on an international project led by the University of Aberdeen, DEVIL (Delivering Food Security on Limited Land). One aspect of the project is modelling future climate prediction and global food production and under a range of trade scenarios observing the flow of nutrients around the world and hence measuring impacts on food and nutrition security in different countries.
This research was conducted by Professor Jennie Macdiarmid
Research funded by BBSRC-GCRF.