A World Food System: Actuality or Promise?

A WORLD FOOD SYSTEM: ACTUALITY OR PROMISE? D. GALE JOHNSON* The creation of an effectively functioning world food system is now within our grasp. As recently as 4 decades ago it would not have been possible to make such a statement or even to hold out hope that such a statement might have some chance of being true any time during the twentieth century. Enormous strides have been made since World War II in making a world food system a reality. Much more could be done and more needs to be done to realize the full potential of what has been created by the world's farmers, marketing agencies, processors, input suppliers, and land and water transport systems. But even with all the adverse factors affecting farmers in the low-income or developing countries, world food production has grown rapidly since 1950. For 1950-1983 the annual growth rate of world agricultural production was 2.7 percent, while the growth of agricultural trade was almost double that rate at 5.3 percent. From 1950 to 1983 world food production increased by approximately 125 percent, while world food trade increased by approximately 310 percent. World trade in grain increased from 73,000,000 tons in 1960-1961 to almost exactly three times that quantity, 217,000,000 tons, in 19821983 .: How much is 217,000,000 tons? It is more than 50 kilograms for every person in the world. If equally distributed—which it neither is nor can be—it would provide more than 450 calories per day for every man, woman, and child in the world. True, a significant fraction of the grain that enters world trade is fed to livestock—approximately half of the world trade in grains is in coarse grains—but what we call coarse grain is food grain for some of the world's poorest people. It is time to indicate what I mean by a world food system. My concept of a world food system is a system in which food and other agricultural 1USDA data (excludes intra-EC trade). *Department of Economics, University of Chicago.© 1986 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. 003 1-5982/86/2902-0482$0 1 .00 180 I D. Gale Johnson ¦ A World Food System products that can be transported at reasonable cost and produced anywhere in the world are actually or potentially available to any person in the world if that person has the means to purchase them. There now exists a world food system, though it can be and will be improved by the end of this century. The existence of a world food system is a recent event in the history of the world. Just 4 decades ago it was not possible to say that such a system existed in the sense that people throughout the world could draw on the available supplies of staple foods, regardless of where those foods were produced or located. With quite minor exceptions, grain produced in America, Australia, Argentina , or France is available to a very high percentage of the world population —or would be if governments did not intervene to prevent its availability. The emergence of a world food system, even in its present, somewhat limited form, has added immeasurably to food security for the poorest people of the world. The emergence of a world food system, even in its current incomplete form, is one of the great achievements of mankind. It is not possible to exaggerate how important it is to tens of millions of persons each year; the existence of the system has meant the difference between life and death for many. The number of people who are not able to participate in the world food system represent a rather small percentage of the world's population . Some are in isolated parts of the world, and a few such areas exist, primarily in Africa, where communication is limited and transportation is time consuming, difficult, and expensive. The Sahel and some parts of east Africa may represent such areas. However, as will be noted below, inappropriate policies, corruption, the absence of civil order, and genocide are probably more responsible for the human disasters that we witness...