The Farm Foundation Book Club is open to Farm Foundation Round Table Fellows and meets virtually once-per-quarter to discuss works related to agriculture, industry, and our world. This blog post was submitted by Round Table Fellow Jonah Kolb, president of Moore & Warner Ag Group, LLC. Round Table Fellow John Power, president of LSC International Inc., introduced the author and guest. Round Table Fellow Bonnie Brayton, venture associate at Fulcrum Global Capital, moderated a lively and engaging discussion.

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The Farm Foundation Book Club held its third-quarter event on October 3^rd to discuss The New Breadline by Jean-Martin Bauer, which centers on hunger and food security. The wide-ranging conversation between the author and Roundtable Fellows centered around three themes: the weaponization of hunger and geopolitics of food, food insecurity, and the production and distribution system of the future.

Theme 1: The weaponization of hunger and geopolitics of food

The main cause of acute hunger is war and civil conflict.  Currently about 300 million people worldwide are experiencing conflict-driven hunger.

The international community was slow to develop laws formally forbidding the use of famine and starvation as a weapon.  While these laws now exist, a successful first prosecution is still likely years away.  The potential exists for these laws to be applied both in wars between states and in internal conflicts within states.

The price spike that occurred in 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine had major impact on wheat markets especially, but a deeper crisis was averted by multilateral negotiations allowing exports to continue from Ukrainian ports.  While this resolution was an example of success in problem-solving amid conflict, it highlights the challenge to the international community when dealing with crisis:  each crisis is unique and requires an individual response.

Theme 2: Food insecurity

An estimated 1 billion people globally are food insecure, including about 40 million in the U.S.   The lack of food and nutrition is a long-term problem for each community and a wide range of strategies are being used across the world. 

Bauer was the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) director in Haiti when WFP warehouses were attacked and looted.  Social media was a major driver of this event, and in response Bauer increased transparency and communication through social media channels to better communicate the activities of WFP in Haiti. 

In addition to the war and civil conflict driving food insecurity, climate change, lack of support for local farmers, and rapid population growth contribute to hunger in many countries. Much of the projected global population growth through 2050 will take place in Africa, and Niger is a case study in the challenges of climate and growing population.  When Bauer worked in Niger 20 years ago, the population of 11 million could largely be fed by local food production which took advantage of the 90-day rain season.  Today, a population of 24 million—on its way to a projected 50 million by 2050—is experiencing more irregular rain patterns which negatively impacts that local food production.  There is likely to be a significant movement of population to regions where food is available since there is no other viable option. 

Theme 3: Production and distribution system of the future

Bauer’s family and professional background in Haiti was interwoven through much of The New Breadline and the author highlighted the challenges of opening the Haitian market for rice imports.  Haiti went from a country that provided 80% of its rice consumption domestically to a country importing 80% of its rice.

This interplay between free markets, government subsidies, and food aid and local production is a significant focus of Bauer’s writing.  Local production and distribution are keys to addressing hunger. Food aid and trade policy displacing these local systems can have long-term negative impacts on hunger.

In his book and in the Farm Foundation book club, Bauer covered the use of direct cash provided to food-insecure individuals in lieu of food distribution.  A pre-requisite of such aid is the ability of local production and distribution systems to meet food demand. In such cases, $1 of direct aid has been shown to have a 1.3 to 1.4 multiplier effect in the local economy, without contributing to inflationary food prices.

World Central Kitchen, which has been active both in the domestic U.S. and countries around the world, sources much of its ingredients to produce prepared meals from local producers, which reinforces local food production capabilities, all the more important in times of duress.

Conflict, undercapitalized small farmers, and climate change will continue to contribute to global hunger. Bauer encourages a push-back against “selective empathy,” the idea that there are good disaster and bad disasters.  There are, more simply, just humans in need.  Fully addressing hunger requires more elastic thinking on building resilient independent food systems on a global scale, operated at a local level. 

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