The Fight Against Food Shortages and Surpluses

The price of food commodities - wheat, corn and rice - is unstable. It can suddenly shoot up. Food becomes unaffordable to millions of people around the world. It can also rapidly fall, putting farming families in jeopardy. Enough food is produced to feed everybody, yet hunger and the threat of famine still stalk the planet. The whole world would be better off if commodity prices were more stable.

Focusing on hunger as an issue of price, this book addresses major global problems anew by navigating the reader through issues and ideologies surround the reasons behind food price volatility and its adverse consequences, evaluates the various policy tools that have been proposed to eliminate hunger and reduce volatility, and concludes with a practical strategy to moderate volatility: grain buffer stocks. Starting from the observation that food prices are naturally volatile, The Fight Against Food Shortages and Surpluses: Perspectives of a Practitioner uses theory and evidence to address key questions such as:
- Can price volatility be moderated?
- Do previously and currently employed policy tools work to eliminate hunger and reduce volatility?
- What are the costs of these policy tools and their side-effects?

In answering these questions, the author comprehensively explains the political and economic logic of buffer stocks to control the price of gain and responds to practical and ideological objections to this solution.

Authored by a leading practitioner in international agricultural economic issues with a broad knowledge of both theory and practice, this book is essential for students and researchers of economics, international and sustainable development, agriculture, and food security. It is also invaluable for practitioners in international organizations and donor agencies, ministry officials, and all those involved with the issues of commodity prices, hunger, and sustainable agriculture.