University Events Calendar

9 November, 2016

October Events December Events View Full Year

Food Values Seminar: Agricultural Trade, Policy Reforms, Global Food Security

Date/Time: Wednesday, 9 November 2016, 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm

Location: Ira Raymond Room, Barr Smith Library, North Terrace campus

Cost: Free

More information: Visit website

If global food production is to keep up with the growth in food demand, the productivity of resources employed in agriculture needs to increase. That can happen by investing more in agricultural research, but that is expensive and involves decades to yield results.

There is a far more-immediate and lower-cost way to enhance global food security sustainably, namely, by reforming policies that are distorting food prices and trade. Open markets maximize the benefit that international trade can offer to boost global food security and ensure the world's agricultural resources are used sustainably.

Declining costs of trading internationally reinforce that message. So does climate change: if global warming and extreme weather events are to become more damaging to food production, then all the more reason to be open to international food markets and allow trade to buffer seasonal fluctuations in domestic production. The more countries that do so, the less volatile will be international food prices. True, there is always a risk that some groups may lose from trade opening if uncompensated, but there are ever-more ways to fairly compensate such groups, and that can be an integral part of the policy reform package.

Contact: Dr Jessica Loyer, Email: jessica.loyer@adelaide.edu.au, Website: http://ua.edu.au/foodresearch, Food Values Research Group, Mobile: 0431811323