Securing Global Food Supply: What Role for LAC?

The Inter-American Dialogue and Grupo de Paises Productores del Sur (GPS) are pleased to present “Securing Global Food Supply: What Role for Latin America’s Net Agricultural Exporters?,” a new report co-edited by Martín Piñeiro, founding member of GPS and director of the Agricultural Affairs Committee of the Argentine Council for International Relations (CARI), Margaret Myers, director of the China and Latin America Program at the Inter-American Dialogue, and Laura Uzquiza, researcher at Argentina’s National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET) and GPS. Drawing on findings from a meeting co-hosted by the Dialogue and GPS in April 2015, the report analyzes critical challenges to global food security and the role and responsibilities of Latin America as a primary food-exporting region.

This report features the work of five distinguished specialists in agricultural economics. Shenggen Fan from the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) begins with an examination of trends in global food security. Fan’s chapter is followed by analysis by Piñeiro and Myers of the various domestic agricultural policies adopted by independent countries during and following the global food crisis in 2008. Carlos Pérez del Castillo of GPS then recommends a trade policy agenda to remedy food shortages and related challenges. Finally, Ricardo Meléndez-Ortiz, president of the Geneva-based International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD), looks at the challenges and opportunities of trade-related solutions to global food insecurity.