The Economics of Global Food Security

This article outlines a food security synthesis: that food insecurity traces to poverty, that poverty must be addressed by economic development, and that economic development flows from application of the standard model that is now mainstream economics. Food‐insecure countries do not follow the standard model; their policies for agriculture and other sectors deter development. Reasons lie in institutions such as government and in attitudes. The economics of food security is straightforward. The challenge of food security for our time is for economists to work with others regarding socioinstitutional changes essential for proven policies and practices to supply adequate diets.