RGS-IBG Annual Conference, London. 1st-3rd Sept 2010
Introduction
Food security has attracted significant and increasing policy and media attention and concern in recent months. The combination of factors contributing to the food security crisis is widely reported, including suggested ways to respond, with different perspectives emerging between interest groups. The contribution from Geography to the food security debate to date has been slow, although recognition of geographical difference is critically important.
In response, Damian Maye and James Kirwan from the CCRI convened four sessions, on behalf of the Rural Geography Research Group, at the RGS-IBG Annual Conference in London on the 2nd September 2010. The sessions addressed the issue of food security and its potential implications for agri-food studies and included a range of conceptual and empirical papers that offered critical insights into food security in different geographical contexts, including how it is influencing how geographers and others are studying and responding to this and related agri-food issues.
A total of 18 papers were presented, organised across 4 sessions. These are detailed below, with a link to the presentation slides for each paper presented.
Session 1: Interpretations of Food Security I
Food security and the vulnerability of food systems to Global Environmental Change (John Ingram (University of Oxford) and Polly Ericksen (International Livestock Research Institute, Nairobi))
Food security and the justification of productivism Christopher Rosin (University of Otago)
Food politics and food security in an age of transgression Mike Goodman (King’s College London) and Colin Sage (University College Cork)
Doubling yields to feed the 9 Billion: A critical perspective on a dominant discourse of food security Isobel Tomlinson (Soil Association, Bristol
Local food networks and food security: where now for policy in the UK? James Kirwan and Damian Maye (Countryside and Community Research Institute, Cheltenham)
Session 2: Interpretations of Food Security II
The Fife diet: a bioregional approach to food security Mike Small (Fife Diet, Scotland)
Part of the answer still lies in the soil
Richard Spalding (University of the West of England, Bristol)
Consumer perceptions of ‘food security’: perspectives from the UK Elizabeth Dowler (University of Warwick), Moya Kneafsey (Coventry University), Alex Inman (Independent Consultant), Hannah Lambie (Coventry University), Rosemary Collier (University of Warwick)
Belief-based geopolitics and the food security meme Jon Cloke (Loughborough University)
Food sovereignty movements: historical context, human rights approach, collective participation and networks Marina Chang and Karol Yanez (University College London)
Session 3: Food Security from a Livelihoods Perspective
Institutions for food security: global insights from rural India Bill Pritchard (University of Sydney)
AIDS and food insecurity: cause for concern? Nicola Ansell (Brunel University), Lorraine van Blerk (University of Dundee), Flora Hajdu (Uppsala University) and Elsbeth Robson (Brunel University / University of Malawi)
Food security among oil palm smallholders in West New Britain, Papua New Guinea. Gina Koczberski, George Curry and Veronica Bue (all from Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Western Australia)
Abundance or abandoned: a critical assessment of an urban agriculture project in Brixton, South London Marina Chang (University College London) and Marina Littek (formerly King’s College London)
Session 4: Institutional Arrangements, Trade Policy and Risk
The integrated food security strategy of South Africa: an institutional analysis
Shaun Ruysenaar (University of Edinburgh)
Governing biosecurity and food security in a neoliberal world: comparative perspectives from Australia and the United Kingdom Damian Maye (Countryside and Community Research Institute, Cheltenham), Jacqui Dibden (Monash University, Melbourne), Vaughan Higgins (Monash University, Melbourne) and Clive Potter (Imperial College, London)
Framing GM crops as a Food Security Solution David Gibbs (University of Hull), Jacqui Dibden (Monash University, Melbourne) and Chris Cocklin (James Cook University, Townsville)
The changing climate of risk in the UK strawberry industry Eman Calleja (University of Warwick)and Peter Mills (Harper-Adams University College)
