In this post, we are taking a break from food security. We are talking about climate change – an issue which clearly affects food security but which is an issue in its own right. The world has not yet figured out how to fix climate change, so we have decided to offer some of our…   Read more

When trying to stabilise farm and food prices, it is important to get the price band right. It should not be too high or too low, too narrow or too wide. We have argued consistently that a system of buffer stocks, replenished when prices are low and released when prices are high, can help to…   Read more

Anyone who knows the rules for priority seats on a bus is aware of the argument that by taking a seat you deny one to someone else. It is not therefore surprising that one of the arguments against buffer stocks organised by a government is that they ‘crowd out’ private stocks. Do they? There is…   Read more

Back in the 1950s, when the European Economic Community decided to have a Common Agricultural Policy, people had vivid memories of food shortages during the Second World War. Two things were very clear. One was that without self-sufficiency in food the six original member states might find themselves economically insecure, relying on imports, the price…   Read more

In 2008 the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in Washington, under its director general Joachim von Braun, produced a paper to deal with high food prices. It was a period of unprecedented spikes in some food prices, with widespread social disturbances that followed in many countries of the world. There was a general sense…   Read more

The normal routine for most people is a regular cycle of eating and sleeping. You expect to get up in the morning, have a breakfast of some sort, go out to work, break for some kind of snack or lunch, return home in the evening for dinner and then relax before going to bed. Of…   Read more

Our plan for managing buffer stocks sees them as being a price stabilisation measure. Price volatility is reduced by releasing grain when prices are too high in order to boost supply, and then buying it to replenish stocks when prices are too low. There can be some argument over the acceptable price range within which…   Read more

Two hundred years ago, when the key figures in the history of economics, Adam Smith and David Ricardo, were writing works that were to become fundamental textbooks in the discipline, it is not so surprising that they and their followers were attracted by the idea that the state got in the way of economic growth…   Read more

A non-partisan research organisation called the Institute for Progress was set up last year (2022) based in Washington D.C. It declares that its mission is ‘to accelerate scientific, technological, and industrial progress while safeguarding humanity’s future.’ Its motto is that ‘progress is a policy choice.’ https://ifp.org/progress-is-a-policy-choice/ In December 2022, Adin Richards wrote an interesting article…   Read more

Two years ago, at the height of the pandemic, there was a meeting of a subgroup of the European Commission to focus on ‘a contingency plan for ensuring food supply and food security.’ Naturally enough, COVID-19 had aroused fears of an interruption to food supplies. As a result, the controversial issue of food reserves was…   Read more