Food sovereignty and food security. The increasing weaponisation of food

Publisher: UniorPress

Series: Miscellaneous

Pages: 146

Language: English

Abstract: Food insecurity in the Middle East and North Africa over recent decades, far from being a mere byproduct of conflicts or simple economic mismanagement, should rather be understood as the structural result of specific political, military, and economic arrangements. The region covered by this collection includes two categories of vulnerability. The first includes middle-income countries with limited agricultural sectors, dependent on food imports and lacking sufficient energy resources to offset food inflation, such as Tunisia and Morocco: rarely at risk of famine, a number of these countries remain vulnerable to fluctuations in international markets and may experience protests and unrest related to the erosion of consumers' purchasing power when food prices rise. The structural dependence of these economies on a global food market that is both concentrated and highly speculative amplifies price volatility and increases their exposure to food crises and external shocks.

The second category, on the other hand, includes countries that have come out of the acute phases of prolonged conflicts — Yemen and Syria — where food security largely relies on external humanitarian aid, and where any further shock — economic, climatic, or military — can quickly raise the risk of malnutrition and famine.

In Yemen, despite the fragile ceasefire mediated by the United Nations in April 2022, a low-intensity conflict has continued to affect some areas of the country. Hunger has become embedded in the political and military strategies of both the Houthi movement and the internationally recognized government. Both have resorted to manipulating water and agricultural infrastructure, imposing blockades and inspection regimes, and maintaining a dual currency and food system, whose effects on purchasing power continue to cause acute food insecurity even under the current informal ceasefire.

In Syria, the post-Assad transition has opened a new and uncertain chapter where food has emerged as a central arena of government authority. The government controls wheat purchases, bread distribution, and water infrastructure: maintaining and recovering the food system is a key test of the government's capacity and its political legitimacy after the conflict. What this volume offers, through a series of varied case studies within the Middle East and North Africa, is a reflection on state-society relations, and therefore also on citizenship and statehood, through the lens of food security and food sovereignty, away from the political rhetoric that often surrounds this topic.