Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Developing a model of strategies for enhancing food security against the phenomenon of food geopolitization

  • Published:
Environment, Development and Sustainability Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In recent years, the global food crisis and resulting food insecurity have made sustainable food supply a challenge for many countries, sparking global geopolitical competition. In regard to the geopolitization of food, this study proposes strategies to enhance food security. The model has been developed using grounded theory and data have been collected through interviews with 17 experts and review of 43 official reports and papers. Research findings reveal that food access has declined due to food shortages and unfair distribution in recent decades; as a result, food has become a source of competition and power struggles among countries. Therefore, food has been raised as a geopolitical issue. Changes such as the scarcity of water and soil resources, climate change, environmental degradation, insufficient investment in agriculture, and consumerism in societies have all contributed to the geopolitical importance of food worldwide. A number of strategies have been developed by countries in response to the geopolitization of food to improve their citizens' food security, including sustainable agriculture development, overseas cultivation, importing virtual water, reducing food waste, and diet modification. The success of these strategies, on the one hand, is influenced by the natural, human, technological, economic, political and military potentials of countries, and on the other hand, the conditions of the global environment. The most important achievements of the principled management of geopoliticization of food include enhancing food security, community health, reducing socio-cultural problems, improving political stability, reducing dependence on foreign countries, and preventing the destruction of natural resources.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Adenle, A. A., Wedig, K., & Azadi, H. (2019). Sustainable agriculture and food security in Africa: The role of innovative technologies and international organizations. Technology in Society, 58, 101143.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ahmed, J. O. (2020). The effect of biofuel crops cultivation on food prices stability and food security-A review. EurAsian Journal of BioSciences, 14(1), 613–621.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Akbari, M. S. A., Manouchehri, F., & Sadeghi, H. (2018). Analysis of the use of online stores to Supply of rural products. Spatial Planning, 8(1), 89–110.

    Google Scholar 

  • Armanda, D. T., Guinée, J. B., & Tukker, A. (2019). The second green revolution: Innovative urban agriculture’s contribution to food security and sustainability–A review. Global Food Security, 22, 13–24.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ben Hassen, T., & El Bilali, H. (2022). Sustainable agriculture and food security in qatar: International threats and local constraints. In W. Leal Filho, M. Kovaleva, & E. Popkova (Eds.), Sustainable agriculture and food security. Springer International Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bryant, A., & Charmaz, K. (2019). The SAGE handbook of current developments in grounded theory. Sage.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Conlon, C., Timonen, V., Elliott-O’Dare, C., O’Keeffe, S., & Foley, G. (2020). Confused about theoretical sampling? Engaging theoretical sampling in diverse grounded theory studies. Qualitative Health Research, 30(6), 947–959.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dureab, F., Al-Sakkaf, M., Ismail, O., Kuunibe, N., Krisam, J., Müller, O., & Jahn, A. (2019). Diphtheria outbreak in Yemen: The impact of conflict on a fragile health system. Conflict and Health, 13(1), 1–7.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Flynn, S. V., & Korcuska, J. S. (2018). Grounded theory research design: An investigation into practices and procedures. Counseling Outcome Research and Evaluation, 9(2), 102–116.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ghalibaf, M. B., Pishgahifard, Z., Afzali, R., & Hosseini, S. M. (2016). Geopolitical analysis on strategic products of food in Iran, (case study: Wheat). Human Geography Research, 48(1), 53–67.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gorman, T. (2019). From food crisis to agrarian crisis? food security strategy and rural livelihoods in Vietnam. Food Anxiety in Globalising Vietnam.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Hamilton-Hart, N. (2019). Indonesia’s quest for food self-sufficiency: A new agricultural political economy? Journal of Contemporary Asia, 49(5), 734–758.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hoddy, E. T. (2019). Critical realism in empirical research: Employing techniques from grounded theory methodology. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 22(1), 111–124.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jurabaevich, S. N., & Bulturbayevich, M. B. (2021). Directions for food security in the context of globalization. Innovative Technologica: Methodical Research Journal, 2(01), 9–16.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kalbasi, E. A. A., Mirdamadi, S. M., Farajollah, H. S. J., & Lashgarara, F. (2020). To analysis the requirements of overseas cultivation realization for improvement of food security in Iran.

  • Koch, N. (2021). Food as a weapon? The geopolitics of food and the Qatar-Gulf rift. Security Dialogue, 52(2), 118–134.

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Koren, O., Bagozzi, B. E., & Benson, T. S. (2021). Food and water insecurity as causes of social unrest: Evidence from geolocated Twitter data. Journal of Peace Research, 58(1), 67–82.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Margulis, M. E. (2018). The World Trade Organization between law and politics: Negotiating a solution for public stockholding for food security purposes. Transnational Legal Theory, 9(3–4), 343–360. https://doi.org/10.1080/20414005.2018.1562290

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mechiche-Alami, A., Yagoubi, J., & Nicholas, K. A. (2021). Agricultural land acquisitions unlikely to address the food security needs of African countries. World Development, 141, 105384.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Merino, R. (2020). The geopolitics of food security and food sovereignty in Latin America: Harmonizing competing visions or reinforcing extractive agriculture? Geopolitics, 2, 1–23.

    Google Scholar 

  • Monroe, K. V. (2020). Geopolitics, food security, and imaginings of the state in Qatar’s desert landscape. Culture, Agriculture, Food and Environment, 42(1), 25–35.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mrdalj, V., & El Bilali, H. (2021). Agri-food markets, trade, and food and nutrition security. In C. M. Galanakis (Ed.), Food security and nutrition. Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pawlak, K., & Kołodziejczak, M. (2020). The role of agriculture in ensuring food security in developing countries: Considerations in the context of the problem of sustainable food production. Sustainability, 12(13), 5488.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Puma, M. J., Chon, S. Y., Kakinuma, K., Kummu, M., Muttarak, R., Seager, R., & Wada, Y. (2018). A developing food crisis and potential refugee movements. Nature Sustainability, 1(8), 380–382.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Richards, C. E., Lupton, R. C., & Allwood, J. M. (2021). Re-framing the threat of global warming: An empirical causal loop diagram of climate change, food insecurity and societal collapse. Climatic Change, 164(3), 49. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-021-02957-w

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Rother, B., Sosa, S., Kim, D., Kohler, L. P., Pierre, G., Kato, N., Debbich, M., Castrovillari, C., Sharifzoda, K., Van Heuvelen, E., Machado, F., Thevenot, C., Mitra, P., & Fayad, D. (2022). Tackling the Global Food Crisis: Impact, Policy Response, and the Role of the IMF. IMF Notes, 2022(004), A001. https://doi.org/10.5089/9798400221972.002.A001

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sommerville, M., Essex, J., & Le Billon, P. (2014). The ‘global food crisis’ and the geopolitics of food security. Geopolitics, 19(2), 239–265.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Subramaniam, Y., Masron, T. A., & Azman, N. H. N. (2019). The impact of biofuels on food security. International Economics, 160, 72–83. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.inteco.2019.10.003

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tandon, S., & Vishwanath, T. (2020). The evolution of poor food access over the course of the conflict in Yemen. World Development, 130, 104922.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thow, A. M., Sharma, S. K., & Rachmi, C. N. (2019). An analysis of Indonesia’s shrinking food security policy space under the WTO. Food Security, 11(6), 1275–1287.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vågsholm, I., Arzoomand, N. S., & Boqvist, S. (2020). Food security, safety, and sustainability—getting the trade-offs right. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, 4, 16.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vollstedt, M., & Rezat, S. (2019). An introduction to grounded theory with a special focus on axial coding and the coding paradigm. Compendium for Early Career Researchers in Mathematics Education, 13, 81–100.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • World Health Organization. (2019). The state of food security and nutrition in the world 2019: Safeguarding against economic slowdowns and downturns. Food and Agriculture Organization.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wossen, T., Berger, T., Haile, M. G., & Troost, C. (2018). Impacts of climate variability and food price volatility on household income and food security of farm households in East and West Africa. Agricultural Systems, 163, 7–15.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Xu, Z. (2019). Food dependency and global food crisis. International Critical Thought, 9(2), 269–281. https://doi.org/10.1080/21598282.2019.1613920

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zare Mehrjerdi, Y., & Amiri, A. (2022). System dynamics analysis of the impact of selected food security factors on national security. Geopolitics Quarterly, 18(67), 256–288.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Management and Accounting, College of Farabi, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

    Seyed Mohammad Hosseini

  2. Department of Political Geography, Faculty of Geography, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

    Mohammad Bagher Qhalibaf

  3. Department of Management, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, University of Gonabad, Gonabad, Iran

    Seyed Mojtaba Moussavi Neghabi

  4. Department of Tourism Management, Faculty of Management and Accounting, Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran, Iran

    Seyed Ali Hosseini

Authors
  1. Seyed Mohammad Hosseini
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Mohammad Bagher Qhalibaf
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Seyed Mojtaba Moussavi Neghabi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Seyed Ali Hosseini
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Seyed Mojtaba Moussavi Neghabi.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declared that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Hosseini, S.M., Qhalibaf, M.B., Moussavi Neghabi, S.M. et al. Developing a model of strategies for enhancing food security against the phenomenon of food geopolitization. Environ Dev Sustain 26, 6635–6652 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-023-02979-7

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-023-02979-7

Keywords

Search

Navigation