Developing countries amid environmental risks and food (in)security

Abstract

The problematic relationship between human beings and the natural environment is perhaps the hardest challenge of our time, which requires a unified commitment of scientists, academics, and policy makers. An increasingly stressed planet – characterized by ecosystems degradation, water scarcity, and climate change pressures – undermines several human activities and, above all, the human ability to feed the world, not only by constraining the production of food, but also by hindering its distribution for instance. The achievement of food security has been, and continues to be, a central issue in the public discourse, and although its conceptualization has changed throughout the years, the goal of eliminating hunger – especially critical in time of Covid-19 – together with improving nutrition, remains a huge global priority. However, current food systems are blamed for exacerbating the environmental crisis – mainly through high emission levels of greenhouse gases, land conversion, abuse of pesticides and fertilizers – and new approaches based on the need of a sustainability transition are emerging. The purpose of the dissertation is to explore, based on the most accredited statistical sources and literature on the subject, which countries are considered most at environmental risk, which ones are classified as most food insecure or at risk of food insecurity. A multitude of indicators were taken into consideration to analyze the relationships between the state of food insecurity and susceptibility to environmental risks and to identify, in the near future, the situations of greater exposure to the risk of food non self-sufficiency.