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Without food, there can be no exit from the pandemic

Countries must join forces to avert a global food crisis from COVID-19.
  1. Máximo Torero

    1. Máximo Torero is the chief economist of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in Rome, Italy.

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A farmer standing among a huge piles of potatoes

A farmer in the Netherlands with tonnes of potatoes meant for food outlets that have closed because of the coronavirus pandemic. Credit: Eva Plevier/Reuters

The coronavirus pandemic has laid many things bare, none more so than how interconnected our world is. The impact of globalization is most obvious in the stuttering supply chains that threaten food security worldwide. Maintaining or reweaving these webs is going to take technology, innovation and political determination.

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Nature 580, 588-589 (2020)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-01181-3

References

  1. Bouët, A. & Laborde Debucquet, D. Economics of Export Taxation in a Context of Food Crisis. IFPRI Discussion Paper 00994 (International Food Policy Research Institute, 2010).

  2. Torero, M. In Food Price Volatility and Its Implications for Food Security and Policy (eds Kalkuhl, M., von Braun, J. & Torero, M.) 457–510 (Springer, 2016).

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  3. World Bank. The Economic Impact of the 2014 Ebola Epidemic (World Bank, 2014).

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  4. Schmidhuber, J., Pound, J. & Qiao, B. COVID-19: Channels of Transmission to Food and Agriculture (FAO, 2020).

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  5. Food and Agriculture Organization. The State of Food and Agriculture 2019: Moving Forward on Food Loss and Waste Reduction (FAO, 2019).

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  6. Trendov, N. M., Varas, S. & Zeng, M. Digital Technologies in Agriculture and Rural Areas — Status Report (FAO, 2019).

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