Food Security Workshop

KENNESAW, Ga. (Oct 19, 2015) — In partnership with the Coles College of Business and the Anhalt University of Applied Sciences in Bernburg, Germany, Dr. Marcus Marktanner co-organized a workshop focused on the future of food security management. Marktanner’s interest in food security began in 2007 when food prices increased dramatically. In this year he was asked by the World Food Programme to conduct a study on food market inefficiencies in the Arab world and their impact on food insecurity. He now guest teaches a course on the Economics of Food Security every year at Anhalt University.

Food security management has become a global political challenge. Climate change, economic development in emerging economies, the shift from food to fuel crops, and the globalization of food markets have evolved as new threats to food security. As a result of these developments, food prices have become more volatile, global shocks have rocked local markets, and social safety nets are often no longer sufficient to absorb food price shocks.

The workshop focused on the ability of technological and economic advances to shape food security in the present and the future. Bernd Dohmen of Anhalt University discussed geographic mapping technologies to increase harvest yields. Wolfram Schnaeckel, also of Anhalt University, showed how decreasing waste in the food production process can improve food availability. Elena Kashtanova focused in her presentation on the relationship between global market liberalization and food insecurity. Marktanner concluded the workshop by presenting a policy support framework that estimates the economic returns from public investments in greater food security.