Abstract
Historically, Venezuela was recognized as a country with solid government food safety policies, science-based legislation, clear national food security goals, strict standards for domestic food production and imports, and a system of institutions committed to ensuring safety and quality along each step of the food chain. Major institutions that aimed to insure people's welfare, nutrition and food availability, and safety were created between 1936 and 1949. Remarkable progress was achieved in terms of control of tropical maladies and fight against hunger and malnutrition. The National Institute of Hygiene set the standards for food safety and the continuous surveillance of available foods. The National Codex Alimentarius Committee was officially created in 2001. Nowadays, the situation has dramatically deteriorated as indicated by a severe decline of national food production and a strong dependence on food imports, whose prices make them inaccessible to the majority of Venezuelans. In response to the humanitarian crisis, the government created a food program, the so-called Local Supply and Production Committee (CLAP), to distribute basic foods at reduced prices but with clear intentions of social and political control of the population. Currently, CLAP products come from government imports at a preferential exchange rate. Under the umbrella of an economic emergency decree, many food safety regulations and surveillance protocols have been relaxed or eliminated, often resulting in the acquisition of low-quality items that do not meet Venezuelan food preferences or quality standards. The objective of this work is to describe, through the Venezuelan case, how the food security infrastructure of a country can be dismantled. We address (1) the development of institutions dedicated to promoting food security and nutrition and the recent dismantling of the sector; (2) the creation, characteristics, and weakness of the CLAP program; and (3) the current food insecurity crisis and the attempts to provide humanitarian help to the Venezuelan population.
Highlights
Once a rich country, with its economy based mainly on oil production and export, Venezuela managed to guarantee food security by complementing its food availability with the import of some items such as wheat, powdered milk, and edible fats
As a result of this, for many years, Venezuela was recognized as a country with solid infrastructure, in nutrition and food safety policies and in terms of education, health services, roads, electricity, and potable water
During the last 20 years, Venezuelans have witnessed the progressive destruction of a wide range of institutions: public organizations, public and private industries, cattle and crop farms, universities and research facilities, and the national electric, domestic gas, and tap water networks
Summary
With its economy based mainly on oil production and export, Venezuela managed to guarantee food security by complementing its food availability with the import of some items such as wheat, powdered milk, and edible fats. In the 1960s, agriculture, livestock, and national production grew at an accelerated rate; unemployment decreased, and the purchasing power increased; all these factors contributed to improving the population’s food security (Machado-Allison, 2007). Agricultural and food security and sovereignty were state objectives, there was a drop in domestic food production, and the imports were increased to guarantee availability. The fall in oil prices in 2014, together with the reduction in oil extraction capacity, profoundly impacted the import of crop seeds and agricultural supplies This work describes, through the Venezuelan case, how the food safety and security infrastructure of a country has been dismantled
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