Abstract
Food security is increasingly influenced by multilateral trade systems and foreign trade policies implemented by national governments. Many of them are now concerned about the sustainability of food supply and the vulnerability of domestic food markets to price volatility, and seek to support domestic producers and protect themselves from increasing food imports. Such restrictions improve food self-sufficiency, but decrease food security. It is important to understand any changes that may have occurred in the food consumption pattern due to trade protectionism and to observe any nutritional implications of these changes. This paper employs the rational food security (RFS) assessment approach, which differentiates sources of food supply on the domestic market, assesses the influence of agricultural and trade frameworks on food consumption patterns, and complies consumption with the appropriate food intake threshold. In the case of Russia, the study demonstrates that the conventional consumption approach to self-sufficiency (FSCA) underestimates the food insecurity level by not accounting for nutrition factors. In addition, the gap between the FSCA and the RFS increases in times of protectionist trade policy and decreases when the agricultural and trade policy framework turns to liberalization. The paper concludes that trade protectionism challenges the sustainability of food supply by decreasing food availability and quality of food products, causes dietary changes, and threatens the food security of the country.
Highlights
Sufficient food is the major human need and a guarantee of a right to life
With a trend towards liberalization of trade facilitated in the framework of the World Trade Organization (WTO), inter-state trading regulations have covered a wide range of agriculture and food security policies and made the WTO rules highly consequential for domestic and international food security policymaking [1]
As a counter to liberalization, they are re-examining their strategies for dealing with domestic agricultural production and food security concerns and seeking measures to improve the sustainability of food supplies while protecting their domestic food markets from increasing imports
Summary
In a context of globalization, each country seeks to secure its food security and ensure the well-being of its people. Both global and national dimensions of food security are developed under the influence of multilateral trade systems with food security deeply integrated into the rules of the trade regime [1]. In the course of the WTO rounds of trade negotiations, an increasing number of developing countries have transitioned from net food exporters to net food importers [2]. Those countries are concerned about the sustainability of their food supply and their vulnerability to food price volatility. One of the most demonstrative examples of this type of policy is Russia, which alternated between the import-oriented model of food security and the import-substitution model of food self-sufficiency several times during 1991–2015 [3]
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