Food security around the globe is coming under increasing pressure due to powerful underlying trends, such as a fast increasing and ever more urbanized population, changing dietary habits as well as climate change.
All cities from New York to Dubai face their own variant of food challenges and must develop their own way to address them. There is no unique solution to this challenge, but our food system model must be redefined from production to consumption factoring in issues of waste and loss. Although challenges and their extent vary from one city to another in terms of population, dietary patterns, land saturation, environmental degradation and climate change, all governments must adapt their agricultural and food systems.
Food security must be strengthened in all aspects, with countries and cities following a holistic approach when considering their food systems from ‘farm-to-fork’ and the interconnection of their national systems to the world.
Launched at the 2019 World Government Summit, this Oliver Wyman report offers governments around the world the framework to assess the state of their food security and the tools to strengthen it both from regulatory and technological standpoints. In particular, five major cities, New York, Singapore, Riyadh, Dubai and Havana, were assessed to determine how secure they are along the five dimensions outlined in the paper.
Finally, the report puts forward a series of regulatory initiatives combined with technological recommendations to address weak links and comprehensively ensure that their population’s most basic needs are fully met, now and for the future generation. With the technological revolution now rife across the globe, cities especially in the Gulf region have the financial means are encouraged to invest in technologies such as vertical farming or greenhouses to increase output. Food security is also ensured through investments in climate smart technologies and infrastructures.
Exhibit: Initiatives To Strengthen Food Security In Cities Around The World
