Food Security: A Neglected Dimension of Caribbean Agriculture Policy

At the World Food Summit in 1996, 186 countries including those of CAR1COM adopted the "Rome Declaration", which among other things expressed the: "Commitment to achieving food security for all and to an ongoing effort to eradicate hunger in all countries, with an immediate view to reducing the number of undernourished people to half their present level no later than 2015". The number of such persons was then estimated at 840 million and the target of 400 million persons was set for 2015. Five years later the Summit recently re-convened in (June 2002) to evaluate the progress or lack of it in meeting this target. Despite the unprecedented character of these conferences and the undoubted political weight attached to them, they have barely found echoes in public debates in the Caribbean. This paper explores issues of food security as they concern the Region. It does so from two vantage points namely, (1) by reconnoitering global efforts and targets aimed at reducing food insecurity and (2) by drawing attention to the prevailing conditions and policy responses to agricultural decline and stagnation along with the persistence of strong pockets of poverty, high levels of inequality and the consequent impact on the state of hunger, nutrition, and food insecurity.