Wanted: institutions for balancing global food and energy markets

作者：Koning Niek^*; Mol Arthur P J

来源：Food Security, 2009, 1(3): 291-303.

DOI：10.1007/s12571-009-0024-0

• Food security
• Biofuel
• Food prices
• Agricultural policy
• Energy policy

The increasing demand for biomass for energy use is further escalating existing food security risks. Managing these risks is a task for global institutions. These should ensure timely investment in the world's capacity for producing biomass and balance the use of this biomass for foods and for non-foods. To achieve this, institutional arrangements for global food markets must fulfil two important goals: reduce the short-term price instability of food markets and prevent a structural scarcity of food in the long term. This paper analyses how agro-food markets, energy markets and biofuel markets are currently regulated. As this regulation is ill-suited to manage food price instabilities and balance food and non-food use of biomass, new institutions need to be put in place. A coordinated system of global commodity management - not unlike the Commodity Control Organization proposed by Keynes for the post-WWII era - is proposed to deal with these coming challenges.

• 出版日期2009-9