Summary: | 碩士 === 國立政治大學 === 外交研究所 === 102 === Since the world food crisis of 2007-2008, 925 million people have been undernourished around the world. Factors that drive up the fluctuation of food price interact more closely, thereby causing negative effects of food insecurity to quickly spread across the national boundaries. The transboundary effects make it difficult to solve food insecurity problem by single state. Therefore, corporation among countries becomes necessary. Several major cereal producing countries exist in Asia-Pacific, along with more than 60 percent of the world's undernourished population; therefore, food security issues in this area are becoming more and more important. In brief, this study attempts to ascertain whether the initiative of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Food System (APEC Food System) has a positive influence on coordinating a broader approach of Asia-Pacific Food problem.
Besides, with qualitative and quantitative methods, this study deals with food availability, food access, food utilization and food stability of three economies with different ratio of cereal import dependency. The evolution and operation of APEC Food System are also included. This study also sorts out Asia food security indicators in Asia Pacific from the database of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and World Bank. Then, these indicators are used to observe the shift of food insecurity of APEC economies. Finally, the author evaluates the overall achievement of APEC Food System.
This study shows that food stability and food access in Asia-Pacific are not secured. In contrast, food availability and food utilization in Asia-Pacific are improved. Through the implementation of relevant food security projects or the establishment of development framework, APEC Food System can provide the resource to the economy with weak food governance capacity. Also, APEC Food System can coordinate the food policy between three economies with different ratio of cereal import dependency. After 2012, four fifths of the APEC economies have been improved in at least one dimension of food security. This phenomenon shows that APEC Food System has coordinated Asia-Pacific region with food security to some extent.
Key Words: Food security, APEC Food System, World food crisis, Cereal import dependency ratio, Food security indicators.
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