Despite almost halving the proportion of the world＇s undernourished over the past two and half decades, the number of undernourished people in the world remains staggeringly high. Efforts to address the global state ...Despite almost halving the proportion of the world＇s undernourished over the past two and half decades, the number of undernourished people in the world remains staggeringly high. Efforts to address the global state of food insecurity must target China and India, which are home to the world＇s highest and second highest number of undernourished people. This article analyzes the comparative experiences of tackling food security in China and India and adopts an inter-disciplinary approach, which melds legal, economic, and human perspectives to food security. Both China and India have made concerted efforts to improve food security of vulnerable populations in the past three decades. These efforts have historically focused on actively promoting grain production, which has been largely successful in achieving grain self-sufficiency and securing adequate availability of food for their populations. However, the contemporary challenges to food security are now increasingly driven by unsustainable dietary patterns and are exacerbated by growing populations, increasing wealth, and the globalization of food supply chains. As a result, the cause of food insecurity is no longer fundamentally about food supply, but rather about the extent to which marginalized populations are empowered with the rights, freedoms, and capabilities that enable them to attain healthy and productive lives. China and India apply markedly different approaches to address the issue of people＇s access to food. In India, the right to food movement has gained momentum through the work of civil society actors and there is now a legal right to food. In contrast, in China the right to food is neither stipulated in Chinese law nor referenced to in the official policy rhetoric as the country seeks to ensure access to food by focusing on poverty alleviation more generally through an income transfer program and a non-food based, social safety net to help the poor. At the same time, the Chinese population＇s high educational level provides enormous potenti展开更多
文摘Despite almost halving the proportion of the world＇s undernourished over the past two and half decades, the number of undernourished people in the world remains staggeringly high. Efforts to address the global state of food insecurity must target China and India, which are home to the world＇s highest and second highest number of undernourished people. This article analyzes the comparative experiences of tackling food security in China and India and adopts an inter-disciplinary approach, which melds legal, economic, and human perspectives to food security. Both China and India have made concerted efforts to improve food security of vulnerable populations in the past three decades. These efforts have historically focused on actively promoting grain production, which has been largely successful in achieving grain self-sufficiency and securing adequate availability of food for their populations. However, the contemporary challenges to food security are now increasingly driven by unsustainable dietary patterns and are exacerbated by growing populations, increasing wealth, and the globalization of food supply chains. As a result, the cause of food insecurity is no longer fundamentally about food supply, but rather about the extent to which marginalized populations are empowered with the rights, freedoms, and capabilities that enable them to attain healthy and productive lives. China and India apply markedly different approaches to address the issue of people＇s access to food. In India, the right to food movement has gained momentum through the work of civil society actors and there is now a legal right to food. In contrast, in China the right to food is neither stipulated in Chinese law nor referenced to in the official policy rhetoric as the country seeks to ensure access to food by focusing on poverty alleviation more generally through an income transfer program and a non-food based, social safety net to help the poor. At the same time, the Chinese population＇s high educational level provides enormous potenti
基金2012年度国家社科基金项目"民生保障的国家义务研究"(项目编号:12BFX090)2010年江苏省普通高校研究生科研创新计划项目"农民权利平等保护与农村经济社会发展"+2 种基金2010年教育部"国家建设高水平大学公派研究生项目"国家留学基金管理委员会国家公派留学生全额奖学金资助项目"Human Rights and Development:Equal Protection of the Constitutional Rights for Farmers and the Development of Economy and Society in the Countryside"(人权与发展:中国农民宪法权利的平等保护与农村经济社会发展)的阶段性成果(项目编号:留金发[2010]3006)东南大学优秀博士学位论文基金资助
