Summary

The presentation will first identify the very close relationship between water security and food security. Secondly, it will identify the types of water used in the world’s economies. Both the water that can be pumped and moved of which 60% is devoted to food production. And the water that exists in soil profiles which is associated with 70% of the world’s food production. Thirdly, it will show that 90% of the water used in the world’s political economies is embedded in private sector food supply chains. About 15% of the food produced on the world’s farms is traded internationally. This international food  trade keeps the world at peace and enables its nations, especially those in Europe, to avoid armed conflict over water. About 150 economies – out of the 210 in the world – are net food importers, Most European countries are major food importers. Being a net-food-water ‘importer’ is normal. Fourthly, it will be demonstrated that 90% of the water in the global food regime and in its short local and long international food supply chains is managed and mis-managed by farmers. Finally the presentation will also highlight the significance of declining food prices on the livelihoods of farmers..Society wants farmers to be both reliable producers of food and now, in addition, it wants them to be good stewards of water. It has not yet come to terms with the contradictions brought about by public policies that demand cheap food in the asymmetric power relations that exist in private sector food supply chains.

Biography

Professor Tony Allan [BA Durham 1958, PhD London 1971] heads the London Water Research Group at King’s College London and SOAS. He specialises in the analysis of water resources in semi-arid regions and on the role of global systems in ameliorating local and regional water deficits. He pointed out that the water short economies achieve water and food security mainly by importing water intensive food commodities. He coined the concept of virtual water. He provides advice to governments and agencies especially in the Middle East on water policy and water policy reform. His ideas on water security are set out in The Middle East water question: hydropolitics and the global economy and in a new book entitled Virtual water.  He is currently working on why the accounting systems in the food supply chain are dangerously blind to the costs of water and of mis-allocating it. He also works on the water/energy nexus. In 2008 he was awarded the Stockholm Water Prize in recognition of his contribution to water science and water policy. In 2011 he became Académico Corrsepondiente Internacional of the Academy of Sciences of Spain. In 2013 he received the international Environmentalist Award of the Florence based Fondazione Parchi Monumentali Bardini e Peyron and the 2013 Monaco Water Award of Price Albert II of Monaco.