Food power
On the smaller scale, particularly in some African countries, food power has been used as a weapon by opposing sides in internal wars and conflicts against their own people.
[1] Forced to rely on these nations in times of shortage, food-importing countries may face food crises if needed supplies are withheld.
The politics can be affected by the ethical, cultural, medical and environmental disputes concerning proper farming, agricultural and retailing methods and regulations.
[5] OPEC's use of oil as a political weapon brought on the possibility for America to use food as a tool against other states and to further the US's goals.
[9] For example, on August 20, 1914 the Allied Powers began an embargo on important items that were normally shipped to Germany.
[3] Another unsuccessful embargo food power attempt was imposed by the UN Security Council in 1990 upon Iraq.
[13] This would be balance of payments, general problems, such as inflation or taxation and land holding.
Examples of the use of economic weapons for political aims are boycotts against certain countries as well as the buying of votes in the UN.
[13] A fourth purpose pertains to the basic assumption of the third category: the governments no longer accept each other as legitimate.
[14] This allows the United States to expect friendly behavior from the countries that import American food.
[16] The United States could use this Food power as a means of exerting pressure on OPEC countries.
[17] An example of market development and humanitarian objectives would fall under a category of countries that are trying to compete with the U.S. economically.
[17] The U.S. has modified its stance since the 1970s, when the State Department and the CIA issued reports exploring the potential of food embargoes.
5426, the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act of 2000, removed agricultural export sanctions applied to Libya, Sudan, and North Korea (agricultural trade with Cuba remained under some restrictions) and gave Congress veto power over unilateral presidential actions in this regard.
[22] But upon closer inspection, it is revealed that nature is not the only catalyst for Africa’s numerous food insecurity issues.
The other theory deals primarily with the population’s ability to access or become entitled to food.
[21] In this case, food power makes itself known on a small scale, as opposing political forces in Sudan compete for the votes of the people by instigating or encouraging the famine.
[21] For example, Sudan’s famine in the 1980s was completely intentional, and was only a pawn for a varied collection of different elites to improve their political and economic statuses.
Merchants were also known to hoard grain and buy livestock at inappropriately low prices when the famines shifted the terms of trade.
[23] Western Sudanese merchants during the famine of 1987 were described as heartless because they refused to sell grain to needy villages in Darfur at reasonable prices.
[25] The worst affected area was Bahr El Ghazal in southwestern Sudan.
Report for Congress: Agriculture: A Glossary of Terms, Programs, and Laws, 2005 Edition (PDF).
