Dr. Vandana Shiva
presented the Center for Global Peace and Conflict
Studies' 17th Annual Margolis Lecture on "The
New Food Wars: Globalization, GMOs, and Biofuels."
This speech on Wednesday, April 30, 2008 was supported
by CUSA as part of our program of activities on food
secuirty.
CUSA presented a course
on "Unconventional Security Issues II" to the
Osher
Lifelong Learning Institute at UC, Irvine. The
course, on April 17 and 24, included presentations by CUSA's
Richard Matthew, Heather Goldsworthy, Bryan McDonald and
Crystal Murphy Morgan on a
range of issues including climate change, food security,
terrorism, infectious disease, and microfinance and
social entreprenuership.
CUSA took part in
Focus the Nation: Sustainability and Climate Change
Solutions at UCI on January 31, 2008. Part of a
nationwide series of events, the Focus the Nation event
at UC Irvine lays the foundation for a serious
discussion about global warming solutions. CUSA related
presentations included:
- Richard Matthew, "Climate
Change, Peace and Conflict."
- Bryan McDonald, "Climate
Change, Sustainability and the Global Food System."
Bryan McDonald
presented “Navigating the Changing Security Landscape”
to the UC, Irvine Chancellor's Club on Tuesday, January
22, 2008. McDonald, who was a 2006-2007 Chancellor's
Club Fellowship recipient, provided an overview of
unconventional security issues and the changing security
landscape in the context of two cases: (1) food safety
and security, and (2) the growth of virtual worlds and
cyber security challenges.
Bryan McDonald (forthcoming 2008).
“Infectious Disease, Environmental Change and Human Security,” in
Richard Matthew, Mike Brklacich, and Bryan
McDonald, eds. Global Environmental Change and Human Security.
CUSA presented a course
on "Unconventional Security Issues" to the
Osher
Lifelong Learning Institute at UC, Irvine. The
course, on September 18 and 25, included lessons on a
range of security issues including climate change, food
security, terrorism, and infectious disease.
Bryan McDonald, "The
Food System and Human Security: Confronting Hunger and Biological
Threats in a Time of Global Change."
Presented at
47th
International Studies Association convention, held March 22-25,
2006, in San Diego, California.
Richard Matthew and Bryan
McDonald. "Cities
Under Siege: Urban Planning and the Threat of Infectious Disease."
Journal of the American Planning Association (JAPA) Vol. 72 No. 1
(Winter 2006): 109-117.
Bryan McDonald,
“Human Security and Food Security in an Age of
Transnational Threats,” Public Policy and
Security Speaker Series, University of California, Los
Angeles, May 10 2005.
Richard Matthew and Bryan McDonald. "Cities
Under Siege: Transnational Threats and Urban Vulnerabilities." Presented
at the American Planning Association's 2005 National Planning
Conference, San Francisco, California., March 20, 2005.
Bryan McDonald, “Biotech Food,
Biosecurity, and Changes in World Politics.” Presented at the annual
meeting of the American Political Science Association,
Chicago, Illinois, September 2-5, 2004.
Bryan McDonald, "From AgBioTech to AgBioTerror: Genetically Modified
Food and International Security in the 21st Century." Presented at
the annual meeting of The International Studies Association,
Montreal, Canada, March 17-20, 2004.
The way
people gain access to food has always been central to social, political and
economic systems. Increased connection between the world’s places and peoples
has highlighted the importance of links between how humans produce, distribute,
and consume foodstuffs and pressing social, political and environmental issues.
Even in a time when economies are increasingly focused on information and
technology, agriculture remains an important sector of the global economy. The
food system has faced a growing number of challenges in recent years including:
increased demand for food from a growing global population, increased
centralization of food production and distribution, and pressures from changes
in food consumption patterns. Agricultural practices are closely linked to
problems such as degradation and increased salinization of soils, increased
stresses on water resources, impacts on water quality from agricultural run-off,
and the development of antibiotic resistant microbes. 
One
of the major goals of efforts to optimize the food system over previous decades
has been to ensure food security. The Rome Declaration on World Food Security
and the World Food Summit Plan of Action states, “Food security exists when
all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe
and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an
active and healthy life.” A consequence of processes of global change is that
ensuring food security is now a more problematic set of challenges than in the
past. Tackling the challenge of malnutrition now involves addressing the needs
of people who do not consume sufficient calories each day but also of people who
consume too many calories; as well as the many people who consume a sufficient
amount of calories but receive inadequate nutrition from their diets. 
CUSA's
research on food security looks at threats confronting the global food system to
consider how the security landscape is being reconstructed by transnational
networks that impact worldwide economic, technological, and cultural practices.
Through examinations of current food security challenges, including hunger,
natural infectious disease, accidental contamination of food supplies, and
nefariously employed biological agents, we consider the evolving relationship
between hunger, disease, and security. Recent questions about the safety of food
systems even in industrialized countries highlight the need to ensure a global
food system that provides all people with safe, healthy and affordable food
produced through environmentally sustainable methods.