George Monbiot’s piece on the fragility of the global food system and the hunger crisis was powerful and timely (The banks collapsed in 2008 – and our food system is about to do the same, 19 May). The world is in the midst of awful humanitarian and climate crises, and the international community will need to act with great urgency, morality and foresight to address them and to prevent future suffering.
One means of strengthening the resilience of the global food system, and resolving some of the challenges that Monbiot describes, would be to elevate this issue systematically to the level of heads of state – in other words, to do for the food system what the Financial Stability Board does for global macroeconomic stability. The FSB was established in 2009, in the wake of the financial crisis, and gives impartial advice to national governments on how to ensure the stability and resilience of the financial system. Its recommendations are heeded by ministers of finance.
