A new geopolitics of food is reshaping global food security

The world is entering a new geopolitics of food. Conflicts, trade wars, climate shocks, aid cuts, and the breakdown of international institutions are destabilizing global food markets. This is exposing the fragility of a food system built on just-in-time supply chains and dependence on global markets – and driving food price volatility, corporate profiteering, debt, and rising hunger.

This geopolitical shift, driven by strategic power plays among major economies, is upending free market norms that have dominated industrial food systems for the past 50 years – layering new shocks onto a system already prone to instability, and reinforcing existing power asymmetries. 

Exposed to volatile food prices

Countries in the Global South, made structurally dependent on food imports, are particularly exposed to volatile food and input prices, rising debt burdens, and food being used as a geopolitical weapon. At the same time, powerful firms are leveraging the instability to raise prices and consolidate control, while tightly optimized supply chains prove unable to absorb shocks. 

This special report argues that governments must respond by building resilient self-reliance strengthening domestic food systems, and reclaiming policy tools that can stabilize markets and protect food access in an increasingly unstable world.

This means prioritizing food systems that ensure fair livelihoods for farmers and stable access to food for consumers even in times of disruption. 

Market management tools can help stabilize food systems

To respond to this new geopolitics, governments must bolster domestic food systems and reduce exposure to global shocks.

Market management tools are now receiving renewed attention as a key way to achieve this. These include public food reserves, supply management systems, marketing boards, and production quotas.

Drawing on case studies from India, West Africa, Canada, and Norway, this special report shows how public food stockholding and supply management can stabilize prices, buffer countries from supply disruptions, and support farmers. Governments worldwide can learn from these experiences. 

Crucially, these tools highlight the need to move beyond a narrow focus on economic efficiency as the primary objective of food policy. When designed with equity, sustainability, and democratic participation in mind, market management tools can contribute to the stability and resilience of food systems – forming part of a broader shift towards building resilient self-reliance.

Building resilient self-reliance in food systems

Resilient self-reliance offers a roadmap for addressing the multiple challenges of the present moment – strengthening the domestic foundations of food production, reducing excessive reliance on imports, and improving the ability to withstand external shocks. 

This shift must avoid isolationism and harmful forms of protectionism, as well as further entrenching industrial, input-intensive models of food production that undermine resilience.

Instead, it should promote more diverse, just, and locally rooted agroecological food systems that reduce dependence on fossil fuels and external inputs, and support smaller-scale producers and local and territorial markets.

Resilient self-reliance does not mean cutting off trade completely, but calls for reshaping it around fair, cooperative, and diversified partnerships, particularly to protect the most vulnerable countries and communities from volatility, corporate concentration, and climate change impacts. At its core, resilient self-reliance must be grounded in principles of solidarity, equity, diversity, and agency. 

A critical moment for food policy

This is a historic moment to rethink how food systems are governed – and to strengthen local food systems against geopolitical shocks.

With the right policy choices – including market management, public procurement, and fairer trade arrangements – governments can seize this opportunity to rebuild food systems that are more resilient, more equitable, and better able to ensure food access in an increasingly unstable world.

The choices they make now will determine whether food systems can become more resilient, equitable, and self-reliant – or more vulnerable, more unequal, and more exposed to future shocks. 

IPES-Food calls on governments to: 

• Support agroecological transitions to bolster domestic food provision,
• Build infrastructure to support local and territorial food supply chains,
• Use market management tools to stabilize food markets,
• Strengthen cooperative partnerships on trade and aid.