Publication: Future Foodscapes: Re-imagining Agriculture in Latin America and the Caribbean
Date
2020-11
ISSN
Published
2020-11
Author(s)
Abstract
Agriculture and food systems in Latin
America and the Caribbean Region (LAC) are rightfully
recognized as among the most successful on the planet: they
have fed a fast-growing population, facilitated economic
development, enabled urbanization, generated substantial
exports, and helped drive down global hunger and poverty.
Yet despite these significant contributions, the public
image of the region’s agriculture and food systems as
dynamic, productive, and efficient reflectsonly part of a
more complicated reality. The impressive achievements have
come at the expense of significant environmental and health
costs. LAC agriculture uses over one-third of the region’s
land area, consumes nearly three-quarters of the region’s
fresh water resources, and generates almost one-half of the
region’s greenhouse gas emissions. And despite the
consistent food production surpluses, millions of people in
LAC regularly go hungry or suffer from malnutrition and
related diseases. In short, the region’s successes in
feeding the population and exporting food to the rest of the
world are exacting high costs on people and on the environment.
Citation
“Morris, Michael; Sebastian, Ashwini Rekha; Perego, Viviana Maria Eugenia. 2020. Future Foodscapes : Re-imagining Agriculture in Latin America and the Caribbean. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/34812 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”