The Geopolitics of Food and Agriculture

Food has long served as an instrument of statecraft. Yet agricultural economics typically analyzes policy through the lens of consumer and producer welfare, which neglects security externalities. We review the literature at the intersection of agricultural economics and political science, examining how food systems both shape and are shaped by geopolitical forces through the two channels of ( a ) domestic instability with international spillovers and ( b ) the deliberate use of food in statecraft. Our synthesis of key findings in the literature suggests that ( a ) food prices relate to riots and instability while ambiguously relating to civil war and violence, ( b ) the wide geographic spread of agriculture limits but does not eliminate unilateral coercive leverage compared with other strategic sectors, and ( c ) domestic food policies are strongly related to national security goals. Moreover, we point out the many extant data sets one can use to do work in this area and identify several research gaps in the literature. As global uncertainty intensifies, integrating geopolitical analysis into agricultural economics is essential for policy relevance.