Chapter 8
Addressing the Challenge of Food
Security in Turkey
Sezin İba Gürsoy
Abstract Over the next few decades the world faces an historic challenge with the
nexus of food security, economic development, and global environmental change.
The challenge of the coming years is to produce enough food to meet the needs of
nine billion people while also preserving and enhancing natural resources for future
generations. Going forward, agriculture will need to adapt to a changing climate in
order to ensure adequate food production. Concerns regarding the additional
challenges that come with meeting food security have distinctly risen on political
and policy agendas in recent years.
This chapter focuses on the ability and capacity of the food supply system in
Turkey to provide its national food security in the face of growing challenges in
production, resource supply and self-sufficiency. Although Turkey is a net food
exporting country, it is anticipated that domestic food insecurity will rise in the
coming decades. Through discussing the threats posed by the changing demographic structure, refugee crises, climate change, increasing land and water
scarcities for food production and food price volatility, this chapter tries to uncover
the concerns about ensuring food security in Turkey.
Keywords Food security Á Agriculture Á Turkey Á Climate change Á Nutrition
8.1 Introduction
As the world population continues to increase, much more effort and innovation
will be needed in order to sustainably increase agricultural production, improve the
supply chain and enhance global food security. The dramatic rise in global food
prices and the crisis of 2007/2008 triggered international organizations to promote a
comprehensive and unified response to the food security challenge. Continuing
population and consumption growth will mean that the global demand for food will
Dr. Sezin İba Gürsoy, Assistant Professor, Department of International Relations, Faculty of
Economics and Administrative Sciences, Kırklareli University, Kırklareli, Turkey. e-mail:
seziniba@gmail.com. This chapter is a revised version of the author’s phd thesis.
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Z. Savaşan and V. Sümer (eds.), Environmental Law and Policies in Turkey,
The Anthropocene: Politik—Economics—Society—Science 31,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36483-0_8
127
Addressing the Challenge of Food
Security in Turkey
Sezin İba Gürsoy
Abstract Over the next few decades the world faces an historic challenge with the
nexus of food security, economic development, and global environmental change.
The challenge of the coming years is to produce enough food to meet the needs of
nine billion people while also preserving and enhancing natural resources for future
generations. Going forward, agriculture will need to adapt to a changing climate in
order to ensure adequate food production. Concerns regarding the additional
challenges that come with meeting food security have distinctly risen on political
and policy agendas in recent years.
This chapter focuses on the ability and capacity of the food supply system in
Turkey to provide its national food security in the face of growing challenges in
production, resource supply and self-sufficiency. Although Turkey is a net food
exporting country, it is anticipated that domestic food insecurity will rise in the
coming decades. Through discussing the threats posed by the changing demographic structure, refugee crises, climate change, increasing land and water
scarcities for food production and food price volatility, this chapter tries to uncover
the concerns about ensuring food security in Turkey.
Keywords Food security Á Agriculture Á Turkey Á Climate change Á Nutrition
8.1 Introduction
As the world population continues to increase, much more effort and innovation
will be needed in order to sustainably increase agricultural production, improve the
supply chain and enhance global food security. The dramatic rise in global food
prices and the crisis of 2007/2008 triggered international organizations to promote a
comprehensive and unified response to the food security challenge. Continuing
population and consumption growth will mean that the global demand for food will
Dr. Sezin İba Gürsoy, Assistant Professor, Department of International Relations, Faculty of
Economics and Administrative Sciences, Kırklareli University, Kırklareli, Turkey. e-mail:
seziniba@gmail.com. This chapter is a revised version of the author’s phd thesis.
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Z. Savaşan and V. Sümer (eds.), Environmental Law and Policies in Turkey,
The Anthropocene: Politik—Economics—Society—Science 31,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36483-0_8
127