2 Reassessment of Urban Sustainability …
49
restrictions on trade exchanges, due to limited movement supply chain vulnerabilities globally, nationally and locally has been exposed; the outbreak has impacted
business and economies severely and is predicted to be much greater than that of the
2003 SARS outbreak. US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued
its ‘Business Pandemic Influenza Planning Checklist’ in 2005 to encourage preparedness but such pandemic plans have mostly been shelved [23]. As response to severe
pandemic is complex, it cannot really be devised ‘on the fly mode’, now the world is
at a loss to tackle the devastating impact. The shocks of the initial lockdown during
Covid-19 crisis were sufficient enough to jeopardise the food security especially that
of the low-income households which was not directly related to supply of staples or
logistics of food distribution but has its root in the fear of economic collapse and
drop in earnings. To do away with this food insecurity several governments took
steps like providing free food grains or cash transfers to buy foods. But that covered
the staples only, the supply of exotic items which became ‘indispensable’ in kitchen
due to globalisation wave were either unavailable or too expensive to afford and the
local producers and dealers were not equipped enough to step in to fill that gap.
To be very specific COVID-19 is not the issue which created the food security
problem but the one which unravelled the underlying simmering issue of food insecurity in the urban areas, it highlighted the fragility of our urban food systems and
questioned the resilience of food systems. The local food systems already tend to face
several structural issues such as inadequate infrastructure, locational isolation, lack
of access and linkage, etc., which have hindered them to grow and cater to the entire
urban population around them. The local and regional food supply chain especially
in the developing world involves—apart from food producers, transporters, retailers
and sellers, a class of middlemen (aggregators, wholesalers and brokers) who try to
maximise the profit detrimentally affecting the agri-business supply and value chain
from operating efficiently causing artificial food shortages and price volatility. So, it
is obvious that mobility restrictions and lockdowns will worsen the situation through
ripple effects.
Though keeping mortality as low as possible is a priority of all the governments,
measures to ameliorate the inevitable economic downturn are also imperative. While
taking drastic measures to curb the menace of the pandemic imposition of strict
lockdown indirectly affected global trade hampering movement of food from areas of
surplus to areas of shortage; to avoid severe shortages and associated food insecurity
reliance only on local production with shorter supply chain is the only alternative.
But if that supply chain is weak then, indirect export bans will pose serious threats to
the access of the poor to food who already face a crumbling economy specially in the
developing countries like India. India, the country with second highest population in
the world also took resort to strict lockdown as precautionary measures but as it took
a toll on the economic activities along with livelihood of the economically weaker
section, the government took resort to Public Distribution System (PDS) to ensure
the supply of basic food for all.
49
restrictions on trade exchanges, due to limited movement supply chain vulnerabilities globally, nationally and locally has been exposed; the outbreak has impacted
business and economies severely and is predicted to be much greater than that of the
2003 SARS outbreak. US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued
its ‘Business Pandemic Influenza Planning Checklist’ in 2005 to encourage preparedness but such pandemic plans have mostly been shelved [23]. As response to severe
pandemic is complex, it cannot really be devised ‘on the fly mode’, now the world is
at a loss to tackle the devastating impact. The shocks of the initial lockdown during
Covid-19 crisis were sufficient enough to jeopardise the food security especially that
of the low-income households which was not directly related to supply of staples or
logistics of food distribution but has its root in the fear of economic collapse and
drop in earnings. To do away with this food insecurity several governments took
steps like providing free food grains or cash transfers to buy foods. But that covered
the staples only, the supply of exotic items which became ‘indispensable’ in kitchen
due to globalisation wave were either unavailable or too expensive to afford and the
local producers and dealers were not equipped enough to step in to fill that gap.
To be very specific COVID-19 is not the issue which created the food security
problem but the one which unravelled the underlying simmering issue of food insecurity in the urban areas, it highlighted the fragility of our urban food systems and
questioned the resilience of food systems. The local food systems already tend to face
several structural issues such as inadequate infrastructure, locational isolation, lack
of access and linkage, etc., which have hindered them to grow and cater to the entire
urban population around them. The local and regional food supply chain especially
in the developing world involves—apart from food producers, transporters, retailers
and sellers, a class of middlemen (aggregators, wholesalers and brokers) who try to
maximise the profit detrimentally affecting the agri-business supply and value chain
from operating efficiently causing artificial food shortages and price volatility. So, it
is obvious that mobility restrictions and lockdowns will worsen the situation through
ripple effects.
Though keeping mortality as low as possible is a priority of all the governments,
measures to ameliorate the inevitable economic downturn are also imperative. While
taking drastic measures to curb the menace of the pandemic imposition of strict
lockdown indirectly affected global trade hampering movement of food from areas of
surplus to areas of shortage; to avoid severe shortages and associated food insecurity
reliance only on local production with shorter supply chain is the only alternative.
But if that supply chain is weak then, indirect export bans will pose serious threats to
the access of the poor to food who already face a crumbling economy specially in the
developing countries like India. India, the country with second highest population in
the world also took resort to strict lockdown as precautionary measures but as it took
a toll on the economic activities along with livelihood of the economically weaker
section, the government took resort to Public Distribution System (PDS) to ensure
the supply of basic food for all.