Food systems under shock: the evolution of food security status of Karantina residents after the Beirut explosion

Robust food systems are crucial for ensuring access to affordable and nutritious food, particularly in times of crisis. Economic instability, currency devaluation, and political turmoil can disrupt food systems, leading to higher food prices, compromised nutrition, and increased vulnerability. Lebanon is a stark example of this, where a catastrophic explosion in Beirut’s Port in 2020 worsened an existing economic and humanitarian crisis. The depreciation of the Lebanese currency led to soaring food prices, impacting people’s ability to buy food, and pushing many into poverty, illustrating the significant impact of the state food systems during crises (FAO, 2021). In times of crisis, a simplified food system, relying on emergency food aid supplies, replaces conventional food system, as food aid and cash transfers become the primary source upon which the affected population depends to ensure their food security and meet their essential needs. In this article we report on research conducted between 2020 and 2022 focusing on the impacts of the Beirut explosion on food security status of the permanent residents the Karantina neighborhood—the closest residential area to the Beirut port. We surveyed 100 households chosen at random, examining shifts in food security and nutrition at three intervals: 6 months prior to the explosion, 6 months following it, and 2 years after the event. The findings revealed a sharp decline in food security and diet quality among residents in the two-year period following the explosion. The proportion of food-secure households fell from 71% to 2%, while those with acceptable food consumption decreased from 96% to 30%. Additionally, income and debt situations worsened significantly. Almost 95% of residents resorted to crisis coping strategies, such as using savings, borrowing money for food, selling furniture, withdrawing children from school, and reducing education and health expenses, rendering them highly vulnerable. Food and cash assistance were provided to all households for 6 months to one-year post-explosion, resulting in improved food security and consumption after 6 months. However, these gains diminished 2 years later, once the assistance ended, revealing a lack of resilience in the food system. In conclusion, soon after the assistance stopped, the prolonged deterioration of Lebanon’s economic situation, compounded by multiple crises, pushed these households further into poverty, exacerbating food insecurity. This research underscores the critical importance of sustained support and comprehensive economic reforms to rebuild food systems and promote nutrition resilience in crisis-affected regions

Transformation rurale, paysage et conflit dans un village du Liban Sud, Sinay

Depuis 1950, les villages libanais ont subi des changements considérables dans leur structure. Au Liban Sud, les périodes de conflits, guerres et occupations ont contribué à donner au paysage sa forme actuelle. Les auteurs présentent une étude sociale et spatiale du village de Sinay situé dans cette région, et examinent le rôle que joue un conflit local dans la transformation de ce paysage. Ils utilisent une méthodologie mixte (ethnographie et cartographie) pour établir les liens entre ces transformations et les structures sociales, politiques et économiques. Le paysage a évolué d’un espace principalement agraire vers un espace multifonctionnel marqué par un étalement urbain et les usages multiples du sol. Ces transformations ont été façonnées par l’interaction entre les changements locaux, nationaux et régionaux.Since the 1950s, Lebanese villages have undergone dramatic changes in their structure. In South Lebanon, periods of conflict, war and occupation have contributed to giving the landscape its current form. We present a landscape study of the village of Sinay in South Lebanon, and analyse the role of local conflicts in the transformations we observe. We used mixed methodology (ethnography and cartography) to demonstrate the links between landscape transformations, social, political, and economic changes. The landscape has evolved from a predominantly agricultural space to a multifunctional one marked by urban extension and multiple land uses. Throughout these transformations are shaped by the interplay of changes at the local, national and regional levels

Globalization, democratization, and the Arab uprising : the international factor in MENA's failed democratization

What explains the almost negative impact of international factors on post-Uprising democratization prospects? This article compares the utility of rival “diffusionist” and neo-Gramscian political economy frames to explain this. Three international factors deter democratization. The failure of Western democracy promotion is rooted in the contradiction between the dominance of global finance capital and the norm of democratic equality; in the periphery, neo-liberalism is most compatible with hybrid regimes and, at best, “low intensity democracy.” In MENA, neo-liberalism generated a crony capitalism incompatible with democratization; while this also sparked the uprisings, these have failed to address class inequalities. Moreover at the normative level, MENA hosts the most credible counter-hegemonic ideologies; the brief peaking of democratic ideology in the region during the early uprisings soon declined amidst regional discourse wars. Non-democrats—coercive regime remnants and radical charismatic movements--were empowered by the competitive interference of rival powers in Uprising states. The collapse of many Uprising states amidst a struggle for power over the region left an environment uncongenial to democratization.PostprintPeer reviewe

Food in the Anthropocene: the EAT–Lancet Commission on healthy diets from sustainable food systems

Food systems have the potential to nurture human health and support environmental sustainability; however, they are currently threatening both. Providing a growing global population with healthy diets from sustainable food systems is an immediate challenge. Although global food production of calories has kept pace with population growth, more than 820 million people have insufficient food and many more consume low-quality diets that cause micronutrient deficiencies and contribute to a substantial rise in the incidence of diet-related obesity and diet-related non-communicable diseases, including coronary heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. Unhealthy diets pose a greater risk to morbidity and mortality than does unsafe sex, and alcohol, drug, and tobacco use combined. Because much of the world's population is inadequately nourished and many environmental systems and processes are pushed beyond safe boundaries by food production, a global transformation of the food system is urgently needed

GLOBAL VIEWS OF LOCAL FOOD SYSTEMS: Should Farmers Just Say No?

First paragraphs: In a world in which agriculture is increasingly dominated by industrial farming and international trade, there is one crop that is still profitable to small farmers. It is hardy, drought-tolerant, and thrives on marginal lands. Multinational corporations have not yet hijacked its seeds, and its cultivation requires limited capital investment. Marketing poses no real problem, and farm gate prices are often an order of magnitude higher than those of the next alternative crop. Its production is still concentrated in countries of the South, where it does not benefit from any market-distorting subsidy. And while it can be consumed locally, it is mainly an export crop, bringing in much needed hard currency. It is also a magnet for Northern tourists coming to sample the produce "a la source." The catch? It is illegal. From the mountains of the Moroccan Rif to the Afghan Highlands, from the hills of Lesotho to the forests of Jamaica, the cultivation of cannabis is essential to the livelihoods of millions of people who live on marginal lands. In many southern countries it is unofficially tolerated, making it an extralegal rather than an illegal crop. Governments recognize, albeit covertly, that cannabis farming plays a crucial role in halting the massive exodus of farmers from rural areas where poverty is endemic. Take Morocco, for instance, the world's largest producer and exporter of cannabis in the world, where kif (the local name for cannabis) is smuggled by boat to Spain across the Mediterranean and from there to the rest of Europe. The Spanish government doesn't like it and the Guardia vigilantly polices Spain's coastline. But the alternative to cannabis contraband is often the smuggling of North African migrants using the same route. As one kif producer put it, "Kif does not kill you, hunger does" (Martelli, 2013, para. 16), while the human toll from the illegal sea crossings keeps increasing. Similar stories are echoed in most cannabis-producing regions in the world...

GLOBAL VIEWS OF LOCAL FOOD SYSTEMS: Bread, Freedom, and Social Justice

First paragraph: Anyone needing an indication of how much the Arab World has changed in the past year has only to tune in to one of the popular satellite TV music channels. There, young artist Ramy Essam's hit song "Bread, Freedom and Social Justice" is beamed several times a day to the four corners of the Arab world. The song was released last year, in the wake of the Egyptian uprising that brought down a regime that punished talk about freedom and social justice with imprisonment and torture. It takes its title from one of the most popular slogans chanted during the 2011 protests, which came after bread riots had shaken Egypt and many surrounding Arab countries in the wake of the 2008 food crisis. In that sense, the song adequately summarizes the main demands of the Arab people. Food security is at the top of that list...

Civil War and the Devastation of Syria's Food System

First paragraphs: It is unfortunate that food and war make such good bedfellows. History is replete with instances of food being used as a weapon of siege or as a tool of control. In our globalized world, the domination of food trade has become an integral part of the modern arsenal. Henry Kissinger's alleged quote, "Control oil and you control nations, control food and you control the people," adequately captures this approach to what might be called "breadboat diplomacy," which was deployed effectively in Iraq's oil-for-food program (Arnove, 2003). Food is also a major mover of people and, while no one knows if Marie Antoinette really did suggest that the people of France replace bread with cake on the eve of the French Revolution, the message here is quite clear: beware of the hungry masses. As many researchers have suggested (see "Let them eat baklava," 2012), the wave of popular uprisings that continue to shake the Arab world is interwoven with increased world food prices and chronic food insecurity. Food has also been associated with mass displacement and even with genocides. The "scorched earth" strategy essentially implies the removal of the capacity to produce food in order to destroy the fabric of society. One of the earliest such instances comes to us from the Romans, who reputedly plowed salt into the fertile land of Carthage after the end of the Third Punic War in 146 BC. Unable to produce crops, Carthage was abandoned...