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date: 10 February 2025

Food as a Weaponlocked

Food as a Weaponlocked

  • Ellen MesserEllen MesserFriedman School of Nutrition Science & Policy, Tufts University
  • , and Marc J. CohenMarc J. CohenIndependent Scholar

Summary

The use of food as a weapon is as old as written records. Siege, blockade, and starvation are well-documented military strategies, as are political strategies that use food as a tool to attract supporters and dissuade opposition. In the 20th and 21st centuries, societies attempted to limit the use of food deprivation as a tool of war. In this time period, international groups also increased humanitarian efforts to monitor and redress the nutritional harms connected to violent conflict. International human rights principles, as supporting architecture, assert that adequate food is a basic individual right for all human beings and that freedom from hunger is an achievable, measurable, and sustainable development goal. Because of the long-term history of weaponizing food, recent institutional efforts are in place to identify, measure, prevent, and redress harms. These include legal frameworks; economic, food, and development politics; nongovernmental, civil-society mobilizations; and community organizing around peace, food, and nutrition.

Because the destructive impacts on human health, environment, economic livelihoods, and societies endure for decades to come, the concept of “food as a weapon” can be broadened to “food wars,” which encompass connections between food insecurity and conflict in both directions.

Subjects

  • Food Politics and Policy
  • Food Globalization and Industrialization

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