The health impacts of globalisation: a conceptual framework

Huynen, Maud MTE; Martens, Pim; Hilderink, Henk BM

stimulate more efficient use of the world's resources as well as the production of food in regions that are more suitable to do so [60, 61] . Free trade permits food consumption to grow faster than domestic food production in countries where there are constraints on increasing the latter. Accelerated economic growth can also contribute to food security (Figure 3 ; arrow 10) [60] . Others, however, argue that the forces of globalisation in fact endanger food security (e.g. see Lang [62] ) and that countries should strive to become more self-sufficient [60] . For many countries the increasing dependence on food imports goes hand in hand with a higher vulnerability to shocks arising in global markets, which can affect import capacity and access to food imports [60] . Many food insecure countries are not able to earn enough with exporting goods in order to pay for the needed food imports [63] .