Sufficiency

One of the most interesting chapter in this book of Alan Beattie carries a subtitle Why does Egypt import half its staple food?

The question is remarkably valid. As stated by Beattie at the beginning of the chapter, if ever there is a place where the wheat of the world should be grown, it is Egypt. Herodotus, a Greek historian, gave a vivid account that Egyptian soils are so fertile that farmers there do not even have to plough or hoe; they had just to sow grain and let loose herds of pigs on the fields to tread the seed into the rich, damp earth. For a long time, Egypt was the major supplier of grain to the ancient Roman Empire. (Alas, that's actually the major reason why the Romes had to conquer Egypt from the very beginning.)

I shall not discuss what happened in the past 2000 years so that Egypt has to rely on importing food from other countries now. Nonetheless, I am intrigued by the concept food security and food sufficiency mentioned in this chapter.

To put it simply, food security means ensuring there will always be enough to eat, while food sufficiency means growing it yourself. On the surface of it, being self sufficient in food supply seems an attractive policy; it protects a country from risks such as disruption of trade through war or economic blockade. However, the need of being self sufficient also implies that the country may have to put considerable resource (for example, manpower and water supply) to farming - a task that the country may not be inherently good at.