Abstract

The relevance of the food superpower study is determined not only by the scientific interest of agrarian economics, sociology or history, but, primarily, by the tasks of agricultural policy, by the need in strategic and practical decisions of the subjects of public administration. The study aims at a comparative analysis of the food development strategies of Russia and the United States in the historical and contemporary perspectives. The subject is food-development and food-security strategies applied by Russia and the USA. Interdisciplinary and comparative methods are used to identify the key features of the food and agro-industrial development in two countries. Based on the results, the study presents not only environmental or technological factors in the formation of the agrarian strategies of the USA and the USSR, but also political and economic factors (American depression and Soviet collectivization; NeoNEP in the USSR and the New Deal in the USA). The paper concludes with a set of variables for the study of strategies for becoming a food superpower and for keeping this status: at the stage of becoming a food superpower – state policy to support agriculture, introduction of new technologies and methods of farming, development of consulting services, agricultural cooperation, wholesale markets and supply chains, social development of the village and information infrastructure, integration with world markets and expansion of food trade; at the stage of keeping and strengthening the status – the use of the newest technologies and agricultural practices, effective consulting services, expanding links with retail markets and international food trade, regional climate resilience. The novelty of the study is determined by the attempt to model a path for becoming a food superpower based on the comparative analysis of the US and Russia food strategies, and by testing of the hypothesis that there are two stages in the evolution of a food superpower. Based on the study of the real global leadership of Russia and the United States as wheat exporting countries and of the planned development of organic food production, the paper provides some recommendations on the possible ways for combining these two strategies and overcoming their limitations.