Abstract

Abstract

Abstract

The relevance of the study is explained by its design to constantly monitor the state and risks of food security in Russia, the importance of such monitoring ever increasing with the pandemic and a resulting decrease in household incomes. The objective of the study is to examine the degree to which the Russian society has achieved food security, not according to government programs and strategies of national development, but regarding the economic affordability of food for the population. The subject of the research is the Russians’ everyday food practices and their perception of personal and family risks in food consumption. By 2020, a sociological monitoring model was developed and successfully tested, which is a combination of two methods – a representative telephone survey (nationwide sampling) and ‘expert’ interviews (the longest conversations of interviewers with respondents are transcribed in order to identify explanations in respondents’ answers to the questions of the standardized formalized interview). The results of the study (sociological data) supplement the statistical and economic assessments of the possibilities and limitations of the stable functioning of the internal market given the global economy shocks. The study allows a more accurate assessment of the state of the domestic market under the rising prices and the government’s attempts to limit them. Thus, we can make the following conclusions: the Russians’ inconsistent self-assessments of food practices can be explained by two factors – Russians not only assess their past and present food-consumer practices, but also compare their life situation with those around them; before the pandemic, the food assortment began to expand, and in the difficult social-economic conditions, exacerbated by the pandemic restrictions, food became almost the only source of a sense of ‘normality’ and of bright exceptions in the routine. In recent years, Russians have developed a stable model of food consumption, primarily due to the objective factors – the expansion and strengthening of retail chains, the rise in food prices and the exhaustion of households’ self-supplying strategies. Financial constraints, i.e. economic access to food, are the main threat to the food security situation in Russia. The scientific novelty of the study is the proposed interdisciplinary nature at the theoretical level (a combination of economic and sociological approaches) and methodological triangulation (quantitative and qualitative survey methods) at the empirical level. The proposed approach and the results of its application allow to recommend that the country’s leadership abandon its calls and attempts to stop the rise in food prices, which is somewhat late and ineffective, especially under the pandemic, and focus on a differentiated approach to increasing the economic access to food, instead of punitive measures restricting price growth.

Abstract

The relevance of the topic - assessing the level of economic access to food - remains poorly developed in Russia. This study aims to fill this gap within the framework of the main ideas of the Food Security Doctrine of the Russian Federation. The purpose of this work is to develop approaches for assessing the level of food security among household members and highlight the main characteristics of households with different levels of food insecurity. The statistical basis for this study is the microdata from budget surveys conducted by Rosstat. The main content and results of this study are as follows: The concept of "food insecurity of the household" and its members is introduced. An overview of approaches used in different countries to identify individuals experiencing food insecurity is provided. The focus of the assessment shifts from evaluating the level of economic affordability of food based on decile groups and available resources to assessing the level of economic affordability of food for each household member. This analysis highlights the main characteristics of households or their members with varying levels of food insecurity.

Abstract

Abstract

Changes in approaches of FAO food security monitoring after the adoption of the UN Sustainable Development Goals until 2030 and innovations in the 2020 RF Food Security Doctrine were considered. The assessment of the current state and  trends in food security in Russia from 2013 to 2019 (by several available indicators - for 2020) was carried out using different methods

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.