World geography and power, national capitals, and inequality as cross-national causes of food security and environmental outcomes

Edward Kick; Maria Balcazar Tellez; Gretchen Thompson; John Classen; Edward Kick; Maria Balcazar Tellez; Gretchen Thompson; John Classen

doi:10.3934/agrfood.2016.4.419

AIMS Agriculture and Food

2016, Volume 1, Issue 4: 419-438. doi: 10.3934/agrfood.2016.4.419

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Research article Special Issues

World geography and power, national capitals, and inequality as cross-national causes of food security and environmental outcomes

1.
Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA
2.
Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA
3.
Scientist, Global Health Research, Family Health International 360, Durham, NC 27701, USA

Received: 04 May 2016 Accepted: 05 December 2016 Published: 08 December 2016

Treatments of sustainability outcomes such as food security, economic development and environmental degradation typically have adopted monocausal approaches. Many have argued for substantial increases in world meat production as the panacea to global food insecurity. We use global and national synthetic explanations and path analytic approaches to examine sustainability outcomes for 200 nations. Both strong direct or indirect links are found among global geography, global power and national capitals, as well as warfare and military expenditures, and economic development. These factors are differentially predictive of the other key measures of sustainability.
- food distribution,
- biomes and natural resources,
- structural equation modeling
Citation: Edward Kick, Maria Balcazar Tellez, Gretchen Thompson, John Classen. World geography and power, national capitals, and inequality as cross-national causes of food security and environmental outcomes[J]. AIMS Agriculture and Food, 2016, 1(4): 419-438. doi: 10.3934/agrfood.2016.4.419

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Abstract

Treatments of sustainability outcomes such as food security, economic development and environmental degradation typically have adopted monocausal approaches. Many have argued for substantial increases in world meat production as the panacea to global food insecurity. We use global and national synthetic explanations and path analytic approaches to examine sustainability outcomes for 200 nations. Both strong direct or indirect links are found among global geography, global power and national capitals, as well as warfare and military expenditures, and economic development. These factors are differentially predictive of the other key measures of sustainability.

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