Food Security Implementation in ASEAN: Towards Sustainable Food Trade and Food Market within the ASEAN Economic Community

Historically, food issues had caused perils to humans in almost every part of the world. Depletion of food supply had led to the decline of many civilizations back then including the Mayans. As such, food crisis could be detrimental towards human security as global food crises including the one that occurred between the years of 2007 until 2008 had threatened the peace and stability of food security. Externalities have exacerbated recent conditions of food security which have led to increment of food prices within ASEAN Member States (AMS) particularly in food and agricultural products. The steep rise in food prices was due to increasing agricultural production cost (which was linked to the price hikes in fuel oil and fertilizers), decline in yields and production which was a consequence of climate patterns, and higher cost of keeping perishable goods. As a consequence, the AMS have acted responsively to lose the tight of the impacts of steep rise in food prices by imposing restrictions on export, price controls, subsidies in price, and import facilitation. In 2015, due to the efforts undertaken by the AMS in establishing a unified community with food security as of its priorities, the realization of sustainable development via food trade becomes relevant. In this connection, this article will discuss the measures toward sustainable development via food trade within ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) by 2050.