Political Economy of Covid-19 Amid Food Insecurity

Abstract

Coronavirus is here to contend with as a new normal at the global level. The solution to the pandemic is what scientists, politicians, pundits and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are battling with little outcome. Many kinds of literature abound since the outbreak of the epidemic that those who are the main target of this are the ones with comorbidity ailments. The impacts of this contagious disease call for academic interrogation since what brings about this, majorly, is the lack of organic food in the age of genetically modified (GM) food imposed on us. The dictum, healthy profit and unhealthy people are here to stay as long as biotechnologists are after the profit of multinational corporations (MNCs) and to some extent, farmers’. It has been proved that organic food is an agent of anti-hidden hunger and by implication, a source of medicine as against taken medicine as food. This paper intends to adopt an agroecological thesis in the promotion of food security through food sovereignty that is home-made without reliance on imported food that are sources of compromising immunity, which is a target of COVID-19 as documented by some students of development studies, and food and nutrition security (FNS). Relying on secondary data and content analysis approach, a conclusion will be drawn that the COVID-19 vaccine is not only a ruse, but another means to subject developing areas to abject poverty through the importation of one-size-fits-all drugs for the pandemic. A need to promote healthy people as against focussing on healthy profit that benefits only MNCs executives and their shareholders against stakeholders in the food and pharmaceutical industries.

Keywords: COVID-19, Food security, Food sovereignty, Agroecology