To what extent has Argentina’s choice of a self sufficient food supply and

protectionism been beneficial for the general public in terms of food insecurity?

Introduction
Argentina is a country in the South of America, with an abundance of fertile land, cultural diversity and a complex history.
One of the many unique factors of Argentina is its high food self sufficiency. Argentina is currently the worlds most food self sufficient
country, with a ratio of 273% (FAO. (n.d). This value essentially tells us that Argentina has the means to locally produce more than
enough food to feed its own population and export. This is possible because Argentina has a large amount of fertile soil and is a country
with a large abundance of productivity. Between 1990 and 2008 alone Argentina’s productivity grew 4.4% and has been growing since
(Feeney, R., & MacClay, P. (2016)). In the past as well Argentina had one of the largest productive land to capital ratio’s (Bairoch, P.
(2018). This tells us why Argentina has a large self sufficiency ratio of 273%. A high food self sufficiency is something Argentina has
worked towards as it has a goal of being a self reliant country.

The accomplishment of the highest food self sufficiency is not a natural turn of events, rather something the government has
been working towards from as early as the second world war (Bairoch, P. (2018). This is when Argentina started its journey to being one
of the worlds most protectionist countries. According to the WTO Argentina is a country with one of the most protectionist policies in
the world currently (Coorey, P. (2018). Prior to this, Argentina was one of the worlds top 10 most developed countries, with a high GDP
and an open economy (Europarl. (2012). The route to self sufficiency has lost Argentina this title.

The protectionist policies Argentina implemented include import and export tariffs which were put in place all through out
history since the second world war (Europarl. (2012). Many of the protectionist policies that are in place currently were introduced in
2006, however current policies in the agriculture sector can be traced back to as early as 2003 (Oprita, A. (2012). The policies were
implemented in an attempt to reach multiple goals but namely, making Argentina self sufficient. The purpose behind the protectionism in
the agricultural sector was to protect Argentina from the global food market and external pressures (Europarl. (2012). The policies
targeted raw material goods in the food sector that were staples in Argentina like beef, pork, flour, poultry and dairy (Feeney, R., &
MacClay, P. (2016). The result was suppose to be to reduce food prices for locals as well as insulate Argentina from any global
inflationary pressures. These policies were also in place at the time when Argentina was one of the worlds largest exporters, namely to
the EU (TheCattleSite News. (2013). This export abundance is also a reason why Argentina’s government made attempts to close off its
economy, so that more food would circulate within Argentina rather than be exported. Although some of these goals were achieved like
reducing exports, the protectionism caused a large amount of problems within Argentina, like the increase in food insecurity which is
what this paper will explore.

Even though Argentina has an abundance of fertile soil, specialisation in agriculture and an insulated agricultural sector, they
experience an abnormal amount of food insecurity. Food insecurity is defined as the “disruption of food intake or eating patterns because
of lack of money and other resources” (ODPHP. (2020). This essentially tells us that Argentina produces enough food to feed its entire
population (indicated through the high food self sufficiency), however the food does not reach the entire population. This is the reason
why over 11% of Argentina is effected by food insecurity (TheCattleSite News. (2013). This lack of access with high availability is a
complex problem in Argentina’s case with multiple factors effecting it. Contrary to what most might think, the protectionist policies were
criticised as one of the largest reasons why Argentina has the high level of food insecurity it does (Feeney, R., & MacClay, P. (2016).
This is interesting as the protectionist policies were put in place to reduce prices and circulate more food in Argentina which would in
theory reduce food insecurity. This paper will focus on this complex relationship between food insecurity and the protectionist policies in
Argentina, more so how the governments positioning has caused this relationship to have negative effects.

Method
This paper will use a descriptive method. Analysing different sources, utilising secondary data to explore the research question. A large
variety of sources will be used, from local Argentinian studies to FAO studies. The FAO will be a major source for the paper as it is a
subsidiary of the UN, and shares primary data making it credible (FAO. (2020). The goal is to find research linking protectionism and
food insecurity in Argentina, as well as any criticism, data or studies in this subject. As well as the governments responses/future plans.
With the end result of answering the research question. Therefore my research is to find facts and figures relating to food insecurity and
protectionism, as well as any correlations/causation.
Results
Protectionism in Argentina

After researching it was clear that Argentina had a very rich history of protectionism with good intentions. Argentina as
mentioned has grown its policies in protectionism over the years. These are the policies, along side political instability and unrest which
led Argentina to delve into poverty and a declining economy (Hasenstab, M. (2016). The key policies are their import and export tariffs.
Starting of with the export tariffs, they were an attempt to keep domestic goods inside Argentina rather than be exported. In essence, this
means that if Argentinians wanted to export they would have to pay a tax, the rate of which is dependant on the goods they are exporting.
Overall this makes it much more expensive to export than to sell locally (Financial-dictionary. (2018). This not only effects Argentinian
producers but also global purchasers, as now Argentinian exports are more expensive. As mentioned prior to these laws the EU was one
of Argentina’s largest purchasers, and about 53% of these exports were food and live animals which are now taxed (TheCattleSite News.
(2013). This implementation of tax’s effected the relationship with the EU. The tariffs caused the EU to file a case with the WTO (WTO.
(2010). The goods taxed were meant to be staple Argentinian foods like meats and dairy, with the motivation of encouraging producers to
sell locally. However the government neglected their relationship with the EU (Müller, B., & Falgueyrac, L. (2019). In the end the WTO
case was resolved and the tax’s remained. The EU was only one of 40 other trading partners that had conflicts and tension with Argentina
due to its protectionism and stance on self sufficiency (Hasenstab, M. (2016). All of this was so the use of these tariffs would insulate
Argentina’s food network as now Argentinians are more likely to be purchasing local foods and be dependant on local producers. About
11 million dollars a year was transfers from local farmers to local companies/consumers from 2007 (Europarl. (2012). This means that
local producers were encouraged to sell locally and local consumers did receive more local goods, and are somewhat dependant on local
produce.

Import tariffs were another protectionist policy the Argentinian government used commonly to insulate the economy. They
were also targeting foods and agriculture. An import tariff increases the price of imports into Argentina and makes foreign goods more
expensive for locals (Kenton, W. (2020). It also increases the price of importing to Argentina for foreign producers, discouraging foreign
producers to sell to Argentina due to the higher costs on factors of production. Moreover there was a law in place where to import to
Argentina, you would also have to purchase. This was an attempt to keep the trade balance away from a deficit. All of this along side
large amounts of red tape; certifications, permits, permission to import e.t.c. (Oprita, A. (2012) were put in place making it much more
tedious to export to Argentina. Overall this discouraged dependancy on foreign goods while keeping Argentina’s trade balance away
from a deficit.

Most of these tariffs were implemented in 2003/06 as mentioned. However after the 2008 global financial crisis Argentina
along side many other countries realised the consequences of a globalised and open economy (Knowledge.wharton. (2012).
Dependancies caused many economies to crash along side the US in a domino effect. To avoid this many countries decided to implement
protectionist policies. Argentina used this to further their already ongoing path to self sufficiency. They took this to a new extreme and
taxed a large variety of goods. Higher export prices, import prices and red tape are the reason Argentina holds its 273% food self
sufficiency ratio. This ratio according to the FAO is “The concept of food self-sufficiency is generally taken to mean the extent to which
a country can satisfy its food needs from its own domestic production […] Countries with a score above 120% typically meet their
dietary needs (hunger < 5%) and export surplus food” (FAO. (2016). Argentina’s score is much higher than that, showing it’s self
sufficiency and protectionist policies had somewhat of the intended effect.

Food insecurity in Argentina

Food insecurity is as mentioned something that effects a large amount of the Argentinian population, over 11%. Food
insecurity is a measurement of a populations access to food rather than availability of food. About 5.5 million are currently under food
insecurity in Argentina. About 1/4th of children receive meals from free kitchens or charities (Feeney, R., & MacClay, P. (2016). Over
8% of children suffer from chronic malnutrition which is defined as “a condition that develops when children do not eat the correct
balance of nutrients in the first 1,000 days of life” (Validnutrition. (2008). This lack of nutrition across all ages in Argentina is a result of
many factors. One of the many being the prices of food increasing due to inflation. Argentinian food prices reached a high of 66.2 % in
early 2019 (TradingEconomics. (2020). Argentina’s public is sensitive to prices changes due to the large amount of the population living
in poverty, 40.9% as of the 2020 statistics (Reuters. (2020). The combination of high poverty and high prices for food show why a large
amount of the population are living in insecurity. All of this has contributed to currently Argentina’s hunger statistic being over 4.6% and
rising (Macrotrends. (2020).
 The governments responded to this increase in insecurity, hunger, malnutrition and poverty with a 3 way strategy consisting
of the following; free kitchen meals, meals delivered to households and electronic funds acting as a food stamp of sorts (Latinnews.
(2003). The free kitchen meals are government subsidised kitchens across Argentina that provide free breakfasts and lunches to children
in school. This covers about 15,000 kitchens and feeds about 4 million children everyday. (Feeney, R., & MacClay, P. (2016) However
these meals are known to be not fully nutritious, not covering the macro and micro nutrients a child would need. So although the kitchens
have a large reach, the quality of the food the children receive is not enough. Moreover the kitchens only provide breakfast and lunch, so
for dinner children have to rely on their households which may not be able to put food on the table.

The meals the government deliver are meal packets with ready made food similar to the kitchen but delivered to the
households directly, and not only for children. This meal service supplied by the government reached over 3.8 million people with about
1.8 million meals being delivered (Feeney, R., & MacClay, P. (2016). However again these meals are known not to have high nutritious
value. Again this raises the problem of high quantity but low quality.

Both the kitchens and meals, are a form of direct support, giving people food they can consume readily. Aside from this the
government created a system of electronic funds. This system would give individuals money transferred to a card which would allow
them to purchase their own food. This initiative started in 2003 and reached over 1.83 million individuals (Daniells, S. (2019). In terms
of percentage this is a small amount of the individuals without food security. There is some research indicating that due to the red tape
between different municipals/provinces, the support in terms of kitchens, meals and funds do not reach all parts of Argentina. Explaining
why the funds don’t reach a large amount of individuals with food insecurity.

As of recent, Argentina has invoked the emergency food law, which will be enacted until 2022 (with possibility of renewal).
This law targets food insecurity, in an attempt to reduce hunger. It would include an increase of 50% in the budget for public
food/nutrition policies (Alcoba, N. (2019). This means more funding into the programmes mentioned above, as well as a possibility for
new programmes. However Argentina is also currently under a large fiscal deficit, so this might cause some strain (Alcoba, N. (2019).

COVID + effects on food insecurity

Although new laws have been enacted and there has been more funding injected into the Argentinian food insecurity crisis.
The recent events of the novel corona virus have acted as a catalyst to the food insecurity issues in Argentina. Covid-19 has effected
countries all over the globe and disrupted many food chains. Globalisation has led to countries being more and more dependant on each
other, especially for food. The global food supply chain has experienced many disruptions because of this. However Argentina has a food
self sufficiency of 273% so it was for the most part insulated from the global market. Unfortunately, Argentina faced issues caused by the
virus internally, so although it was insulated from the global market, there was a local crisis.

Argentina’s rapid growth in cases along side the governments response has led to many factors slowing down the productivity
in agriculture. Different municipals and provinces have different laws. In specific, the mayors are creating rules in relation to transport
(Business-humanrights. (2020). Some area’s do not allow wheat trucks to travel in or out, resulting in longer transport routes. This causes
some area’s not having access to the food directly, and some farmers not being able to sell their produce. Social distancing rules have
also limited movement of individuals which has been an issue for access to food. This restriction on internal movements has caused
issues in food supply reaching individuals who were already in food insecurity Business-humanrights. (2020). Argentina suffered quiet
immensely during this crisis because alongside this they experienced an extremely wet season which effected crops. The crops did not
have the same productivity as usual causing their overall production to decrease. Both these factors together contributed to now a
agriculture sector in decline (Heath, M., & Mano, A. (2020).

Discussion
The results above from the research indicate that the Agriculture sector in Argentina is quiet complex, and currently facing a
myriad of issues. Moreover the food insecurity in Argentina is worsening day by day, with many Argentinian families not having access
to proper nutritious meals. The overarching change in Argentina recently has been its protectionism and policies surrounding food and
agriculture. However correlation is not causation. Looking over the research there can be lines drawn and relationships identified
between certain policies and their effects on food insecurity showing causation. There are a variety of factors that can be identified that
show a strong relationship between food insecurity and protectionism; inflationary pressures, misallocation of resources and lack of
policies addressing food insecurity (fiscal budgeting) (Mander, B. (2018).

Starting of with the relationship between protectionism and an increase in inflation rate. As stated above, Argentina has had a
rapidly growing inflation rate. The protectionist policies in place were meant to insulate Argentina from global inflationary pressures.
Protectionism protects a country from dependancy. For example, if Argentina imports a high percentage of Banana’s that it consumes, if
for any reason the prices of banana’s increased where they were produced, this would effect Argentina. Since Argentina locally produces
a majority of its food, these global price changes do not effect Argentina heavily. The fact that Argentina is still experiencing inflation
indicates that the inflation they are experiencing is due to internal forces. Internal reasoning for price increases can vary. In Argentina’s
case this is because of the import tariffs. Many Argentinian goods are raw, and require other intermediary goods to get the final product.
A large amount of these intermediary products are imported, therefore increasing the cost of producing goods. This is called cost-push
inflation (Hasenstab, M. (2016). And because Argentina encourages locally sold goods, when the prices in the factors of production
increase locally, it effected the entire food market. There were no cheaper foreign substitutes that locals could consume.

This effect is furthered through the concept of misallocation of resources. This concept “denotes a situation in which capital
and labor are poorly distributed so that less productive firms receive a larger share of capital and labor than they should according to their
level of productivity” (Misch, F., & Saborowski, C. (2018). In Argentina’s case this is occurring as some produce is more efficient to be
grown elsewhere and that is why their prices are lower. Lower pricing and more efficient production is a source of competition, allowing
innovation and an increase in global knowledge. However protectionist policies hinder this, Argentina is producing a large amount of
agricultural goods that is more efficient to be grown elsewhere. This overall increases prices in a more theoretical sense in comparison to
the cost push inflation (Europarl. (2012). As globally, Argentina would be more efficient if it grew things that the climate and
environment were best at, rather than trying to grow a larger variety. Giving opportunity for countries who can produce certain goods
more efficiently to continue to do so.

Both these factors show that Argentina, although insulated from the global food market, and its inflationary pressures, is not
assured to have low food prices. Moreover the protectionist policies the government took on had the right intentions but were not
implemented properly. The increase in prices contributed to the increase in food insecurity, hunger, child malnutrition and lack of food
accessibility in general (TradingEconomics. (2020). This shows a clear relationship between protectionist policies and food insecurity.
The governments intentions here are clear, however they have also been criticised as many say the government implemented protectionist
policies to increase their tax revenue (Milcíades. (2020). In the long run this is illogical as the government is now being forced to
increase their fiscal budget on food insecurity by 50% (Hasenstab, M. (2016). This shows that some policies and Argentina’s stance on
self sufficiency were not well thought through. Moreover demonstrating some of the risks of being a self sufficient country. If Argentina
was globally dependant, there would at least be different substitutes, options and more ease when it comes to crisis or prices. As it would
be dependant on a larger amount of countries, and if one country has issues then they can look to another. When it is dependant just on
itself, it makes it much harder to combat issues, as they are only able to look internally for solutions (Deval, J. (2010). In the long term if
Argentina is able to reduce prices, possibly through demand side policies they might be able to make self sufficiency work (FAO. (2010).
The problems associated with being dependant on one country will however be a longstanding issue.

Aside from the inflationary pressures within Argentina and the misallocation of resources another factor drawing a parallel
between food insecurity and protectionism is the allocation in the fiscal budget. Argentina creates income from the import and export
tax’s however a very small percentage of this is put back into food insecurity and supporting the population in terms of food access
(Misculin, N., & Lobianco, M. (2019). This relationship however is not direct and is not necessarily causal.

It is clear that in some ways protectionist policies has contributed to Argentina’s growing food insecurity, however they have
attempted at solutions to bandage the problem. As mentioned there were 3 different strategies; food kitchens, delivered meals, and
electronic funds. Of all three options, the electronic funds were the most nutritious. This is because the individuals get to cook their own
food and decide what they are eating rather than government issued meals. The delivered meals and kitchens have a larger reach in the
population, being able to reach smaller towns and providing direct access to food. The electronic funds require more logistics and it is
hard to get everything approved by the different municipals in Argentina as they all have their own mayors (Daniells, S. (2019). The lack
of organisation and implementation strategies is why the electronic funds are not reaching more individuals. As well as a lack in funding
which will hopefully change as the new emergency law comes in to place.

Conclusion
 Overall the solutions are not a long term fix to food insecurity as they do not address the problem at its root. A suggestion as
mentioned would be demand side policies or policies to reduce aggregate supply, reducing the cost push inflation that Argentina has
unintentionally encouraged. This would include an increase in subsidies to farms; to reduce their costs, reduce import tax’s; to reduce
farms costs, invest in technology innovation; to make farming more efficient and cost effective. These policies are all examples of
deflationary policies that Argentina could use. Some go against the protectionist stance, like the reduction in import tax’s. However most
are investments into Argentina’s own future. Investment into technology innovation would allow Argentina to be more efficient over
time and reduce overall costs. Subsidise to farmers, would encourage more farmers to remain in the agriculture sector and improve their
performance (if implemented properly; i.e. not implemented just to increase farmer income but rather increase production and reduce
pricing). Most of these policies are a lot more intensive and require a larger budget, however if the core issue of food insecurity is not
addressed at its root Argentina will continue to have to enact laws like the emergency food law which increases fiscal spending
significantly. A sudden rapid increase in fiscal spending could also cause demand pull inflation which would intensify the issues at hand.

In my opinion Argentina has used the excuse of being self sufficient to implement policies that benefit the government and put
its people at risk. Moreover, the concept of a closed economy has many times been proven to reduce competition, global allocation of
resources, innovation, sharing of technology, variety of choices for locals, volatility if there are any local crisis and many more negative
consequences. Although there are benefits which cannot be ignored, like the lack of dependancy on global resources, which encourages
growth and innovation within Argentina. Along side the safety from global crisis in some cases, depending on the crisis. But overall the
negatives outweigh the positives. Especially in Argentina’s case where there was already food insecurity and its clear the protectionist
policies are not helping, they need to look past protectionism. Argentina should do what has to be done to ensure food for its entire
population. The country has the ability to produce a large amount of food with all its productive land and specialisation in agriculture. If
they were able to export and import more food it would create a large income for the government, reduce prices for locals, increase
choice and variety, improve relationships with other countries and so much more.
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