Has Southeast Asia reached a new normal in food security? Dissecting the impacts of COVID-19 as a hybrid health–economic crisis

Abstract

Has COVID-19 opened the way towards a “new normal” in food security in Southeast Asia and the world over, and what are its policy implications? This question is pertinent from a policy perspective since the pandemic falls under the classification of “wicked” problems. Such problems are by nature “complex, unpredictable, open ended, or intractable”.COVID-19 is multifaceted and multi-sectoral in nature, having led to a hybrid crisis in the health and economic sectors, i.e., a “hybrid health–economic crisis”. To understand the pandemic’s impacts on food security, this chapter contextualises the challenges amid COVID-19 in light of those faced in the pre-COVID-19 “old normal”. This approach allows for ascertaining whether these are really new problems or simply variants of the old problems. This chapter argues that while COVID-19 presents a significant challenge to food security, it is not entirely new in the context of the previous challenges faced in the pre-COVID era. Nonetheless, the pandemic provides impetus to exploring transformative efforts in addressing age-old food system challenges.