There is now sufficient evidence that climate is changing, and that humans are contributing by producing large amounts of greenhouse gas (GHG) (McMichael et al. 2006, Haines et al. 2006). Climate change will not only damage the global environment directly, but will also have major impacts on human security, of which food security is a key although under-researched component (UNDP 1994, Butler 2009b). This in turn has important implications for the international public health agenda (Chiu et al. 2009). Here we argue that climate change will have particularly serious impacts on food security in the Asia-Pacific region. After a short review of the concept of food security we argue that threats to food security vary enormously between regions and countries. In the case of Asia, gradual processes of ecological adaptation in response to climate change will be serious enough, but the region is particularly susceptible to the devastating impacts of natural disasters which will increase in frequency. The rapid growth of Asia’s megacities creates particular problems of food supply, cost and reliability. In this setting,, the paper examines the policy responses at both global and regional level. The ways in which a number of regional organizations in Asia have addressed some of the issues is looked at in some detail. Finally, a short case study of Taiwan, China’s responses to its own food security challenges is presented, something that is particularly pertinent given the devastating typhoon that so recently hit the island.
