Ethics and food security in Qatar

Ray Jureidini, Said Fares Hassan and Dalal Aassouli

Chapter 12 in Food Security and Islamic Ethics, 2025, pp 291-313 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter addresses a number of issues in relation to food security in Qatar, with particular reference to low-income migrant workers. We begin with a general discussion of the Islamic perspective on food security as an ethical foundation for human existence. This is followed by an overview of Qatar's food security ranking and specific policies before and during the Saudi-led blockade with reference to the Qatar National Food Security Program (QNFSP), established in 2008. The importance of water in a desert climate is canvassed with Qatar's water security in relation to domestic food production, as well as strategies that include foreign land acquisition and foreign agricultural investments. The last section of the chapter is dedicated to a discussion of the particular circumstances of food security and the most vulnerable of the migrant labour force in Qatar. Here we highlight that workers may be provided with food by their employers, receive a cash food allowance, or neither. Protecting their rights to proper ethnically appropriate and nutritious food is imperative, with government policies and charitable organizations assisting where employers may be unwilling or unable. Recent evidence on the health and well-being of the largely Asian low-income workforce in Qatar provides the basis on which the authorities have launched food security education and awareness programmes. Finally, we emphasize the need to utilize Islamic moral imperatives among larger sectors of society to help with enhancing workers’ rights.

Keywords: Food security; Islamic ethics; Water security; Migrant workers; Saudi blockade; Qatar (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781035333578
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.elgaronline.com/doi/10.4337/9781035333585.00020 (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 403 Forbidden

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:elg:eechap:23369_13

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.e-elgar.com

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Chapters from Edward Elgar Publishing
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Jack Sweeney ().