ABSTRACT
The early debt crisis of the 1980s gave many, pause for thought; it was clearly having a detrimental effect on borrowing countries’ domestic economies. The answer at the time was structural adjustment policies, that effectively were extra loans conditionally dependant on tight domestic fiscal and monetary changes. This followed a neoliberalist ideology that hoped to free the developing world from stagnation and promote development and growth. This decade also witnessed what popularly became known as food mountains: hordes of surplus food stored at great expense. There was also continuing talks about trade barrier reductions while new insights into the notion of food security were aired. Moreover, and finally at this time, the role of women in agricultural issues was beginning to be realised.
