Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Deepening World Food Crisis
The food crisis is getting big enough that even the major media are starting to cover it. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (UNFAO), rising prices (48 percent increase since early 2007), particularly for staple grains like rice, are putting 37 countries on the brink of a food crisis. There have been actual food uprisings (or the fear of them) in Bangladesh, Cameroon, Egypt, Ethiopia, Haiti, Indonesia, Ivory Coast, Madagascar, Mauritania, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Thailand.
Driving the rising prices are the conversion of land from producing food to biofuel materials, which are still food crops, but taken out of the global food chain. The EU's subsidized crops, offered at a fraction of their production price, have undercut agriculture in Africa. Toss in low food reserves, and you see exacerbated prices that then become fodder for financial speculators. Food aid money isn't going as far as it needs to, and the UN World Food Program says that it needs $500 million in additional aid by May 1. Even so, 100 million people may find themselves pushed even deeper into poverty because of the unavoidable cost of eating.
Driving the rising prices are the conversion of land from producing food to biofuel materials, which are still food crops, but taken out of the global food chain. The EU's subsidized crops, offered at a fraction of their production price, have undercut agriculture in Africa. Toss in low food reserves, and you see exacerbated prices that then become fodder for financial speculators. Food aid money isn't going as far as it needs to, and the UN World Food Program says that it needs $500 million in additional aid by May 1. Even so, 100 million people may find themselves pushed even deeper into poverty because of the unavoidable cost of eating.
