“What we are beginning to face is not just an acute bottleneck,” Spiegel International observes, “but a worldwide, fundamental food crisis. It affects most of all the poor, who spend a disproportionately large share of their income on food and water. The crisis is so dire that it is obliterating any progress made in recent years in fighting disease and starvation.”
The food problem is not a simple one. A steadily swelling population, urbanization, agriculture’s death by neglect, questionable food policies, climate change, and the thirst for biofuel – all these have been cited as reasons for the food crisis. “World food prices have risen some 45 percent in the last nine months and there are serious shortages of rice, wheat, and maize. This is the result of policies over past 10-15 years. Agriculture has been somewhat neglected,” observes Dr. Jacques Diouf, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). And these can no longer be ignored.
The FAO is calling for an international conference on food security. Themed “The Challenge of Climate Change and Bioenergy,” heads of state, inter-governmental and non-governmental organisations are to discuss the nexus of food, the environment, and bioenergy in Rome on June 3-5.
Some governments, as in the Philippines, have responded to their nation’s clamor for food by giving subsidies to the poorest families. This move has not gone uncriticised. Critics argue that dole outs are not the solution: not only are they short-term, stopgap measures; but they create dependency and demean the very people they seek to help.
A UN report released earlier this month, the IAASTD (International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development), warns that the present agricultural system must undergo a fundamental shift if it is to be serious about development and sustainability. The report also recommends and encourages women and small-scale farmers to participate and suggests in developing various agricultural techniques (as opposed to an agricultural monoculture.)
The UN Food Summit in Rome will be crucial. The pressure is on various actors attending the conference to come up with sound, lasting solutions to global food insecurity. The rest of us will wait to see if our world’s leaders see the crisis as something beyond an issue of supply and demand, but in Brazilian President Lula de Silva's words, “above all, a crisis of opportunity and distribution.”
Other governments' responses to the food crisis have been varied. Observers of the World Trade Organisation have noted that the food crisis has made liberal exporters take a protectionist at the recent WTO negotiations, while protectionist states are now asking for more import liberalisation from member countries. Brazil has reportedly halted exporting its rice in an effort to ensure food security, while Japan is urging countries to declare import restrictions in advance.
Sources:
AFP. (2008, April 14). Impact of biofuels on crops under study at FAO meeting. Manila Times Online. Retrieved on April 28, 2008 from, http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2008/apr/14/yehey/world/20080414wor3.html
AFP. (2008, April 28). UN FAO chief warns of civil war over food shortage. ABS-CBN News Online. Retrieved on April 28, 2008 from, http://www.abscbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryId=116232
AFP. (n. d.). Food crisis sparks role reversal in WTO. Retrieved on April 28, 2008, from
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iLz7S7KXp1-XH2FRnDGsVnm1JoaQ
da Silva, L. I. L. (n. d.). Address by the President of the Republic, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva at the Opening of the Thirtieth Regional Conference for Latin America and the Caribbean, Palácio Itamaraty, 16 April 2008. Retrieved on April 27, 2008 from, http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2008/1000831/index.html
FAO Newsroom. (2008, April 18). A major boost to preparations for the FAO Summit on food security. Retrieved on April 27, 2008 from, http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2008/1000831/index.html
India eNews. (2008, April 9). Global conference in Rome soon to tackle food security. Retrieved on April 28, 2008, from http://www.indiaenews.com/business/20080409/110019.htm
Ortiz, M. (2008, April 27). P5-B subsidy to make poor families dependent -- Caritas Manila. Philippine Daily Inquirer. Retrieved on April 29, 2008 from,
http://www.inquirer.net/specialfeatures/riceproblem/view.php?db=1&article=20080427-133037
Spiegel Online International. (2008, April 14). The fury of the poor. Retrieved on April 27, 2008 from, http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,547198,00.html
Stratton, A. (2008, April 9). Who is fighting over food. Retrieved on April 28, 2008 from,
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/news/2008/04/food_riots.html
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