Food Aid Desperation
A summit on the situation of food aid just took place in London, with experts hoping to develop a plan to deal with rising food prices. In the last three years prices of basic food products, particularly grains have steadily risen. Since January of 2008 the price of rice has increased by 141%, that of wheat just about doubled. The world's destitute are reliant on the auspices of international aid agencies to supplement what little food they are able themselves to obtain.Those in the underdeveloped world who are merely poor struggle to afford food, spending a full three-quarters of their available income on basic subsistence food. Increases of this magnitude speak of a life-and-death situation for one billion inhabitants of this globe. People who, if they are fortunate enough, live on the avails of $1 a day. And the prices keep increasing. In many parts of the world, people are suffering from food shock.
Riots and emergency protests from Haiti, to Ethiopia, to Kenya, to Egypt. The sources of these steadily increasing food prices are manifold, and taken together create utter havoc in the expectations of the availability of basic grains for hungry people. But of all the causes, surely the sidelining of food for the production of ethanol, biofuels, is the most inexcusable.
That world food stocks are at a horrendous low can be understood on the basis of widespread drought and food crop failures. That countries like India and China with their enormous populations who are now beginning to enjoy a steadily emerging increase in their economic status, and as a result wishing to eat in a non-traditional manner reflecting the diets consumed in wealthier countries is simply human nature. But an increasing tendency to meat and dairy products means a greater use of grains to create another food product which has the end result of feeding far fewer people.
Add to that the protectionist attitudes of many countries which use quotas, subsidies, tariffs and prohibitions in response to agricultural lobbyists eager to protect their home markets and their trade potentials. Food production is stifled to maintain high prices. In an era of increasing globalization and transportable food products, governments should not be paying farmers to plant less, or to needlessly butcher redundant livestock, to maintain an acceptable price schedule in managing a country's food stocks.
We're aghast at the growing price of fuel, as oil has hit $120 a barrel, and is steadily increasing. The price for heating fuel will see consumers in some growing distress for next winter. At the gas pumps we see steadily creeping prices, and motorists are paying more now to fuel their vehicles than at any time in the past, with no relief in sight. Transporting foods large distances adds to their retail cost. Oil-based fertilizers are increasing in cost, adding to the food-cost dilemma. Finished food products are increasing in cost of production.
Nor should farmers be encouraged, as they are in the EU, United States and Canada, to turn over their arable land to growing grains and corn meant solely for biofuel production. In Africa farmers eschew genetically modified crops, which have a larger yield, because they stultify their ability to export to other countries that will not accept genetically modified grains. The world needs a universally-agreed-upon standard of custodianship, of responsible farming, an agreement that will be meant to benefit all of the world's consumers.
The World Bank reveals that of the 58 countries most impacted by food shortages, 48 have imposed price controls, consumer subsidies and export restrictions. World Vision, one of the largest humanitarian aid groups in the world, has announced it must cut aid to 1.5 million of the 7.5 million poor it normally feeds, as a result of the growing food price crisis. "Desperate measures" will be taken, equating to feeding people every other day, rather than daily.
The United Nations has advised that a "silent tsunami" of steep food prices is threatening the ability of the UN to continue its vital feeding programs that benefit 20 million children. Millions of people world-wide have been added in the last six months to the roster of the food-needy. "The world's misery index is rising" - according to Josette Sheeran, executive director of the World Food Program - threatening world stability.
We are reliably informed through the United Nations that 25,000 people are dying each day from starvation. One child dies every 5 seconds from hunger-related causes. When children are malnourished their normal energy levels are depleted, the ability of their body to fight off the ravages of disease is impaired and they succumb either to outright starvation or that combined with the deleterious effects of a disease their bodies can no longer resist.
Africa and Asia bear the dreadful brunt of this new world catastrophe. And there is no end in sight for the foreseeable future. Calamity. Our own short-sightedness blinds us to the harm we do in pursuing our own self-fulfilling agendas.
Labels: Environment, Societal Failures, World Crises
posted by Pieface @ Thursday, April 24, 2008
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