World Hunger
Food is cheap and plentiful in North America; Canada and the United States, in any event. Mexican citizens, on the other hand, have been complaining bitterly that the price of food staples have risen starkly, abruptly, particularly corn, so important to the Mexican diet.Corn and its incredible variety of by-products are universally important, but the rest of North American hasn't yet been hit by remarkably higher prices - yet. We have, however, noticed a steep and abrupt rise in the price of wheat and wheat products. We live, though, far less on the knife-edge of affordability of basic foodstuffs. We note the rising prices and shrug and carry on.
Nothing painful, however, nothing most household budgets cannot handle. We're still seeing supermarket shelves stocked high and plentifully with all manner of food products, including fresh fruits and vegetables flown in from all over the world, and at moderate prices. There's been a rise in the price of dairy products, but red meat, poultry and preserved meats remain low on the price scale, as does fish, frozen and canned.
Canadians spend an inordinately modest portion of disposable income on the food we eat. Food prices will keep rising on North American shelves, creeping higher bit by bit. Not to the extent that it will crimp our eating style.
The same can't be said elsewhere in the world, where a variety of circumstances conspire to create shortages of vital foodstuffs. The trend toward biofuels, an ill-thought-out initiative, is creating havoc. Predictably, since sidelining a food staple like corn toward use as an mechanical energy source rather than a caloric energy source for human consumption, was bound to affect us all.
Poor growing conditions in some parts of the world, with ongoing droughts such as Australia's ten-year struggle hasn't helped matters. A devastating two-month-long cold snap during the growing season in China; agricultural pest infestations elsewhere, difficult to control and devouring food crops have added to the pain.
Then there is another issue, that of growing numbers of people in China and India altering their diet as they become wealthier, and opting for more meat meals than has been their wont traditionally. It takes a lot of grain to feed cattle, and the finished product feeds far fewer people than the grain it takes to bring cattle to market.
Traditional exporters of products like rice are beginning to hold back on their export deals, facing a steadily growing shortage of staples to feed their indigenous populations. Prices have risen so sharply in some parts of the world that riots have ensued; in Mexico, Morocco, Senegal, Uzbekistan, Guinea, Mauritania and Yemen. South Korea and the Philippines are facing shortages.
Egypt has suspended rice exports to its traditional markets in Turkey, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. Vietnam and Thailand have done the same. India and Cambodia, facing shortages in their home markets are curbing exports. The price to transport whatever staples are available has soared with the steadily rising price of crude oil, which has also has the effect of increasing the cost of production.
World stockpiles of rice are at their lowest level in decades. Low stockpiles are susceptible to wide price swings further aggravating the situation. In the United States, an enthusiastic proponent of biofuels, there has been a switch from growing soybeans and wheat to growing corn for biofuels.
In a futile move to reduce reliance on oil products, North America and Europe have compromised vital food production.
The UN World Food Program is facing a catastrophic situation where its costs have increased a whopping 55% in a six-month period. It feeds 73 million destitute people world-wide on an annual basis. To help it catch up to the new reality of scarcity and elevated costs, it requires a half-billion dollars in emergency funding. Or face the necessity of starkly reducing its feeding program.
It will remain to be seen whether the world will be locked into a permanent situation of rising food prices and scarcity, or whether matters become more stable. In the face of this obvious emergency, the first thing that should be done is to halt production of corn for biofuel use and restore its production solely for human consumption.
As for the vagaries of the weather, changing climate conditions, more competition for basic grains to feed livestock, these are infinitely more difficult problems to which there are no foreseeable solutions.
Labels: Environment, Nature, World Crises
posted by Pieface @ Thursday, April 03, 2008
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