GLOBAL FOOD CRISIS: The Biggest Crisis on the glob

Every one is talking about High Crude prices, High inflation but there is a bigger threat GLOBAL FOOD CRISIS is emerging. A global food catastrophe will reach further and be more crippling than anything the world has ever seen. The credit crunch and the reverberations of soaring oil prices around the world will pale in comparison to what is about to transpire. Food prices have been rising for a while. In some countries this has resulted in food riots and in the case of Haiti where food prices increased by 50-100%, the Prime Minister was forced out of office. Elsewhere people have been killed, and many more injured. While media reports have been concentrating on the immediate causes, the deeper issues and causes have not been discussed as much.

The World Bank reports that global food prices rose 83% over the last three years and the FAO cites a 45% increase in their world food price index during just the past nine months. The Economist’s comparable index stands at its highest point since it was originally formulated in 1845. As of March 2008, average world wheat prices were 130% above their level a year earlier, soy prices were 87% higher, rice had climbed 74%, and Maize was up 31%.

Dairy, Oils, Fats, cereals have risen the most in the past year, with more modest rises in sugar and meat. But the crisis was not a sudden one. Prices have been rising for quite some time now, and perhaps earlier warning signs were ignored or missed. Several factors contributed to the rising food prices. Analysts attributed price rise to the poor harvests in various parts of the world. With the Global environmental changes climatic conditions are changing in the world. This changes leads to natural calamities. The most influential is the extended drought in Australia, in particular Murray-Darling basin. The drought has caused annual rice harvest to fall nearly 98%. The other events that have negatively affected the price of food include the unseasonable 2008 rains in Kerala, India, which destroyed swathes of grain. The effects of Cyclone Nargis, in Burma in May 2008 caused spike in the prices of rice. Scientists have stated that such incidents are consistent with the predict effects of climate change.

The other factor for the price rise of food is increasing Biofuel usage. One systematic cause of the high food prices is due to diversion of food corps to fuel. As the environment is taking its toll on the developed countries, now they have found a new to stop sudden environment change by using Biofuel in place of normal crude. An estimated 100 million tonnes of grain per year are being redirected from food to fuel. As farmers are devoting larger parts of their larger parts of corps for fuel production which results in lesser amount of land available for food production. The reports mentions Grain has been diverted away from food, to fuel; (Over a third of US corn is now used to produce ethanol; about half of vegetable oils in the EU go towards the production of biodiesel). Based on the most detailed analysis of the crisis so far, Biofuel have forced global food prices up by 75%, According to World Bank report obtain by the Guardian.

Senior development sources believe the report, completed in April, has not been published to avoid embarrassing situation for world top leaders. Rich countries have tried to blame poor and developing countries like India and China for rising demand. But according to the FAO, with record grain harvests in 2007, there is more than enough food in the world to feed everyone—at least 1.5 times current demand. In fact, over the last 20 years, food production has risen steadily at over 2.0% a year, while the rate of population growth has dropped to 1.14% a year. Population is not outstripping food supply. When we see some 80% of the world’s production is consumed by the wealthiest 20% of the world suggesting an inequality in resource use due to social, economic and political reasons, and perhaps less because of Malthusian concerns about population sizes outstripping resource availability in most cases.

This high food prices are related with the High oil prices too. As the rise in the oil prices has heightened the costs of fertilizers, the majority of which requires petroleum or natural gases to manufacture. Oil also provides the most energy for mechanized food production and transport. Higher prices for liquid fuels from petroleum increase the demand for Biofuel, which may result in diverting some crops from food to energy. Even though per-capita petroleum consumption among the world's poorest people is very low, what petroleum the poor do consume is disproportionately in the form of fossil fuel inputs to the food they eat.

Another factor for high food prices is financial speculations. Financial speculation in commodity futures following the collapse of the financial derivatives markets has contributed to the crisis due to a "commodities super-cycle." Financial speculators seeking quick returns have removed trillions of dollars from equities and mortgage bonds, some of which has been invested into food and raw materials. That American commodities speculation could have a worldwide impact on food prices is reflected in the globalization of food production. As long as food is merely a commodity in societies that don't protect people's right to participate in the market, and as long as farming is left vulnerable to consolidated power off the farm, many will go hungry, farmers among them.

This High food prices has taken its toll more on the poor and developing nations. As we have seen in above video people in Egypt are finding tough even for Bread. The poorest countries in the world like Zimbabwe where inflation touches 2000000% and the area such as Darfur which is totally dependent on UN aid for food is suffering more. Now the time has arrived to think on this issue very seriously. At last I will leave you with the Video of this food crisis in Haiti.




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