About | Advertise | Contact
Ecollo.com RSS Feed
RSS
Ecollo.com RSS Feed
E-mail
Ecollo.com RSS Feed
Technorati
Click here to win this awesome prize pack!
.
Written by Pinky Bean

The Food Crisis of 2008

Posted by Pinky Bean on April 26, 2008 10:07 AM Filed Under: Food

The food crisis of 2008 "is a silent tsunami" says one World Food Program expert. Meaning instead of being localized like food problems tend to be, this one is widespread and causing riots worldwide. Depending on a family's income, they may be forced to give up health care, education for their children, meat, vegetables or even full meals, all dependent on the severity of the situation. For the approximately one billion people that survive on $1 per day, one bowl of food each day is just barely manageable, and if the cost of food goes up 20 percent, 100 million more could drop to this level.

Rich countries need to take the food problems as seriously as they take the credit crunch. Already bigwigs at the World Bank and the United Nations are calling for a “new deal” for food. Their clamour is justified. But getting the right kind of help is not so easy, partly because food is not a one-solution-fits-all problem and partly because some of the help needed now risks making matters worse in the long run.

The starting-point should be that rising food prices bear more heavily on some places than others. Food exporters, and countries where farmers are self-sufficient, or net sellers, benefit. Some countries—those in West Africa which import their staples, or Bangladesh, with its huge numbers of landless labourers—risk ruin and civil strife. Because of the severity there, the first step must be to mend the holes in the world's safety net. That means financing the World Food Programme properly. The WFP is the world's largest distributor of food aid and its most important barrier between hungry people and starvation. Like a $1-a-day family in a developing country, its purchasing power has been slashed by the rising cost of grain. Merely to distribute the same amount of food as last year, the WFP needs—and should get—an extra $700m.

In general, governments ought to liberalise markets, not intervene in them further. Food is riddled with state intervention at every turn, from subsidies to millers for cheap bread to bribes for farmers to leave land fallow. The upshot of such quotas, subsidies and controls is to dump all the imbalances that in another business might be smoothed out through small adjustments onto the one unregulated part of the food chain: the international market.

For decades, this produced low world prices and disincentives to poor farmers. Now, the opposite is happening. As a result of yet another government distortion—this time subsidies to biofuels in the rich world—prices have gone through the roof. Governments have further exaggerated the problem by imposing export quotas and trade restrictions, raising prices again. In the past, the main argument for liberalising farming was that it would raise food prices and boost returns to farmers. Now that prices have massively overshot, the argument stands for the opposite reason: liberalisation would reduce prices, while leaving farmers with a decent living.

Agriculture is now in limbo. The world of cheap food has gone. With luck and good policy, there will be a new equilibrium. The transition from one to the other is proving more costly and painful than anyone had expected. But the change is desirable, and governments should be seeking to ease the pain of transition, not to stop the process itself.

The words "food crisis" definitely impose a sense of fear, but admittedly (and frustratingly enough) the situation doesn't really feel like its hitting home yet. Yes, in North America some people are being limited to the amount of rice they can buy at Costco and some experts are advising we start stockpiling food, but really what does this crisis mean for the average North American? That we have to tighten our belts and hold off on buying that plasma TV we've had our eye on to create extra some extra room in the budget for more expensive food? Whereas to someone in Haiti, it may mean deciding if they can afford rice for even one meal each day or if they'll have to resort to eating dirt cookies just to get by.

» Economist

Tags: , , commentsComments (0) | Send to a Friend
Share on FacebookShare on Facebook | Permalink
 

Be the 1st to rate this post!

  • Currently 0/5 Stars.
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5

Related posts

Add comment


(will not be published)  

  Country flag



.
Wink!
Hot Tags
Leafy Green's Tip of the Day Use the measuring lines on your coffee pot once in a while. Don't brew a whole pot if you're only going to drink a cup or two. You can also be an eco-friendly barista by using unbleached filters and composting your used coffee grounds when you're cleaning your coffee machine.
.
.

Recent Comments

.
Hot Tags

Squeaky Clean

Searching for an Eco-Friendly Vacuum Cleaner
Vinegar - The Ultimate in Natural Cleaning
Household Cleaning Chemicals: The Dirty Dozen
Behold the Awesome Eco-Friendly Glory of the Carpet Sweeper!
Create your own 'swiffer'
Borax - Baking Soda's Helpful Cousin
Easy cleaning products you can make at home
Clorox Green Works Has The Right Idea
More...
.
.

Waste Not, Want Not

We are a paper and plastic loving society
Reduce, Reuse, Re-Bicycle
Nike Turns Your Old Shoes Into New Places To Play
Get Creative and Stop Wasting Leftovers
Recycle Your Old iPod!
An Education in Plastics
Top 10 Paper Saving Tips
More...
nike reuse-a-shoe leftovers
.
Hot Tags
Pinky in a canoe

Get Out and Play!

Fun in the water (the eco-friendly way!)
Vitamin D: Go Soak It Up
Five must-have items for any outdoor activity
Leafy having a picnic10 Tips for an Eco-Friendly Picnic
Outdoor activities even the most ardent couch potato can enjoy
Hiking: The Ten Essentials (Plus Eight More!)
More...
.
.
.
.

Categories

Archive

.
.

Advertising on Ecôllo

Click here to learn more about advertising on our site or just send us an e-mail for more information.
Happy Leafy Green on a  Mushroom
.
.

Ecôllo Friends

sabalolodge.com sustainabilityninja.com organicbabyclothes.ca theenvironmentalage.com tinydecorblog.com sumobabystore.com muddydogcoffee.com bestgreenblogs.com enamore.co.uk 365touring.com greenmomfinds.com organicholidays.co.uk wildwindsoap.com moondropclothiers.com nicebaby.ca

Boots on the Roof

Composting Instructions

Paradigm Group
Green Wholesaler

Free Green Market

Leaves and Lizards
Arenal Volcano Cabin Retreat

Cherished Planet
Live Green. Give Green.

GreenSmith Consulting

La leona Ecolodge

Green Gigs
Virtual Jobs With a Green Twist

Babyminding
Kids and Baby Design Ideas
Natural and Organic Baby Products
Waste Collection
Eco Home Furniture Design Ideas
Cruiserstyle
Beach Cruisers

WildlifeGardener
Expert Advice To Create A Wildlife Haven

ForceChange
Environmental news, policy and analysis

Compost Manual
A complete guide to composting

The Organic Beauty Expert
Allie's Answers
Urban Branches
A City Girl's Guide to Going Green

The Greening Tree
Green and frugal ideas for imperfect people

Someone Spoil Me
Lucky Honu
Eco-$mart
Healthy, Efficient, Disaster Resistant Products for Better Living


Would you like to exchange links and be an Ecôllo Friend?
It's easy!
.
blogarama - the blog directory
Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Subscribe to Ecollo's RSS Feed Ecollo.com RSS Feed
Ecollo logo and Ecollo Characters are © Copyright 2007 - 2010 Ecollo.com Inc. All rights reserved.
All other articles and images are subject to the Creative Commons Public Domain License.
Add to Google Add to My Yahoo! Add to My MSN Add to My AOL Subscribe in NewsGator Online Add to del.icio.us