 |
| Climate threats to the food system: floods in Pakistan have destroyed millions of hectares of farmland. Photo courtesy of Getty images. |
The Financial Times has just published a special report on the recent hike in food prices around the world and the devastating effects especially on poorer countries. According to the article, the good news is that "while the number of people who will suffer chronic hunger this year has fallen slightly (by 98m) to 925m in 2009, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), that still means a child dies every six seconds as a result of hunger-related problems".
Within the report, the article "Idea of self-help starts to gain momentum" by Harvey Morris relates the problem to the decline in public investment on agricultural research during periods of food surpluses, which was redirected to processing and other technologies geared to consumers in the rich "north". Simply put, during periods of drought and famine in food production countries, Europe and the United States began investing heavily in research to increase supply, and the beneficiaries were mainly third world countries. During periods of high production, these very investments were channeled back to their homelands to reap investment surpluses from local consumers who were willing to spend more on food variety and quality.
A strand of sociological thought e.g. World Systems Theory condemns the idea of development as necessary, arguing that when the rich "north" provides aid to the poor "south" in terms of research investments, infrastructure, capital and advice, the main intention is to plug the beneficiary country into the world economy. When this happens, the receiving country's farms and ranches are turned into production sources that feed not just the locals, but whose surpluses can be exported back to the rich "north", pushing food prices down. In turn, the rich "north" sells advanced equipment and manufactured products back to this poor countries in the name of development, adding on to their already high level of dependency. When periods of drought and famine strike, the rich "north" then offers to pay more for food (by a little bit only, really), and the poorer nations have little choice but to sell because firstly they risk angering the richer nations who are still controlling investment flow, and secondly they need the money to import food to feed their own population.
Immediately, food prices increase tenfold in these poor countries while only increasing by a few cents in the rich "north". A drought in Russia that forces the government to restrict food exports and increase imports causes famine in Malawi (even if there were no droughts there!) Emergency aid from NGOs is quickly flown in to feed the poor, and if food prices continue to maintain at the same level (or worse still, increase) past a critical point, a significant and increasing portion of the populations sinks into chronic hunger, leading to higher government expenditure needed to handle riots, health care and crime.
Besides having a centralized global food coordination system, rich nations need to be run by benevolent governments who are able to convince its population to make sacrifices for the sake of those starving in poorer countries. Despite the positives of capitalism, there is an incredible wastage of food everyday which, if managed properly, can be used to feed hungry mouths on the other side of the globe. Immense obstacles ranging from racism, consumer rights and a basic lack of empathy have dominated political mindsets, pressuring parties to prioritize local preferences over moral stands when it comes to such issues. Unless these are overcome, education and awareness creation have not achieved their goals.
It then leaves the decisions to two groups of people, consumers/voters and for-profits/states in rich countries to do something about it. It would be terrible if it takes a world war to provide a global experience of poverty and hunger, and in so doing, traumatize people all over the world to come to the conclusion of a need to purposefully make sacrifices for their neighbors and brothers of mankind. States and international organizations must do something, but so does each and everyone of us, starting with our very basic choices.
Food.
No comments:
Post a Comment