JavaGAR
Explorer
Reged: 10/07/06
Posts: 484
Loc: New York State
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Human-Made Hunger
07/06/08 07:43 PM
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A New York Times editorial, Man-Made Hunger, published on July 6, 2008 promotes the view that the crisis of rising food costs is largely the result of government energy and farm policies.
The editorial begins as follows:
Quote:
Thirty countries have already seen food riots this year. The ever higher cost of food could push tens of millions of people into abject poverty and starvation.
To a large degree, this crisis is man-made — the result of misguided energy and farm policies. When President Bush and other heads of state of the Group of 8 leading industrial nations meet in Japan this week, they must accept their full share of responsibility and lay out clearly what they will do to address this crisis.
To start, they must live up to their 2005 commitment to vastly increase aid to the poorest countries. And they must push other wealthy countries, like those in the Middle East, to help too. That will not be enough. They must also commit to reduce, or even better, do away with their most egregious agricultural and energy subsidies, which contribute to the spread of hunger throughout the world.
The editorial points out that:
Quote:
In the last year, the price of corn has risen 70 percent; wheat 55 percent; rice 160 percent. The World Bank estimates that for a group of 41 poor countries the combined shock of rising prices of food, oil and other raw materials over the past 18 months will cost them between 3 and 10 percent of their annual economic output.
Identified as the most serious causes are:
Quote:
... subsidies, mandates and tariffs to encourage the production of biofuels from crops in the United States and the European Union. According to the World Bank, almost all of the growth in global corn production from 2004 to 2007 was devoted to American ethanol production — pushing up corn and animal feed prices and prompting farmers to switch from other crops to corn.
But the rising cost of energy and fertilizer, and drought are seen as being out of the control of governments. The editorial does not discuss whether human-induced climate change, which could be a contributor to some droughts, might be partially a result of the policies of governments and actions of corporations.
An April 10, 2008 New York Times editorial, The World Food Crisis, made the point that:
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The International Monetary Fund estimates that corn ethanol production in the United States accounted for at least half the rise in world corn demand in each of the past three years. This elevated corn prices. Feed prices rose. So did prices of other crops — mainly soybeans — as farmers switched their fields to corn, according to the Agriculture Department.
Washington provides a subsidy of 51 cents a gallon to ethanol blenders and slaps a tariff of 54 cents a gallon on imports. In the European Union, most countries exempt biofuels from some gas taxes and slap an average tariff equal to more than 70 cents a gallon of imported ethanol.
A series of BBC charts, The cost of food: Facts and figures, illustrates that although over the scale of the past several decades, the current rise in food prices might not yet appear to be very steep, food price rises have been preceded by rises in energy prices. The ominous implication is that if the most realistic prospect for the future is for continued rises in energy prices, rising food costs will continue.
See also Google Earth Community: The idea of biofuels is good, but.... and Google Earth Community: Unforeseen costs of the global economy, and Google Earth Community: Desertification in Spain.
Also note that students at Middlebury College in Vermont are learning about the connection of their food to the world that supplies it, as described in Google Earth Community: Food Mapping and the placemark attached to Google Earth Community: GE Content from Middlebury College Students.
As we sit in comfort, enjoying Google Earth, hunger is the daily theme of many people's lives. The Google Earth Community thread $50b to help save the world:how will you spend it? and others provide opportunities for us to discuss possible solutions to this and related problems, which may grow in severity as we wait for effective action.
Additional Information
International Food Policy Research Institute
Food Research and Action Center
Google Earth Blog: Maps for Global Hunger / Poverty in Google Earth
Food and Agriculture Organization: Hunger Map
Global Hunger Index 2007
Freedom from Hunger: Fighting Poverty and Hunger in Mexico
Common Dreams: In Southern Sudan, Malnutrition Rates Indicate Risk of Famine
Perspectives in Health: Fighting Hunger in Brazil
Russian Poverty (World Food Prize High School Report)
Medical News Today: GM Rice Will Not End Hunger in China, The Lancet
Google Earth Community: Waiting for Peace in Bukavu, Congo
Google Earth Community: A Sad Place on Earth
Google Earth Community: Drought in Lesotho
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