ABOUT THE GLOBAL FOOD CRISIS

Malnutrition around the world is nothing new…what is new is the inability of millions of already undernourished people to access food due to increasing fuel and food prices in the last two years. Name 5 repercussions that occur because of this situation.

Feeding by the numbers…  100 million people, have been pushed into poverty and hunger over the past two years (2010); 35 million of them are children.  Food prices increased 83% since 2005, jumping 47% between 2007 and 2008 alone.

What’s different?  In the past, food crises have largely been weather or environment related.  These tended to subside when environmental conditions improved and harvests returned to normal yields.  Currently, however, rising fuel prices and long term climate change are not likely to change in the near future.

Why did food prices increase?  Increased price of oil – oil is required to produce fertilizers, run industrial farm machinery and transport food.  Demand for biofuels – growing crops for fuels is often more profitable than growing crops for food. For example, in 2008 apprx. 30% of U.S. corn production was used to produce ethanol.

 Declining agricultural productivity – land degradation, water shortages, higher oil prices and reduced gov’t. investment in agriculture.  Low grain reserves – the world has consumed more grain than it has produced for the past 8 years.  Changes in incomes – rapid economic growth in China, India and other developing countries means that greater numbers of people can now afford to eat more meat which requires more water and grain to feed livestock.

 Population growth – steadily increasing population is putting additional pressures on long-term food supplies.  Urbanization – more than ½ of the world’s population now live in urban areas, placing more demands on farmers to produce enough food to feed city dwellers.  Globalization – malnutrition is more widespread with food riots increasing.

Source:  cational/about_global_food_crisis.pdf