Global food crisis looms as climate change and fuel shortages bite

[CHIMO]

Source: The Guardian

Empty shelves in Caracas. Food riots in West Bengal and Mexico. Warnings of hunger in Jamaica, Nepal, the Philippines and sub-Saharan Africa. Soaring prices for basic foods are beginning to lead to political instability, with governments being forced to step in to artificially control the cost of bread, maize, rice and dairy products.

Record world prices for most staple foods have led to 18% food price inflation in China, 13% in Indonesia and Pakistan, and 10% or more in Latin America, Russia and India, according to the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO). Wheat has doubled in price, maize is nearly 50% higher than a year ago and rice is 20% more expensive, says the UN. Next week the FAO is expected to say that global food reserves are at their lowest in 25 years and that prices will remain high for years.

Last week the Kremlin forced Russian companies to freeze the price of milk, bread and other foods until January 31, for fear of a public backlash with a parliamentary election looming. "The price of goods has risen sharply and that has hit the poor particularly hard," said Oleg Savelyev, of the Levada Centre polling institute.

India, Yemen, Mexico, Burkina Faso and several other countries have had, or been close to, food riots in the last year, something not seen in decades of low global food commodity prices. Meanwhile, there are shortages of beef, chicken and milk in Venezuela and other countries as governments try to keep a lid on food price inflation.


Algae stained mud carpets the drought ravaged Gayngaru wetlands of Arnhem Land in Australia's Northern Territory. Photograph Torsten Blackwood/AFP



Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/nov/03/food.climatechange

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Not good.

And Transports are shaky.

[Deja Q]

1. The US tried price controls in the 1970s.

Did those work?

And why are so many countries now trying the same thing?

[CHIMO]

2. Maybe

They want to survive.

How much can you afford for water?

And who owns the air?

Guess we will have to wait and see who owns these commodities.

[EST]

16. Actually, wage and price controls, instituted in 1973 by trickydick Nixon,

worked quite well, although they had no long term effect except to piss off a bunch of republicans and make them rather unsympathetic a year later, when Nixon needed their sympathy.

The wage and price controls' effect on inflation was minimal, although somehow they allowed wingnuts to blame inflation on Jimmy Carter and the extended inflation on his inability to surmount it.
Nixon couldn't fix it, Ford couldn't fix it (remember Ford's Whip Inflation Now buttons?) The republicans then blamed Carter, even though they undermined and ridiculed his efforts at every turn.

[Mojorabbit]

3. Climate change

is going to be brutal. Every day I am reading reports from all over about drastic drops in birds coming in for nesting as wetlands deteriorate.

[BeHereNow]

8. And let's not forget the disappearing honey bees...

One more factor in the demise of mankind.
No bees, a lot less food.
Basically, I think we be "screwn."
BHN

[Robbien]

15. In poorer areas of China, people are pollinating flowers manually

There was a show about this either on PBS or the Discovery Channel. Since the bees are gone, people are collecting pollen from male flowers. With feathers, the people are climbing trees and delivering the pollen to all the flowers.

Scary to think something such as this has to happen.

[kurth]

4. Damn too many mouths to feed

[Doctor Cynic]

5. Looks like we'll have rough times ahead

I don't have much doubt we'll be capable of feeding everyone, but the globally wealthy will be making a lot of sacrifices. We currently have huge amounts of land in Argentina and the US, and Russia that are capable of being farmed for grain. And if things get really bad, I can see rationings of meat to improve overall food efficiency. That would convert ranchlands to farmlands. And of course, increased fuel prices will mean increased fertilized prices (and keep in mind that we're essentially drinking oil by eating mass-produced grain), so we may well see meat disappear from our daily diets (my dad told me how back in Maoist China when he was a kid his mouth would water for days if his parents promised meat). By that time we'll all be forced to grow fruits and vegetables in our backyards. We could be like Cuba, where the average adult lost all their fat when the Soviet Union ended. But I guess, at the end, we will have learned to manage our resources better. So I'm pessimistic and optimistic at the same time.

[eridani]

6. Cuba's a great example of why we should not just curl up and die

http://www.twnside.org.sg/title/twr118h.htm

This was exacerbated by the implementation in 1992 of the US’ punitive ‘Cuba Democracy Act’, which tightened its existing trade embargo, and further in 1996 with the signing of the satirically-titled ‘Cuba Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act’ (the ‘Helms-Burton Act’). On top of an embargo that prevents the sale by any American or American-friendly industries of food or medicine to Cuba, upon pain of sanctions or legal action, the Helms-Burton Act is a deliberate attempt to stifle the re-growth of the Cuban economy by deterring foreign investment. US Senator Jesse Helms, one of the creators of the Act, is remarkably honest about its overall aim - the replacement of Castro’s government by one more favoured by the US. ‘Let this be the year Cubans say farewell to Fidel,’ he said as the Act was passed in the Senate. ‘I don’t care whether Fidel leaves vertically or horizontally, but he’s leaving.’

For a less resourceful and determined nation than Cuba, such action by the world’s only superpower could have spelled disaster. But rather than roll over and die, Cuba began to foment a new revolution. The nation responded to the crisis with a restructuring of agriculture. It began a transformation from conventional, high-input, mono-crop intensive agriculture, to smaller organic and semi-organic farms.

As oil imports crashed, Cubans looked for ways to reduce their dependency on it. In agriculture, this meant reducing transportation, refrigeration and storage costs by relocating agricultural production closer to the cities. Havana has some 20% of Cuba’s population, and at 2.5 million people is the largest city in the Caribbean. Feeding its population was obviously a priority. Urban agriculture was one of the solutions.

Urban agriculture played an important role in feeding urban populations around the world up until the industrial revolution of the 18th century, when nearly all food began to be imported from the countryside.6 Fertile areas inside and surrounding cities were lost to development. But since the 1970s, there has been evidence of a global reversal of this trend. It is estimated that some 14% of the world’s food is now produced in urban areas.7

[Uncle Joe]

11. NOW had a good episode on PBS last night

about tobacco farmers in Virginia switching to organic produce primarily for local consumption, this helps prevent global warming by reducing shipping costs.

[alittlelark]

7. How much will the fuel cost to move that food?

Think this out in the long term.

[TheMadMonk]

10. Yes why don't you/we/us?

Let's start with ripping up every scrap of tarmac joining our cities and lay down electrified rails.

Piss off that Great American status symbol. Those who just "must" wave their dicks at each other, can drop their pants and give the rest of us a good laugh. FSM knows we're gonna need it over the next few decades.

[earth mom]

9. Yikes! K & R! nt

[donsu]

12. Victory Gardens should be taken out of the dusty drawer of WWII

food grown nearby doesn't need large transportation costs

it is surprising how many people can be fed from a single veg. garden.

how many healthy eggs a small healthy, happy, flock can produce to feed many people.

[ohio2007]

14. They will be renamed "Quagmire gardens"

We will never win the war on hunger worldwide when people live in deserts and hope people with means will ship them the surplus "bumper crop"......

[EST]

17. You make a good point.

Chickens are the very best tool and process we have for turning bug protein into eggs and eggs, although fairly high in cholesterol, represent a pretty healthful food source.
The problem with free-range chickens, at least in the area where I live, is that the attempt to undo the ravages wreaked on the eco system are, themselves, short sighted and inadequate. The introduction of coyotes into Illinois has driven the more common and useful predators to lengths they normally don't cover, leading them to destroy farm flocks.

One would think there would be plenty of leftovers for 'coons and 'possums from the coyotes' boom and bust deer population banquet table, but such is not the case. Their own population swings drive them to alternate food sources, much of which, unfortunately, are my responsibility and expense.

[ohio2007]

13. I suppose the almost 7 BILLION mouths to feed are a non factor nt