Roger Thurow Offers “Global Food For Thought”

Jan 20th, 2010 9:54 AM UTC
By Chris Scott

For those who might not have otherwise been aware, Roger Thurow is author and editor of “Global Food for Thought” a blog that “provides updated information, commentary, and analysis on breaking developments on international agriculture, food, and related issues.” Roger, as you’ll recall, recently wrote “Enough” which we covered on the ONE Blog here and here.

Today he has a new post looking at U.S. agricultural development assistance efforts toward Africa. This comes on the 1-year anniversary of President Obama’s inaugural address when he declared “To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow, to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds.”

You can read Roger’s post here, short excerpt below:

Elemental as it may sound, boosting agriculture production in the developing world hasn’t been a priority for a long time. It is one of the gobsmacking outrages of international politics that for the past two decades rich world aid for agriculture development in the poorest countries, particularly Africa, has dramatically declined, falling by more than half from its peak in the early-1980s. Rather than fight hunger with long-term agriculture development, the world relied on providing emergency food relief from surplus production in the West.

The food crisis of 2008 exposed the danger of that strategy. Soaring commodity prices and plunging surpluses triggered riots over scarce and expensive staple foods like rice and corn in dozens of developing countries. In Haiti, which had been directed by international development strategists to rely on imports of cheap food from places like the U.S. rather than feed itself, street protests toppled the government when that cheap food suddenly became very expensive. A large part of Haiti’s impoverishment now on heartbreaking display after the earthquake had been fostered by this strategy that intentionally left Haiti dependent on others for staple foods.

Rwanda had also been suffering from the neglect of agriculture. Typical of sub-Saharan Africa, about three-quarters of Rwanda’s population depends on farming for its own food and a bit of income. Agriculture provides one-third of the national income. Yet Rwanda’s rural infrastructure is underdeveloped. A lack of irrigation leaves it almost wholly dependent on rain. The hills are scarred with erosion. Markets are weak, transport is difficult, seed research is scarce. Since the genocide of 1994 ravaged the countryside, hunger reigned.

TAGS: ONE, Rwanda