Over the past year, drought has plagued much of the Horn of Africa: Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Uganda. It has been the driest year on record since 1950! The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWSNET) and Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit (FSNAU) were able to signal this emerging weather-related crisis as early as August 2010. These initiatives have helped donors track the crisis and its impact on communities in the region. Though the crisis has not been averted, these data allowed donors to scale up and pre-position quantities of food to help meed the needs of the populations.
A friend just passed along this fascinating report on a new initiative being undertaken by our partner MercyCorps in Jakarta. Living in Washington, DC I’m pretty familiar with the concept of “food deserts” — that is, urban areas where it’s difficult to find grocery stores or fresh food in general. (You can read up a bit more about DC’s food desert challenge here).
This is of course a worldwide epidemic, and a big issue in Jakarta, Indonesia — a city in which “17 percent of children under the age of 5 suffer from acute malnutrition, while 12 percent are overweight” according to op-ed columnist Tina Rosenberg. A severe lack of kitchens and adequate sources of fresh, healthy food makes street vendors often the only viable source of daily meals.
We’re very excited to introduce our newest blog series, “Price Shock: The Growing Food Crisis,” to the ONE Blog. Our agriculture policy team will be regularly posting analysis on the global food crisis for the next few weeks, so stay tuned.
If you haven’t heard yet, food prices are spiking again and food is starting to be out of reach of the poor. Prices haven’t been this high since the 2008 food crisis where prices jumped 83 percent, pushing roughly 150 million more people into poverty.
After the onset of the global economic downturn, prices quieted, but only temporarily. From June to December 2010, global prices for wheat increased 75 percent, corn 73 percent and rice 17 percent. Prices for other main staples such as sorghum, beans and cassava have risen between 20 percent and 48 percent in some countries. Rising wheat prices have surged the highest in Central Asian countries, whereas corn prices have affected South American countries like Brazil and Argentina the most. Rice prices on the other hand have increased at a much slower rate and remain about 70 percent below their peak in 2008. Africa also seems to be relatively insulated from bumper corn harvests last year.
Maybe experts haven’t declared an official emergency, but how can you not be alarmed? The World Bank says food prices have pushed about 44 million people in low- and middle- income countries into poverty. High and rising prices, even without a declared state of emergency, should be reason enough for global leaders take action to prevent an impending food crisis in 2011.
Trouble is, most global leaders hardly seem to be raising an eyebrow.
Clearly after the experience of 2008 we should be wiser. We should know how to stop it from happening again. But do we? Or better yet, can we? Global leaders may be up against challenging domestic budget issues, but they still need to find political capital and will do what is needed. It’s not just a matter of doing the right thing, but ensuring global political and financial stability.
High food prices are symptomatic of structural problems and recent shocks that will require big actions to solve. Least of which will be ensuring that investments in agriculture are made on a large scale. Donors committed in 2009 to invest $22.5 billion in agriculture and food security in developing countries. In 2010, they claimed to have spent about a third, but they haven’t clarified what for or who’s spent what. So, what about the rest? And where do we go from here?
Meeting these commitments NOW couldn’t be more urgent.
Food prices have been climbing since mid 2010. There’s no reason to suggest prices will go down anytime soon. Most signs just point up. The high cost of food is increasingly cited as an agitator in the political unrest in Northern Africa. Oil prices are now above $100 a barrel, making growing and transporting food more expensive and demand for biofuels grow stronger. Adverse weather has lowered production and fears remain that more droughts ahead will continue to drive up prices. Speculation in food commodity markets is on the rise…need we go on? Prices are high, and rising, and it is pushing more people into poverty.
Hopefully global leaders can find the political will to put this tragic story to rest.
Over the next month, ONE will be taking a close look at what’s happening on the ground: how this price spike compares to the last, what lessons have we learned, and what we can take forward to prevent another food crisis. We hope you will follow along.
Food prices are high again. In December 2010, prices — according the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s measurement of a group of food commodities — soared higher than the peak of the 2008 food prices. While new figures have not been released, reports are saying that prices for staple foods in developing countries like rice and wheat are climbing and the suspicious absence of rioting is starting to reverse. Riots in Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Yemen and Pakistan might just be the start for a tumultuous year. But while these riots were not triggered by high food prices -– high food prices certainly only add to citizens’ gripes with their governments.
There are a number of factors at play: Adverse weather is driving grim grain projections in South America and the US, increasing demands for biofuels made from food crops, oil surpassing $100 a barrel for the first time since October 2008, expectations that Russia’s export bans will be extended beyond 2011 and that others are starting to hoard or panic-buy. All this suggests that prices will continue to climb. And while the G20 debates the role of financial speculation in influencing food prices more hungry people could take to the streets.
With Thanksgiving just around the corner, the Bread for the World Institute released its timely 2011 Hunger Report, with an event Monday at the National Press Club, featuring USAID administrator Dr. Rajiv Shah and recent World Food Prize winner and Bread for the World President David Beckman.
As American families prepare to gather with friends and loved ones to share a large meal this week, the panelists helped to highlight the growing global food crisis, estimating that 925 million people worldwide will go hungry in 2010 due in large part to soaring global food prices.
Fortunately, the US government has recently stepped up its response to hunger and malnutrition, thanks primarily to the new Feed the Future initiative that focuses on “improving the productivity and livelihoods of smallholder farmers.” This initiative isn’t about handing out emergency food aid, but empowering farmers to get the support they need to respond to high food prices. Now, this is a cause that we at ONE can get behind!
After my last post, a lot of people were asking recently about System of Rice Intensification (SRI) and whether it uses engineered or hybrid seeds.
The answer is that farmers can use any type of seed they want in the field. Regardless of the type of seed, they end up using less because of the management techniques that the system recommends -– using compost and manure, growing seedlings to an ideal height for transplant, using less water and planting in orderly rows, among other ideas.
Because the system is precise, farmers plant less seeds (check out the difference in the image above!) and use less land than they would if they were flooding their fields and using lots of synthetic fertilizer. This means that their expenses are lower and their incomes are higher. Not to mention they have more land to grow the vegetables that help combat malnutrition in their children.
Innovations like SRI are a part of the U.S. government’s plan to end hunger and decrease childhood malnutrition. Congress is debating whether or not to fund it. For more on actions to take to convince them, stay tuned to ONE actions over the next couple of weeks.
A week ago, Des Moines, Iowa sat at the center of the advocacy and development world’s efforts. Over a thousand leaders from around the planet gathered to advocate for, learn about and honor the efforts to combat hunger, end malnutrition and spread sustainable agriculture for the 24th annual World Food Prize.
Initiated by Norman Borlaug and supported by the Ruan company and others, the World Food Prize is the “Nobel” of food and hunger — and an entire week full of events has sprung up around the prize. Here are a few of the moments that stand out from the events I was able to take part during a packed week.
The Iowa Hunger Summit begins the week. Iowans gather to learn and act on hunger issues in the Hawkeye State, in the U.S. and around the world. Former Ambassador and Ohio Congressman Tony Hall gave the keynote remarks. For ONE members, his words about engaging elected officials stood out. The midterm elections “will make a decisive impact on progress on hunger,” said Amb. Hall. Referring to our engagement with candidates and elected officials, Tony said “put them on the spot, in a nice way.” If we do not bring issues like hunger to their attention, they will think that “it must not be important.”
The ONE panel discussion was a terrific part of the Hunger Summit. Led by U.S. Executive Director Sheila Nix, the speakers included Karey Claghorn, Iowa Deputy Secretary of Agriculture, Richard Mkandawire of Africa Union/NEPAD, and Julie Howard of the Partnership to Cut Hunger and Poverty in Africa. Secretary Claghorn described how passionate Iowans are about alleviating hunger. Mr. Mkandawire was clear that donor countries like the U.S. are becoming responsive to African voices that are charting the course of agricultural development. Ms. Howard called us to really get behind research based advocacy so that we focus on what works.
This year’s WFP laureates are Jo Luck, who leads Heifer Inernational, and David Beckmann, the head of Bread for the World. Both organizations are ONE partners. And both Jo and David played key roles in ONE’s launch and development. Congratulations to both! This is the first time that grassroots advocacy and direct help have been honored with the prize. In her remarks, Jo Luck related that Heifer “lives the success” of agriculture development. David Beckmann called what Bread and other advocates do as creating “organized give a damns.”
The WFP included some really great keynotes. Jeff Raikes, the CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, commented about the need to “tell the story in front of the numbers.” Because that leads to the easing of hunger, provides livelihoods and allows parents have the means to send their children to school. This was particularly striking to me as ONE embarks on our Living Proof campaign. Two comments from Howie Buffett’s keynote stand out to me: “Markets are the key to moving farmers out of poverty, to the economy and into the economy” and “You cannot create long term productive positive change without good, clear policies.
World Food Prize week had a whole lot more to it than what I’ve mentioned here here. Check out the other posts on the WFP on the ONE blog and visit the WFP site for more.
ONE is campaigning to ensure that the Congressional budget does not cut foreign assistance programs like Feed the Future that help people break the cycle of poverty and hunger.
The Horn of Africa is experiencing its worst drought in 60 years. More than 11 million people, mostly nomadic pastoralists and farmers in south-central Somalia, north-eastern Kenya, and south-eastern Ethiopia, are severely lacking access to food.
2011 marks 30 years since the first cases of AIDS were documented. Take a closer look at the specific, achievable goals we must hit by 2015 to make this year the beginning of the end of AIDS.
As aid agencies warn more than 9 million people could be affected by a food crisis in East Africa, world leaders are failing to keep their 2009 promises to tackle the causes of chronic hunger and support farmers in the world's poorest countries.
A friend just passed along this fascinating report on a new initiative being undertaken by our partner 
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