What’s Causing the Food Crisis?
Many people are deeply concerned about the world’s deepening food crisis. Food prices are soaring and the poor in impoverished countries are having to cut back and in some cases are starving. The situation in Haiti is so desperate riots have destablized the government and many have resorted to eating “mudcakes” or patties made of dirt.
This is a moral outrage, and estimates suggest 10 million people will die due to the crisis
If you haven’t already, please, take action alongside the 113,305 members of ONE demanding a response to the crisis.
Unfortunately, there is a lot of bad information going around about this issue. A lot of people are blaming U.S. farm subsidies which lower world prices and steal potential income from poor farmers. ONE has worked to eliminate this horrible practice–but the problem is that food prices too high. (Note: Biofuel subsidies are another story. They do contribute both to higher food prices and by some estimates to global warming.)
The real problems are both decreasing supply–because of droughts in Australia and other parts of the world and many rice-producing Asian economies closing off exports in a panic–and increasing demand, because the progress reducing poverty in Asia has added millions of new meat consumers and cows requires 8-13 lbs of grain for each pound of edible beef for example.
I found this interview with Research Fellow Peter Timmer enlightening.
This blog post from Nancy Birdsall and Arvind Subramanian details short-term and long term policy options. (Warning: It is filled with jargon. I was not a big fan of the presentation.)
And if you are done with finals and have plenty of spare time, you might want to check out this 2-page paper by Peter Timmer on who wins and who loses in the U.S. food aid system which needs desperate reform.
– Steve, ONE Tampa
P.S. One last reminder: Take Action. The initial surge in activism and media coverage led President Bush to allocate $200 million for emergency food aid. But he can be pressured to do more.
TAGS: Action, Farm Bill