Saturday 10 November 2012

Solution to the Global Food Crisis

By Margot E. Joseph


The food crisis will be the biggest crisis of the 21st century. It will push up food prices and spread hunger and poverty. Surging food prices will create inflation and create more crisis in the world. This will not only affect developing countries but also developed countries. According to United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), more than 73 million people in 78 countries who depend on food handouts are facing reduced rations this year.


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Food crisis can be traced back to the early 1960's and even further. According to the executive intelligence, "food and self sufficiency has been declining since 1963 world wide". There has been an overall drop in production and output of at least 20 to 30 percent in cereals, pulses, oils and milk, with the African and Asian nations being hit the hardest.Biofuel has been credited with causing the current crisis, but it is not the sole contributor. Many things caused this meltdown.

Nearly every region of the world is experiencing drastic inflation caused by food this year. Retail prices are up 18% in China, 17% in Sri Lanka and 10% or more throughout Latin America and Russia.Recently on May 3, a cyclone devastated Myanmar's low-lying Irrawaddy delta region leaving more than 1 million people homeless, according to the UN. An estimated 80,000 people died in the delta's Labutta district alone. Myanmar had been expected to export 600,000 tons of rice this year, including to Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization. The cyclone flooded 5,000 square kilometers (1,930 square miles) of farmland. Cyclone Nargis struck the country's main rice-growing area, worsening a food crisis that's triggered unrest from Haiti to Egypt.

Food Stockpiles The point of Forbes' story-as well as the part which could actually cause food shortages in America-is that in September of 2010, the USDA estimated that global grain stockpiles totaled 432 million tons. While this sounds like an incredible amount of grain, in terms we can relate to, this is a mere 70 days of consumption. In 2007 that stockpile figure reached 64 days, and the food crisis of 2008 followed shortly thereafter. The question remains, what if America's "record harvests," turn into one really bad production year-then what? Many analysts believe that because of our history of good harvests, we have fallen into complacency, and that when the next food crisis comes it will be a far bigger shock than the $150 dollar per barrel oil.

The World Bank predicts global demand for food will double by 2030. This is partly because the world's population is expected to grow by three billion by 2050. Food demand will also grow due to new prosperity in India and China.Global warming will disrupt food production in many countries. It can cause climate instability which is bad for crop.Food price are affected by accelerating demand for biofuels. Biofuels, made from food crops such as corn, sugar cane, and palm oil, are seen as easing the world's dependence on gasoline. But when crude oil is expensive, these alternative energy sources can also be sold at higher price. Last year a quarter of the US maize crop was turned into ethanol to fuel vehicles. US supplies more than 60% of the world's maize exports. According to the World Bank, this is putting pressure on countries' food supplies.

The worldwide food reserves are at their lowest in 35 years. Demand is growing much more than supply.How to solve For short term, massive government and international agency aid is needed especially from rich nations. For long term, there should be incentives to increase food production. Relative price fluctuations are an unavoidable part of an efficient economy. This becomes worrying when some people are so poor that a small rise in price becomes a life and death question for them.

The rice is made by mixing potatoes, sweet potatoes and plastic; the potatoes are formed into the shape of rice grains to which industrial synthetic resins are added. The Chinese Restaurant Association stated that eating three bowls of this fake rice would be like eating one plastic bag. As food continues to become scarce around the world, it's likely we will see much more of these "fillers" being added to our food.

Barnes Grand Blanc School.As you can see from the above statement it was just the opposite of the doubters. He was confident in his ideas and himself. You could say he was "fearless in his actions"No matter how much we turn our heads to it or pretend it is not happening, it won't go away. Ethanol can be made out of other commodities that wouldn't put a strain on our basic foods for example sugar cane, in which Brazil is doing. They are also the world's largest sugar producer and exporter and sugar doesn't compete with food.We have to get courageous in our thinking and fearless in our action and "take a bite out of the food crisis"




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