Food and Fuels
Food
Skyrocketing food prices have triggered riots across the developing world and forced the world’s largest food aid agency to confront a $500 million deficit. The media are focused on short-term consequences, but there are also concerns about the long-term forecast for global food security, poverty, and hunger.
Global food prices have been rising steadily since 2000, and are up almost 50 percent in the last year alone. Low-income countries that import more food than they export have been hit hardest. Thirty-seven countries—21 of which are in Africa—are in a food security crisis, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
The World Bank recently announced that the current food situation could push 100 million people into deeper poverty, undoing years of progress in the fight against global poverty and hunger. Poor households spend between 60 percent to 80 percent of their income on food, compared to only 10 percent to 20 percent in most industrialized countries.
FAO Food Price Index: February 2007 - January 2008
food price index
Source: FAO, 2008
What Are the Causes?
Despite several record-breaking harvests, world cereals production between 2000 and 2007 fell well short of consumption. The shortfall has forced the depletion of world grain stocks—a useful proxy for global food security—which are now at their lowest levels in 25 years.
There are several commonly acknowledged drivers behind the current food price spikes, including:
- High price of oil, manifested in increased fertilizer and fuel costs
- Increased demand for meat and dairy products in the developing world, which requires more grain be fed to livestock
- Diversion of crops for biofuel production
- Adverse weather conditions, such as the recent six-year Australian drought that decimated rice production
- Commodity speculation by investors, and
- Lack of access to improved inputs and markets amongst smallholder farmers in the developing world—particularly in sub-Saharan Africa—which limits their ability to react to the incentives created by increased demand, and
- Domestic policy responses to higher food prices in developing countries—such as export taxes, bans, or other restrictions—which exacerbate the problem.
These factors together have created a “perfect storm” that has driven food prices up. Although adverse weather conditions and commodity speculation may nudge food prices up in the short term, the rest of these drivers appear to be longer-lasting, and their effects are likely to be felt for several years.
Short-Run vs Long-Run Measures for Global Food Security
The FAO forecasts a 2.6 percent rise in cereal production in 2008, which would result in a record harvest of over two billion metric tons. If this prediction materializes—much depends on unpredictable weather—the current food crisis should ease somewhat. Even so, experts predict that prices will remain high at least through 2015, indicating that short-term policy interventions are necessary to combat hunger over the coming decade. These actions should include targeted safety nets for vulnerable populations, such as the urban poor; increased support for food aid agencies; and short-run trade policy measures, such as reducing tariffs and taxes on key staples.
Over the long-run, ensuring global food security will require greater effort. While most experts believe that the world’s agro-ecosystems, coupled with improved technology, have the physical capacity to satisfy demand through the 21st century, this will not happen if current circumstances prevail. Agricultural trade barriers, environmental degradation, and the under-performance of African agriculture, energy efficiency, and the restoration of marginal lands must all be addressed.
Furthermore, climate change threatens to exacerbate food insecurity in the world’s poorest regions. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicts that rising temperatures will decrease yields in 40 developing countries, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa, and that three degrees Celsius of warming will increase the price of food by 40 percent. Without concerted global action to help vulnerable populations adapt to a warming climate, while also addressing the other drivers of food security described above, global hunger will not be tackled this century.
Fuel:
Recent years and months have seen increasing attention being paid to the issue of energy security. There are a number of concerns and fears such as (though not limited to):
- Oil and other fossil fuel depletion (peak oil, etc)
- Reliance on foreign sources of energy
- Geopolitics (such as supporting dictatorships, rising terrorism, “stability” of nations that supply energy)
- Energy needs of poorer countries, and demands from advancing developing countries such as China and India
- Economic efficiency versus population growth debate
- Environmental issues, in particular climate change
- Renewables and other alternative energy sources
Energy insecurity combined with other global issues risks fueling conflict, repeating past mistakes in history.
Food Vs Fuel
Food vs fuel is the dilemma regarding the risk of diverting farmland or crops for biofuels production in detriment of the food supply on a global scale. Biofuel production has increased in recent years. Some commodities like maize, sugar cane or vegetable oil can be used either as food or to make biofuels. For example, since 2006, land that was also formerly used to grow other crops in the United States is now used to grow maize for biofuels, and a larger share of maize is destined to ethanol production, reaching 25% in 2007.[1] With global demand for biofuels on the increase due to the oil price increases taking place since 2003, there is also fear of the potential destruction of natural habitats by being converted into farmland.[2] Environmental groups have raised concerns about this trade-off for several years,[3][4][5][6] but now the debate reached a global scale due to the 2007–2008 world food price crisis. Others consider biofuels a way to fight world hunger, which is caused by poverty and inequity, not by an absolute shortage of food.[7][8] Brazil, the world’s second largest producer of ethanol after the U.S., is considered to have the world’s first sustainable biofuels economy[9][10] and its government claims Brazil’s sugar cane based ethanol industry has not contributed to the 2008 food crises.[11]
Udongo is Earth, Soil, mud!
Soil is made up of a mixture of organic material and minerals. The organic matter comes from dead plants and many of the minerals come from the rocks underground.
There is more life below the soil surface than there is above. This includes the burrowing animals such as moles and earthworms. Many soil creatures are not much bigger than the head of a pin. They include mites, springtails, nematodes, virus, algae, bacteria, yeast, actinomyetes, and protozoa. There are about 50 billion microbes in 1 tablespoon of soil.
The 2008 controversy: Global food prices
As a result of the international community’s concerns regarding the steep increase in food prices, on April 14, 2008, Jean Ziegler, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, at the Thirtieth Regional Conference of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Brasília, called biofuels a “crime against humanity“,[109][110] a claim he had previously made in October 2007, when he called for a 5-year ban for the conversion of land for the production of biofuels.[111][112] The previous day, at their Annual IMF and World Bank Group meeting at Washington, D.C., the World Bank’s President, Robert Zoellick, stated that “While many worry about filling their gas tanks, many others around the world are struggling to fill their stomachs. And it’s getting more and more difficult every day.” [113][114][115]
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva gave a strong rebuttal, calling both claims “fallacies resulting from commercial interests“, and putting the blame instead on U.S. and European agricultural subsidies, and a problem restricted to U.S. ethanol produced from maize.[11][116] He also said that “biofuels aren’t the villain that threatens food security.”[110] In the middle of this new wave of criticism, Hugo Chavez reaffirmed his opposition and said that he is concerned that “so much U.S.-produced corn could be used to make biofuel, instead of feeding the world’s poor“, calling the U.S initiative to boost ethanol production during a world food crisis a “crime.”[117]
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the rise in food prices is due to poor agricultural policies and changing eating habits in developing nations, not biofuels as some critics claim.[118] On the other hand, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown called for international action and said Britain had to be “selective” in supporting biofuels, and depending on the U.K.’s assesment of biofuels’ impact on world food prices, “we will also push for change in EU biofuels targets“.[119] Stavros Dimas, European Commissioner for the Environment said through a spokewoman that “there is no question for now of suspending the target fixed for biofuels“, though he acknowledged that the EU had underestimated problems caused by biofuels.[120]
On April 29, 2008, U.S. President George W. Bush declared during a press conference that “85 percent of the world’s food prices are caused by weather, increased demand and energy prices“, and recognized that “15 percent has been caused by by ethanol“. He added that “the high price of gasoline is going to spur more investment in ethanol as an alternative to gasoline. And the truth of the matter is it’s in our national interests that our farmes grow energy, as opposed to us purchasing energy from parts of the world that are unstable or may not like us.” Regarding the effect of agricultural subsidies on rising food prices, Bush said that “Congress is considering a massive, bloated farm bill that would do little to solve the problem. The bill Congress is now considering would fail to eliminate subsidy payments to multi-millionaire farmers“, he continued, “this is the right time to reform our nation’s farm policies by reducing unnecessary subsidies“.[121]
Just a week before this new wave of international controversy began, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon had commented that several U.N. agencies were conducting a comprehensive review of the policy on biofuels, as the world food price crisis might trigger global instability. He said “We need to be concerned about the possibility of taking land or replacing arable land because of these biofuels“, then he added “While I am very much conscious and aware of these problems, at the same time you need to constanly look at having creative sources of energy, including biofuels. Therefore, at this time, just criticising biofuel may not be a good solution. I would urge we need to address these issues in a comprehensive manner.” Regarding Jean Ziegler’s proposal for a five-year ban, the U.N. Secretary rejected that proposal.[66]
Soil is alive. Much more than a prop to hold up your plants, healthy soil is a jungle of voracious creatures eating and pooping and reproducing their way toward glorious soil fertility.
“All these things that live in the soil may seem unimportant, but they work together in a system that is the foundation of life.”
That is why Udongo!