Truemors
The Slumbering Global Food Crisis Stirs Producing Countries Yet Again
Opinion/ News
Rising food prices mean many farmers around the world are reaping record profits. And South America's agricultural powerhouses, Brazil and Argentina, are responding to the farming windfall in opposite ways.
Brazilian government recently announced record farm credits, a form of indirect subsidy, to encourage Brazil's farmers to produce more while the price of their exports are high on world markets, a move that should improve Brazil's economy.
While Argentina increased export taxes on some crops, to keep the domestic price low in order to sell more at home rather than encouraging to sell out.
Eventhough global food crisis seemed to take a backseat attention the past few weeks (taken over by other major world events such as the Olympic and the American presidential race) the crisis however is showing no signs of settling nor appeasing any time soon.
However a little easement on the strain especially the crucial problem of the high price of rice has decreased 10% which relieved millions across Asia that struggles to afford their staple food.
However many analysts said that there would be an impending wave of inflation around the world in the months to come.
And food production and provision has now only become the major issue of international relations if not the central issue of the political life.
The United Nation and its agencies have been largely responsible for acknowledging that 'the right to subsitence' is a fundamental human right and therefore a duty which the international community must respond.
Increased food demand from rapidly developing countries, such as China and India, the use of biofuels, high oil prices, global stocks at 25-year lows and market speculation are all blamed for pushing prices of staples such as rice to record highs around the globe.
The unprecedented surge, which some analysts said is going to continue, posed a growing threat to regional governments worried about the prospect of hoarding and social unrest.
And although the problem of deprivation is thought to be technically soluble (and I say 'thought to be') by the assistance of International community, especially the relatively rich industrialized North could not respond as generously as expected.
In times of grain shortages, the world typically turns to the US, but US rice stocks have been cut in half the past two years. Rice acreage is being diverted to soaring corn, wheat and soybeans.
In 2007, the US produced only about six million tonnes of rice, out of total world production of 425 million tonnes.
In addition, while world grain output was recorded to have increased since early 1990s, the great beneficiaries were the wealthiest states, which continue to overconsume.
And given the issue of population explosion, food crisis is likely to be of systemic proportions over the years.
It was reported that Thailand and Vietnam have been preassured to urge farmers to grow extra crops which faced many setbacks such as the one of the worst flooding recorded just weeks ago. The overflowing Mekong river forced 33,000 families that were rice farmers to relocate away from the fertile delta.
India has also stop exporting non-Basmathi rice to its Asian neighbours in October last year and just yesterday the agriculture concertrated state of Bihar has been overwhelmed by flood which affected 20 million people who were majority - farmers.
"There's been a popular misconception that the world can produce as much food as it likes. Well, it obviously can't. And Asia can't feed itself at the moment," Gerry Lawson, the chairman of Sunrice, a major Australian rice producer, said.
The task of increasing production above consumption is complicated not just by a lack of political will, but also environmental degradation, global scarcity of crop land, irrigation water and climatic change associated with global warming. Go figure.
Many Asian countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia have imposed controls on the rice exports but a radical move by Brazil and Argentina are responding to crisis in the opposite way.
In the race to take advantage of the tight global food market, Brazil has a number of advantages over its southern neighbor. It is much bigger, with around 173 million acres of land currently under cultivation, more than twice that of Argentina. It has a wider range of agricultural exports. And while Argentina is the world's second biggest exporter of corn and the third biggest exporter of soybeans, Brazil is the world's first or second largest exporter of beef, soybeans, orange juice, chicken, sugar and coffee.
"We need to give incentives to producers because people are buying and eating more," said Reinhold Stephanes, Brazil's agriculture minister. "This is our opportunity to produce and export more, and help to reduce hunger in the world."
The problem seems to be slumbering in the public eye, but producing countries and farmers all over the world are feeling the rising heat.
Unless there is a coordinated international response which also involve bringing population growth into line with food production, a major international disaster is waiting to happen, or has it?
August 29, 2008 at 03:43 am by tiha zaman, 1046 views, 36 comments
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (36)
at 04:13 on August 29th, 2008
tiha zaman, I like this story. It's good stuff.
Only some very few farmers are making a killing though, most are getting killed by high fuel prizes and natural disasters that are on record high this Year.
at 04:23 on August 29th, 2008
True, I was following the flooding in India as well as in Vietnam -- both are important world producers of grains and rice, but with the landslide and torrential rains it will be months before anything can be done to restore the crops and farms.
at 05:29 on August 29th, 2008
Talking about flooding, Japan is getting Drowned as well and the Rice field with it as well as many Houses.
at 04:46 on August 29th, 2008
tiha zaman, I like this story. It's good stuff.
at 04:50 on August 29th, 2008
tiha zaman, I like this story. It's good stuff.
Really good stuff you assembled here!
at 08:46 on August 29th, 2008
tiha zaman, I like this story. It's good stuff. very well researched and written piece. good work again tiha!
at 08:50 on August 29th, 2008
many thanks rpshen. and the rest as well. :)
at 08:53 on August 29th, 2008
tiha zaman, I like this story. It's good stuff. Very thoughtful and important to all of us.
at 08:55 on August 29th, 2008
tiha zaman, I like this story. It's good stuff.
at 09:27 on August 29th, 2008
thanks e and barbara too. :)
at 10:09 on August 29th, 2008
tiha zaman, I like this story. It's good stuff.
at 10:57 on August 29th, 2008
I am glad that you brought this topic up - food shortages in one part of the world have a rippling effect on the poorest globally. The ripple effect is incredible and we should be ashamed that we allow something like this to be swept under the rug. I was in Darfur refugee camps in Eastern Chad two weeks ago and even they feel the rising cost of food and fuel. They, and others dependent on UN/WFP handouts because of war, genocide, and mass atrocities (Burma, Georgia, etc) are the most affected - currently, they are receiving around 1,000 calories a day of food. And this if they don't share it with any neighbors, use it to feed their goats that provide milk, or trade it for meat or a vegetable.
We need to continue to bring the food shortage to the world's attention.
Thanks.
at 11:01 on August 29th, 2008
tiha zaman, I like this story. It's good stuff.
at 11:02 on August 29th, 2008
tiha zaman, I like this story. It's good stuff.
I think it is a major international disaster waiting to happen, as governments don't tend to do anything about these matter until it's too late.
Food production has to get better worldwide, but there is too much fighting going on for that to happen right now I'm afraid.
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The Lazy Gardenerat 16:15 on August 29th, 2008
The food crisis is due in part to a globalized misdirection in farming.
Food crops are failing because of poor land practices, the use of petroleum based fertilizers and pesticides, and genetically altered plant genes. In my photos I am documenting the future of food production. The food forest is a practice of Permaculture (Permanent Culture). It was "developed" in the 70's by Bill Mollison and David Holmgrenn. The practice of permaculture is based on three principles 1. Care for the earth. 2. Care for people. 3. Fair distribution of surplus. It is a practice of intensive polyculture farming using perennial food crops such as nuts, berries, tubers, medicinal and culinary herbs, and annual guilds and companion plants. The future of food production will be a culmination of organic, permaculture, and biodynamic farming practices.
The Lazy Gardener has contributed a photo to this story.
at 16:20 on August 29th, 2008
tiha zaman, I like this story. It's good stuff.
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lookin glassat 18:54 on August 29th, 2008
This photo was taken in July of 2008 in rural northern Wisconsin. There were so many hay bales in the surrounding fields it was almost hypnotic.
lookin glass has contributed a photo to this story.
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Kaitmonsterat 22:19 on August 29th, 2008
This photo was taken in 2008 in central Iowa
(c) 2008 by Kaitlin C. Allen www.photographybykaitlin.com
Kaitmonster has contributed a photo to this story.
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spicybunzat 22:03 on August 29th, 2008
Just walkin' around between acres of blueberries in neat rows.
spicybunz has contributed a photo to this story.
at 22:17 on August 29th, 2008
This crop is spelt, an unusual crop for Saskatchewan, in Canada, where this photo was taken. Also, it was grown organically, a practice which the farm family who grew this crop has been following for quite a few years now. This stand of grain is amazingly free of weeds, which shows that, when done right, organic farming can work, not just for the consumer who prefers organic food, but for the farmer who is looking to bring input costs under control. It takes patience and dilligence to have the result depicted in the photo, however.
aimelabossiere has contributed a photo to this story.
at 22:22 on August 29th, 2008
For those farmers who remain in the mainstream of modern agriculture, increased prices for farm commodities do not automatically deliver increased profits. Those who sell inputs to farmers, fuel, fertilizer, weed-killer and insecticide, these increase their prices as well, and the increased earnings of the farmer go right back out the door.
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Tim Blessedat 01:22 on August 30th, 2008
www.flickr.com/photos/timblessed
Tim Blessed has contributed a photo to this story.
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Photo-Geddenat 02:32 on August 30th, 2008
Photo-Gedden has contributed a photo to this story.
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Bs0u10e0at 02:38 on August 30th, 2008
By Leon Hawley
@ http://www.flickr.com/photos/bs0u10e0/2787822434/
Bs0u10e0 has contributed a photo to this story.
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fheronat 05:34 on August 30th, 2008
We had a freakish hale storm in early August that destroyed the corn and tabacco crops of a number of farms in southern Lancaster County, PA. This particular Amish farmer had just constructed a new tabacco shed for this years "bumper crop." Tabacco is a major cash crop among the Amish even though they generally don't use tabacco. I had taken a photo of this farm just two days earlier that bu comparision shows trhe level of damage inflicted by one 20 minute hale storm
fheron has contributed a photo to this story.
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static bobat 06:16 on August 30th, 2008
After nearly a decade of drought, a hearty winter snow pack, and clement summer temperatures has spelled out large rebounds for agriculturalist's in the north west.
static bob has contributed a photo to this story.
at 07:35 on August 30th, 2008
Please credit as follows "Photograph by Angelo M. Halperin"
Thank you
Ang 1964 has contributed a photo to this story.
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o_ki_kuzihaat 09:36 on August 30th, 2008
I was an exchange student in Australia in 2007. It was winter over there, so it was raining and the crops were doing pretty well. But my host dad showed me pictures that he had taken 2 weeks before I arrived, and the earth was brown and dry. There was nothing green to be seen. Australia has been suffering tremendously over the years with drought problems. This is a photo that I took of one of our fields my first day on the farm.
Credit this photograph to Cate Hall.
o_ki_kuziha has contributed a photo to this story.
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bhaake1at 10:06 on August 30th, 2008
When I drive around the beautiful state of Ohio and see these wonderful Amish farms I find it so hard to believe there is a food crisis. But, I know there is. Life is so hard for the farmers here too.
bhaake1 has contributed a photo to this story.
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Karen Bayardat 14:58 on August 30th, 2008
A cart FULL of GARLIC from an incredible local farm in Eden, Utah called Sandhill Farms (www.sandhillfarms.org).
I use their organic produce to create some of the dishes for my company Sprout & Rhythm (www.sproutandrhythm.com).
This photo of me was taken by Kati Greaney.
Karen Bayard has contributed a photo to this story.