Global Food Crisis: Severe Shortages, Hunger in Africa and Asia

Hunger is a very personal thing.  Adults may be able to suppress hunger or chew some dulling substance like Khat (quat), a flowering plant native to tropical East Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.

But no mother and few fathers are immune to the crying children.

“Everything — the wheat, rice, sugar and animal feeds — is higher priced than I have ever seen them before,” said Likbir Ould Mohamed Mahmoud in Nouakchott, Mauritania.

He took his last goat to the butcher to slaughter for food for his children.

It takes approximately 7 to 8.5 pounds of grain to bring one pound of beef to market.  It takes about 5 to 7 pounds of grain to bring one pound of pork to market.

This is why, all over the world, especially when times are tough, people don’t just cut out the middle man.  In the case of Likbir Ould Mohamed Mahmoud and people like him, they “cut out the middle goat.”

Then they eat rice and the children go without their best source of nourishment: milk.

Late last week, the world’s number two rice exporter, Vietnam, won a contract to export rice to a net rice importer in desperate need: the Philippines.

Just after Vietnam won the Philippine contract by under pricing the world’s number one rice exporter, Thailand, a few things happened.  The communist government of Vietnam said that the Philippine deal would not commence until at least June, in order to give the government time to distribute rice at home and to assess rice stocks and possible reserves.

This slowness to meet Philippine demand angered the Philippine government and Thailand.  Thailand said it had plenty of rice – at an exorbitant cost – and could have met the demand of the Philippines right away.

In the Philippines, fast food restaurants have cut rice portions in half without lowering prices and there have been street protests against the high price of rice.

Vietnam also declared speculation in rice illegal on Monday -- and punishable with a visit to Vietnam’s infamous prison system. Almost in the same breath, Vietnamese officials said Vietnam had sufficient stocks of rice for domestic consumption and exports….

In Bangladesh this weekend, the army had to be called out to protect the areas where rotten rice is dumped.  The poor were savaging and eating rice soaked and rotting.

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Bangladeshi rice farmers...
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More than 1,000 people, some carrying empty rice sacks, marched through Senegal’s capital Dakar on Saturday to protest against rising food prices, the latest such demonstration in impoverished West Africa.

The global food crisis showed few signs of abating over the weekend.

 Haiti named a new Prime Minister this week end after food riots precipitated the early retirement of  Jacques-Edouard Alexis. He was forced to resign on April 12 after a no-confidence vote followed food riots that killed six people and wounded around 200.

Thousands of people took to the streets around Haiti earlier this month due to the latest jump in food and fuel prices, in sometimes violent demonstrations that forced United Nations troops deployed here to intervene.

One Nigerian peacekeeper was killed in the riots and three Sri-Lankan peacekeepers were wounded.

In a bid to quell the frustrations, President Preval announced a plan to bring down rice prices by cutting the cost of a 50-kilogram (110-pound) bag of rice that had doubled to 70 dollars within a week, by eight dollars, or 15 percent.

And hoarding of rice has appeared everywhere: even in many Asian-American neighborhoods in the USA…

As Monday dawned on April 28, 2008, there seemed no easy answers to what has become know as the global food crisis.  The answer, it seems, will depend upon more hard work, increased food production, and paying the higher prices….

UN Addresses Food Crisis

By Martin Khor
The Star (Malaysia)
April 28, 2008

The hottest issue at the UN's premier conference on development in Ghana was the world crisis in food shortages and rising prices.

THE food crisis, the problem of commodities, and how developing countries should preserve their space to choose between options in economic policies – these were some of the key issues that emerged at the United Nations’ premier trade and development conference last week.

The UN Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad) has been the UN’s focal point on development and how this links to trade, finance and technology. Every four years it holds its major session, and the 12th session in Ghana on April 20-25 was known as Unctad XII.

The most topical issue was the rising prices and shortage of food, which has sparked recent unrest in many developing countries.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon spoke of the “sky-rocketing” prices of food, as the prices of staple foods increased by more than half in the last six months, adding that the ban on rice or wheat exports by some countries threatens to exacerbate the problem.

Ban Ki-moon 반기문/潘基文

The food crisis can trigger multiple other crises, he warned. The causes are many, including the switch to biofuels, high costs due to oil price increases, and financial speculation. The world has consumed more food than it produced and this is unsustainable.

Immediate humanitarian action is needed, but in the long run production must be increased. He announced that he would set up a task force of experts to look at all elements of the food crisis.

He also called on wealthier nations to rethink their old policy on agricultural subsidies. “If we can’t reduce subsidies when the prices are high, then when will we do so?” he asked.
A French farmer at work near Gaillargues. France will double its food aid this year, spending 60 million euros (100 million dollars) as part of its response to the world crisis over soaring food prices, President Nicolas Sarkozy has announced.

Unctad Secretary-General Supachai Panichpakdi said: “Developing countries can’t only import food, but also have to expand their local production.”

Ghana’s President John Kufuor quoted Ban’s statement that Africa is the epicenter of a development emergency and Tony Blair’s statement that Africa is a scar on the conscience of humanity. He cited data on Africa’s declining shares of world trade and investment.

While UN and government officials made general comments on the food crisis, it was left to the non-governmental groups to provide critical analysis and proposals.

In a statement read to Unctad XII, the citizen groups said one reason for the crisis was the shift from producing food to bio-fuels. But a larger reason is the decline in agriculture in developing countries, which had been wrongly pressured by the World Bank and IMF to cut government subsidies to small farmers, and to cut their food import duties.

At the same time the high agricultural subsidies continue in rich countries. The surge of cheap and subsidised imports have overwhelmed local farmers and reduced food production in many developing countries

“The food crisis makes policy change necessary. Developing countries must be allowed to defend their food security and small farmers, so as to quickly expand food production through sustainable agriculture, and to raise tariffs to prevent import surges,” the statement said.

“The developed countries must quickly phase out their distorting subsidies. Land for biofuels should be turned back to farming for food. There must be changes to policies at the World Bank, IMF, WTO and the free trade agreements. Unctad can play a central role in this reform.”

Another issue at Unctad XII was the loss of “policy space” for developing counties to implement the development strategies they want because of the international rules in trade and finance.

A battle was waged on this between developing countries, which wanted explicit recognition of this and more work by Unctad, and developed countries, which were uneasy about the issue.

The conference’s declaration, known as the Accra Accord, agreed on mild language that recognised the constraints placed by international rules, and the trade off between these rules and the loss of national policy space.

“It is particularly important for developing countries that all countries take into account the need for appropriate balance between national policy space and international disciplines and commitments,” said the accord, echoing the sentiments of the previous conference.

The NGOs, in their statement, were far stronger. They said that since the last Unctad conference, policy space for government intervention and regulation has declined further.

This deterioration is mainly due to free trade agreements that “lock in developing countries, including the poorest, into inappropriate liberalisation of imported goods and services and inappropriate international property rights policies.

“The FTAs also introduce new rules on liberalising investment and government procurement, eroding the governments’ ability to regulate for development and for the public welfare,” the accord added.

Perhaps the most concrete item in the Accra Accord was that Unctad would expand its work on commodities. This used to be the main area of Unctad’s work, as it hosted negotiations on several commodity agreements. The issue fell by the wayside after the agreements either were disbanded or became less active, and Unctad’s work on commodities became only a shadow.

The Accra Accord called for a special unit on commodities to help developing countries formulate strategies to respond to the challenges and opportunities of commodity markets. Unctad was also asked to do work within its mandate on “emerging issues” such as climate change, migration and energy policy.

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