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U.S. sees record world food crops easing crisis

by JD Rucker | May 9, 2008 at 10:55 pm | 144 views | add comment

In the first series of positive news that has come in recent months regarding the world food crisis, the U.S. Agriculture Department announced Friday that national and world production of wheat and rice will hit record levels this year. Global crops of feed grain are also showing record forecasts, easing fears that the grain shortages may trickle over into reduced livestock.

While the news is encouraging, there are still concerns that it won't be enough.

The USDA announcement was expected to calm fears of food shortages, worsened by the cyclone that hit Myanmar's rich rice-producing Irrawaddy delta last week, and by a larger than expected 500,000 metric ton Malaysian rice purchase on Thursday.

Disappointing harvests, the boom in biofuels and higher meat consumption have pushed up grain prices in the past two years, raising food prices and sparking protests in some 40 poorer countries whose people have felt the effect most strongly.

Officials at the U.N. Human Rights Council said it would hold a special session on May 23 to assess the effect of the food crisis on the right to food of millions of people suffering from high prices, notably in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

Growing more food is a start, but opening channels of distribution will be the key to making sure the benefits are not just felt by lowered prices in richer countries. Getting the food to the people who need it the most is crucial to ensuring that it doesn't go to waste.

Even with bountiful crops, Orden said, larger international food aid efforts would be vital because prices would be higher than usual for the next couple of years at least.

Other indications are starting to surface from other parts of the world. India and the Philippines have eased restrictions that had been imposed upon their exports of rice.

Other signals that the supply crisis might be easing came from India, which said on Friday that it might allow limited rice exports, and from the Philippines, where traders held off purchases hoping for new crops soon from southeast Asia.

India, the world's second-biggest rice exporter last year, banned shipments of all rice except basmati in March, one of a series of protectionist measures worldwide that triggered a wave of panic buying.

"We are reviewing the situation and may allow limited exports," Commerce Secretary Gopal Pillai said on the sidelines of a conference in Kochi, adding that the government might also review an export tax on basmati rice.

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Commentary: As most of the industrial world looks to the Middle East and gas stations as a primary source of concern for the global economy, the food crisis now and potentially in the future could end up having a larger impact. Surpluses are being built, but climage change has a more direct effect on agriculture than it does on oil.

Taking action against the current crisis and planning for a future crisis should be paramount. The world isn't getting any bigger, but the population is exploding. People will protest against high gas prices, but they will revolt against food shortages that put lives and lifestyles in mortal danger.

- JD Rucker