Global Food Crisis

10 suprising implications of high food prices.

"In 1798, Thomas Malthus famously and grimly predicted that population growth would be perennially held in “check” by inherent limits to food production. While the following 200 years have certainly witnessed their fair share of famines and food crises, the supply of food generally kept pace with demand, and life went on. Over the last decade, however, the demand for food has risen faster than supply, causing food prices to climb faster than the rate of inflation. The World Bank noted that since the year 2000, food prices have risen 75%, a figure which conceals even more dramatic increases, such as a 200% increase in the price of wheat and a 250% increase in the price of rice."

Continued...

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Food prices on the rise.

This is inconvenient for us in the developed world but a serious source of concern for those who spend a large fraction of their income on food. Increasing food prices are to be expected with the acension of China, the role of huge corn subsides is also signifiant.  The real question is are these the only sources to this trend or is food production being stressed by physical limits
such as water availability, soil qaulity etc.,

Limits to Growth and Plan B 2.0 are two books that i would reccomend as a backgrond to this issue.

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Global food crisis looms as climate change and fuel shortages bite

A very interesting article was published in the Guardian today. This took my a while to find online as it is a climate change story that has moved out of the Environment section and into the World News section. That, i am sure, is going to be the way that things go.

The key claim of the article is that food prices are spiraling due to biofuels and climate change and that these effects are already politically significant in a large number of countries.

"India, Yemen, Mexico, Burkina Faso and several other countries have had, or been close to, food riots in the last year, something not seen in decades of low global food commodity prices. Meanwhile, there are shortages of beef, chicken and milk in Venezuela and other countries as governments try to keep a lid on food price inflation."

The situation was summed up best by Lester Brown:

"Lester Brown, president of the Washington-based Worldwatch Institute thinktank, said: "The competition for grain between the world's 800 million motorists, who want to maintain their mobility, and its 2 billion poorest people, who are simply trying to survive, is emerging as an epic issue."

According to a Worldwatch Institute article entitled "Climate Change: The Unseen Force Behind Rising Food Prices?":

"Climate change has been attributed to greater inconsistencies in agricultural conditions, ranging from more-erratic flood and drought cycles to longer growing seasons in typically colder climates. While the increase in Earth’s temperature is making some places wetter, it is also drying out already arid farming regions close to the Equator. This year’s Intergovermental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessment report states that “increases in the frequency of droughts and floods are projected to affect local production negatively, especially in subsistence sectors at low latitudes.” The decline in production in the face of growing demand can drive up prices in markets that may lack the technology to fight environmental hazards to overall production."

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1kg of beef results in more CO2 emissions than going for a three-hour drive while leaving all the lights on at home

The Guardian via Carbonara.

Producing 1kg of beef results in more CO2 emissions than going for a three-hour drive while leaving all the lights on at home, scientists said today.

A team led by Akifumi Ogino at the National Institute of Livestock and Grassland Science in Tsukuba, Japan, trawled through data on aspects of beef production including calf raising, animal management and the effects of producing and transporting feed.

They are calling for an overhaul of the beef industry, after their audit revealed producing the meat caused substantial amounts of greenhouse gases and other pollutants.

It's worth noting that beef consistently scores badly in terms of it's climate change impact, other meet's often do far better. A general rule that i am starting to use is 'avoid beef, moderate the rest of your dietary meat intake'.

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