Global Citizen Watch: Food Security0

I love food but I am sure that I am not the only one who takes for granted the ability to just pop to my nearest supermarket to stock up on supplies. Food is essential not simply a pleasure as everyday millions of people across the world struggle to get enough food to survive. According to the non-governmental organisation Action contre la Faim (Action Against Hunger), the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations reported that in 2006 854 million people throughout the world suffered from hunger. Now there are multiple causes of hunger including natural catastrophes, conflicts, epidemics or poverty all of which have been exacerbated by the global economic crisis that began in 2007, threatening not just jobs but lives too, as food prices rose dramatically. The fact that 10 million people actually die of hunger each year, 6 million of whom are children under the age of 5 is a real cause for concern, especially when it is widely estimated that the number of hungry people could pass the one billion mark this year.

Moreover, despite the World Bank increasing the funding of its Global Food Crisis Response Program to over $2 billion in April of this year, food prices in many countries remain unsustainably high. In sub-Saharan Africa 80 to 90 percent of all cereal prices monitored by FAO in 27 countries remain more than 25 percent higher than before the soaring food price crisis two years ago. In Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean prices are monitored in a total of 31 countries, and in over half of these prices also remain more than 25 percent higher than in the pre food-crisis period (2007). In Eastern Africa, in Sudan, prices of sorghum in June were three times higher than two years ago. Consequently, a World Food Summit is to be held at FAO Headquarters in Rome in November, with the aim of securing a broad consensus on the eradication of hunger, on improved governance of the international agricultural system and on policies and programmes to ensure world food security.

I have to wonder whether all of this money is being put in the wrong place. How many people who are directly affected by the crisis will actually be attending the World Food Summit in Rome? After all if you cannot afford to feed your family a round trip to the Italian capital will not be very high on your agenda. However, there are potential benefits to high global food prices but only if the price increases are passed on to the production level in ‘developing’ countries so that farmers can actually receive more money for their goods. Increased revenues could have a very positive impact on food production and convert agriculture into an engine of growth and employment, especially in rural areas. Yet whilst protectionist policies such as the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) remain in place – effectively subsidising small producers in European countries (no matter how inefficient or unproductive they are) as well as keeping the prices of essential staple goods artificially low – the likelihood that people in poorer countries will receive a proper price for their goods will continue to be an aspiration rather than a reality.

Money alone cannot solve the more serious issues of climate change, biofuel production and protectionism. Investment is required but it must go into the right areas, as Dr. Noeleen Heyzer, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of ESCAP argues, “If future economic development is to be sustainable and inclusive, significant investments are required by governments to promote the development of pro-poor sustainable agricultural systems.” This is even more important considering that the poor spend a high proportion of their income on food and the fact that many countries are reliant on food imports. The high costs of transportation and buying food could have a severe detrimental affect on the ability of millions to feed themselves. There needs to be a significant change in many countries towards increasing their ability to produce food for their populations within their own borders. One possible solution in Europe would be to increase horticulture production (fruits and vegetables) as these are not governed by the CAP and would also have the added benefit of reducing carbon emissions as there would be less demand to fly produce half way across the world, meaning that farmers in ‘developing’ countries could concentrate on growing crops for domestic consumption.