19 Myths and Facts on Global Food Crisis

The global food crisis. That is the big news item that makes it on to your living room via the media channels. Everybody has said something about the problem, and now everybody agrees it is a crisis. But at what cost? How does one separate the chaff from the wheat? How do we separate facts from myths? Who is throwing punches at the other? Who blames what as the cause of the massive food shortage?

The global food crisis is so gripping and serious that the World Food Programme is cutting food handout rations to some 73 million people in 78 countries.

This is a sample of what people have said about what makes the world’s hungry (3 billion are at imminent risk the last time I checked, and actually 850 million slept on empty stomachs last night) get so angry to violently knock at the gates of aristocrats demanding to be fed, or at least access to food, basically:

• » See also: Mistaken Identity: Hunters Kill Endangered Pygmy Hippo During Pig Hunt!
• » Get EcoWorldly by RSS or sign up by email.

Unnamed protester, on the streets of Damascus, Syria:
1. “Even parsley, for which we paid almost nothing in the past, has suddenly tripled in price.”

Raisa Fikry, Egyptian stay-at-home mother:
2. “If all the people rise, then the government will resolve this, but everyone has to rise together. People get scared. But we will all have to rise together.”

Olwich Louis Jeune, scavenger on the Haitian mud pits:
3. “It’s salty and it has butter and you don’t know you’re eating dirt. It makes your stomach quiet down.”

Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary General:
4. “The rapidly escalating crisis of food availability around the world has reached emergency proportions.”

5. “We need to be concerned about the possibility of taking land or replacing arable land because of these biofuels. While I am very much conscious and aware of these problems, at the same time you need to constantly look at having creative sources of energy, including biofuels. Therefore, at this time, just criticizing biofuels may not be a good solution. I would urge we need to address these issues in a comprehensive manner.”

Jeffrey D. Sachs, Director, UN Millennium Project and professor, Earth Institute, Columbia University:
6. “It’s the worst crisis of its kind in more than 30 years; it’s a big deal and it’s obviously threatening a lot of governments. There are a number of governments on the ropes, and I think there’s more political fallout to come.”

7. “In much of the poorest parts of the world, the potential for significant increases in food production is very real.”

8. “It wouldn’t break anybody’s bank to fund the world’s most vulnerable people.”

9. “If we just keep growth barreling along we will find it is undercut. We need to relieve pressure on the physical environment with improved technologies.”

Kofi Annan, former UN Sec-Gen and chairman, Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA):
10. “Governments have to focus on agriculture and come up with policies which are supportive of rural development. Agriculture also creates lots of jobs and we should be able to help the farmers increase their production.”

11. “For the short and medium term, the problems are going to be with us and governments must be prepared and organise themselves to help because it is going to put greater pressure on the poor.”

12. “One of the worst violations of human dignity.”

Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, President of Brazil:
13. “Ethanol production has not contributed in any way to the food price crises, it is the oil prices that have brought about high freight charges on the transportation of food”

14. “The success that Brazil has achieved in food production can be done in Africa. Forty years ago, Brazil’s savanna zones were considered wastelands, but technology has changed that.”

Jeroen van der Veer, chief executive, Royal Dutch Shell:
15. “The essential point of biofuels is over time they will play a role, but there are high expectations what role they will play in the short term.”

16. “Biofuels are all about how you develop them without unintended consequences. It is not only the competition with food, it is also the competition for sweet water in the world.”

Arif Husain, senior food security analyst, World Food Program:
17. “Why are these riots happening? The human instinct is to survive, and people are going to do no matter what to survive. And if you’re hungry you get angry quicker.”

Robert B. Zoellick, World Bank Group President:
18. “Poor people are suffering daily from the impact of high food prices, especially in urban areas and in low income countries. In some countries, hard-won gains in overcoming poverty may now be reversed.”

Elías Antonio Saca, President of El Salvador:
19. “This is a perfect storm. How long can we withstand the situation? We have to feed our people, and commodities are becoming scarce. This scandalous storm might become a hurricane that could upset not only our economies but also the stability of our countries.”

Can you separate the myths from the facts?

Resources: Rising Food Prices: Policy Options and World Bank Response (PDF)

Photo Credit: Anlex Basilio via Flickr

Tweet This Post