Thoughts on Global Food Crisis

President Bush's recent comments, when discussing the global food crisis, that "prosperity in countries like India is good but it triggers increased demand for better nutrition, which in turn leads to higher food prices" have created a ruckus in Indian media. Anyone and everyone who was looking for an opportunity to point fingers at America (who everyone secretly dislikes) has now hopped on the bandwagon and is milking Bush's comments for what they are worth. I personally don't think that the President meant to blame India for the food crisis. He merely was trying to defend the US policy of promoting corn-based ethanol in motor fuel supplies stating that the policy was having only a “small impact” on world food prices. US is not to blame, you see, so the hike in food prices must be someone else's doing. India and China seem to be the next safest bet. They are after all profusely growing economies that must have an increased consumption of food. To support President Bush's claims, there are reports that India is facing an obesity crisis among its newly wealthy middle class. President must be right. He most definitely would've google-searched facts for his speech before making it. He must've read the same articles on India's new-found obesity fears that I read! It's too bad that Subodh Varma at The Economic Times vehemently disagrees with the Pres. He writes:

Total foodgrain consumption — wheat, rice, and all coarse grains like rye, barley etc — by each person in the US is over five times that of an Indian, according to figures released by the US Department of Agriculture for 2007. Each Indian gets to eat about 178 kg of grain in a year, while a US citizen consumes 1,046 kg.

Milk consumption, in fluid form, is 78 kg per year for each person in the US, compared to 36 kg in India and 11 kg in China.

Vegetable oils consumption per person is 41 kg per year in US, while Indians are making do with just 11 kg per year. These are figures for liquid milk, not for cheese, butter, yogurt and milk powders which are consumed in huge proportion in the more advanced countries.

Read rest of the story here.
Many thanks to Subodh for without his insightful highlighting of the facts researched by a US organization, we wouldn't have known of American eating habits. And so the arguments continue ...

My first brush with the after-effects of the looming food crisis that we keep hearing of and reading about in news was during my Egypt trip in the beginning of April this year. Before going there, I was completely unaware of the phenomenon of 'bread queues'. Being from a country that seemingly takes pride in wasting food, thought of having to line up for a piece of bread left me utterly confused. My confusion was deepened when I actually saw one such queue. "They really can't afford bread", my mind wondered in somersaults. Despite having read about it regularly, I found the unavailability of food hard to accept when faced with reality. Experiencing a situation first hand and reading up on it do not serve the same purpose, I realized. One night, as we were looking for a restaurant to eat, we witnessed a fight near where the bread queues were usually assembled. Husband and his two friends quickly walked me away from the mob. Later on, we discovered that it was a fight over bread. I couldn't manage to eat properly that night. The phrase 'global food crisis' finally meant something to me.

Upon my return to UK from Egypt, I saw BBC News reporting "food riots in several countries including Haiti and Egypt" on the same day that I returned. Haiti and Egypt are not the only countries affected by this crisis. Bangladesh, Indonesia, Phillipinese, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Argentina and many others fall in the same category. India "the growing economy" hasn't experienced any food riots yet but is also battling with high inflation rates as a result of high food prices. It is the poor who are getting affected the most (obviously). According to a BBC report:

In the capital, Delhi, milk costs 11% more than last year. Edible oil prices have climbed by a whopping 40% over the same period. More crucially, rice prices have risen by 20% and prices of certain lentils by 18%. Rice and lentils comprise the staple diet for many Indians. At the crux of the crisis is the tardy pace at which farm output has been growing in recent years. The Indian economy has been growing rapidly at an average of 8.5% over the last five years. This growth has been mainly confined to manufacturing industry and the burgeoning services sector. Agriculture, on the other hand, has grown by barely 2.5% over the last five years and the trend rate of growth is even lower if the past decade and a half is considered. Consequently, per capita output of cereals (wheat and rice) at present is more or less at the level that prevailed in the 1970s.

Indian farmers are particularly vulnerable since 60% per cent of the country's total cropped area is not irrigated. They are also dependent on the four-month-long monsoon during which period 80% of the year's total rainfall takes place. The crisis in agriculture has been manifest in the growing incidence of farmers taking their own lives. At least 10,000 farmers have committed suicide each year over the last decade because of their inability of repay loans taken at usurious rates of interest from local moneylenders.

The current crisis in Indian agriculture is a consequence of many factors - low rise in farm productivity, unremunerative prices for cultivators, poor food storage facilities resulting in high levels of wastage. Fragmentation of land holdings and a fall in public investments in rural areas, especially in irrigation facilities, are also to blame.

It is actually a very well-written piece. Do read it here if interested.

Basically, the moral of the story is that the world is increasingly not having enough food to feed the number of mouths available. Riots have begun in some parts of the world over food, there have been a few deaths as a result of these riots (for example: in Haiti) and food prices are on an increase everywhere in the world including the Western countries. It's not just the poor who are affected by the shortage of food but everyone in the society. Poor are, unfortunately, just affected the most. Even despite such a crisis, I see people here in US, in UK, and even in Canada disregarding food. It's disheartening. I had a few friends come over to our house in UK for a get-together for a friend's birthday. I cooked dinner. Everyone took a plateful, said they loved the food, and threw half of it out. I might've doubted my cooking abilities if they didn't go for second servings half an hour later. This time again, all of them took a plateful, ate what they could, and threw the rest out. I couldn't help but wonder at such nonchalance. Perhaps it was only my mother who reprimanded us for even leaving a crumb behind. On the dinner table, we were always told to take less than what we thought we could eat. That way, we can always take more if we needed and there would be no wastage of food. However, in my friends' case, I see the trend to be opposite. They take more than they can eat, nibble on it, and throw out the rest. Same is the case with the restaurants here in the West. Huge portions are served for every meal, which I am certain not everyone finishes. The remaining food is disposed of. What a criminal waste!

It's ironic that something that's so precious for some people across the globe (that they are willing to kill each other for it) is being carelessly squandered by others. One of the many ironies of life. Let's hope we pull out of this mess as soon as we can. Blame game like India and US are playing wouldn't work. Only collective work, prioritization of efficient agricultural practices, and deserving credit to the agricultural industry might bring us out of the crisis and perhaps keep our food shelves full at affordable prices.