The Global Food Crisis Part III

"Global policymakers are scrambling to develop a coherent response amid food riots in developing countries and the imposition of export bans on scarce foodstuffs." -Financial Times
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Price rises threaten progress on poverty

By Chris Bryant in Washington and Javier Blas in London
Financial Times - London
Published: April 10 2008 03:00 | Last updated: April 10 2008 03:00

The rising cost of basic foods risks wiping out a decade of efforts to combat global -poverty and could trigger further riots in the world's poorest countries, leading multilateral institutions warned yesterday.

The World Bank, the Food and Agriculture Organisation and the International Monetary Fund were unanimous in concluding that the rising appetite of the bio-fuels industry was part of the reason for the increase in food prices.

But they also said that -rising consumption in emerging countries and what the World Bank described as a "sense of complacency" towards agricultural investment over the past two decadeswere part of the problem.

In the past 20 years, a number of developing countries have become net importers of food because of rising internal consumption and a slowdown in agricultural productivity. That is now accentuating the impact of rising food prices.

The bank said in a note on food policy options addressed to finance ministers meeting this week in Washington that rising prices threatened to undo efforts to combat poverty.

"For many countries and regions where progress in reducing poverty has been slow, the negative poverty impact of rising food prices risks undermining the poverty gains of the last five to 10 years, at least in the short term," it said.

Gordon Brown, British prime minister, yesterday called for the IMF to help net food importing countries cope with "rising food prices which threaten to roll back progress we have made in recent years on development". Mr Brown, in a letter to Yasuo Fukuda, Japan's PM and G8 president, also called for a review of the impact on food prices of biofuel production.

The bank's warning came as the head of the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organisation warned that food riots, already hitting countries from Haiti to Ivory Coast, could become commonplace and trigger an increase in poverty.

Jacques Diouf, FAO director-general, said: "There is a risk that this unrest will spread in countries where 50-60 per cent of income goes to food." Most sub-Saharan African and some south-east Asian countries fall into that category.

Global policymakers are scrambling to develop a coherent response amid food riots in developing countries and the imposition of export bans on scarce foodstuffs.

Talks are gathering pace as it becomes clear to policymakers that price rises of farm commodities are structural. The bank said food prices would remain elevated throughout 2008 and 2009 and would not return to the levels of the early 2000s, at least until 2015.

Average food prices have risen 45 per cent in the past nine months, creating acute problems for people who rely on a few staple foods...

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The Global Food Crisis Part I

This is an article from the WP regarding the current crisis:

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[T]he World Bank ...[is] dealing with the impact of rapidly rising food prices on poor nations, which already has spawned unrest in 33 countries, including Haiti, Egypt, Uzbekistan, Indonesia, Cameroon and Mozambique.

The rising prices -- up 83 percent in the three years preceding February, according to the World Bank -- are projected to continue for the next several years, threatening to undermine progress that has been made in battling extreme poverty and malnutrition.

"While many worry about filling their gas tanks, many others around the world are struggling to fill their stomachs," World Bank President Robert B. Zoellick told reporters yesterday. "And it's getting more and more difficult every day."

In meetings this weekend, Zoellick said, he hopes to rally the world's developed nations around what he calls "a new deal" for global food policy. To deal with the immediate food crisis, he has called on the world community to make up the $500 million shortfall in the United Nations World Food Program, while expanding other food aid for the poor around the world.

Longer term, he said, agricultural development should be made a greater priority, particularly in places such as Africa, which have vastly underutilized potential for food production.

The bank has already said it would nearly double its agricultural lending to sub-Saharan Africa to $800 million next year.

Zoellick said that the bank's food goals are about more than charity. They also present an opportunity for future economic growth -- a point he is pressing with the managers of sovereign wealth funds around the world. A 1 percent investment from those funds, he said, would amount to $30 billion in new investment in African development.

"Meetings such as this one are usually about talk. Words can focus attention. They can build momentum. But we can't be satisfied with studies, papers and talk," Zoellick said.


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Global Crisis: prices of staple food grew 80% in last 3 years

Port-Au-Prince - photo by Anthony Belizaire/AFP/Getty Images


Tension is increasing worldwide because of the significant rise in food prices.

The U.S., where many people are so adamant against immigration, may see a significant increase in migration here if the food crisis continues.

When was the last time incidents related to food shortages have occurred with this frequency and intensity?

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"Food riots seem to be happening around the world on a near-daily basis lately. U.N. peacekeepers fired rubber bullets and tear gas at an angry mob that tried to storm the National Palace in the Hatian capital, Port-au-Prince today. Riots began in Haiti last Wednesday and five people have already been killed in the violence. According to Reuters, the price of rice has doubled over the last six months and Haiti's poor are growing desperate" - Foreign Policy, April 8, 2008



A number of incidents have occurred in the last week:

· Riots in Haiti last week that killed four people

· Violent protests in Ivory Coast

· Price riots in Cameroon in February that left 40 people dead

· Heated demonstrations in Mauritania, Mozambique and Senegal

· Protests in Uzbekistan, Yemen, Bolivia and Indonesia

UN employees in Jordan went on strike for a day demanding higher wages to help with increased food prices

Officials in the Philippines have warned that people hoarding rice could face economic sabotage charges.


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Food price rises threaten global security - UN

Hunger riots will destabilise weak governments, says senior official

* David Adam, environment correspondent
* The Guardian - London
* Wednesday April 9 2008

Rising food prices could spark worldwide unrest and threaten political stability, the UN's top humanitarian official warned yesterday after two days of rioting in Egypt over the doubling of prices of basic foods in a year and protests in other parts of the world.

Sir John Holmes, undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs and the UN's emergency relief coordinator, told a conference in Dubai that escalating prices would trigger protests and riots in vulnerable nations. He said food scarcity and soaring fuel prices would compound the damaging effects of global warming. Prices have risen 40% on average globally since last summer.

"The security implications [of the food crisis] should also not be underestimated as food riots are already being reported across the globe," Holmes said. "Current food price trends are likely to increase sharply both the incidence and depth of food insecurity."

He added that the biggest challenge to humanitarian work is climate change, which has doubled the number of disasters from an average of 200 a year to 400 a year in the past two decades.

As well as this week's violence in Egypt, the rising cost and scarcity of food has been blamed for:

· Riots in Haiti last week that killed four people

· Violent protests in Ivory Coast

· Price riots in Cameroon in February that left 40 people dead

· Heated demonstrations in Mauritania, Mozambique and Senegal

· Protests in Uzbekistan, Yemen, Bolivia and Indonesia

UN staff in Jordan also went on strike for a day this week to demand a pay rise in the face of a 50% hike in prices, while Asian countries such as Cambodia, China, Vietnam, India and Pakistan have curbed rice exports to ensure supplies for their own residents.

Officials in the Philippines have warned that people hoarding rice could face economic sabotage charges. A moratorium is being considered on converting agricultural land for housing or golf courses, while fast-food outlets are being pressed to offer half-portions of rice.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation says rice production should rise by 12m tonnes, or 1.8%, this year, which would help ease the pressure. It expects "sizable" increases in all the major Asian rice producing countries, especially Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Burma, the Philippines and Thailand.

Holmes is the latest senior figure to warn the world is facing a worsening food crisis. Josette Sheeran, director of the UN World Food Programme, said last month: "We are seeing a new face of hunger. We are seeing more urban hunger than ever before. We are seeing food on the shelves but people being unable to afford it."

The programme has launched an appeal to boost its aid budget from $2.9bn to $3.4bn (£1.5bn to £1.7bn) to meet higher prices, which officials say are jeopardising the programme's ability to continue feeding 73 million people worldwide.

Robert Zoellick, president of the World Bank, said "many more people will suffer and starve" unless the US, Europe, Japan and other rich countries provide funds. He said prices of all staple food had risen 80% in three years, and that 33 countries faced unrest because of the price rises.

In the UK, Professor John Beddington, the new chief scientific adviser to the government, used his first speech last month to warn the effects of the food crisis would bite more quickly than climate change. He said the agriculture industry needed to double its food production, using less water than today.

He said the prospect of food shortages over the next 20 years was so acute it had to be tackled immediately: "Climate change is a real issue and is rightly being dealt with by major global investment. However, I am concerned there
is another major issue along a similar time-scale - that of food and energy security."

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2008

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photo: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/images/080408_haiti.jpg