Current Increase in Global Food Prices - Dissertation Example

 Current Increase in Global Food Prices What are the causes and consequences of the current increase in global food prices? There have been issues since centuries related to food. Food is the basic necessities of life and therefore food issues are also impactful and matter all around the world. A term made in 1996 was ‘food sovereignty’ and it refers to a framework that is agreed upon but peasants, farmers, rural people etc. to not trade food across borders but to outline what their own food and livestock and sustenance is rather than have someone design the policy for them. What led to this concept being formed was that people were not satisfied with food security, which was the major course of providing food and outlining food policies around the world at that time. [Wil10] Food security is a household’s ability to access safe, healthy and sufficient food to suffice their preferences and their needs for a healthy and active life, and they should have access both physically and economically. The World Health Organization has defined food security as pertaining three dimensions; these are access to food, availability of food, and useful food. Available food means that there is enough food to provide them on a regular basis. Access means that there are enough physical and economical resources to achieve the available food that is good for health. Use of food means that the food available is used properly and everyone has basic knowledge about the nutritious food and even what sanitary and proper water and its fulfillments are. FAO believes that this definition should also include a fourth dimension which is maintaining security of the three aforementioned dimensions over time. This is called food security. [Bry10] Food security however didn’t pay heed to the politics of food regimes and corporations and the adverse effects of them which were visible throughout the world and small companies were suppressed and there was also degradation of the environment and economy. They were serving a corporate regime that was not beneficial for all and was against its own definition. [Kat10] The difficulties of food security help us under the strife between regimes and other difficulties that this policy imposes and therefore will help us understand better as to why world food prices have risen and why they impact furthermore. Food security There are over 800 million people in the world who do not get food on a daily basis, and this rate remains extremely high and with no foreseeable fall in the future. 60% of these malnourished people like in Asia and 25% in Africa. FAO figures however show that, proportionately, Africa is more malnourished than Asia. Some of the reasons that this poverty exists are: 1. Agriculture-hunger-poverty Hunger and poverty are interrelated and they are both injustices to the people of the world. Hunger makes people who are stuck in to become part of a poverty cycle which is vicious and unable to escape from. Malnourishment follows after extreme hunger situations and people will display decreased productivity, and are unable to do anything to their optimum level such as learning, working, taking care of themselves and their families. Why does food insecurity exist? When people are unable to physically access food, or are unable to socially or economically afford enough food and as well unable to use food properly, that is, follow all of the functions of food security outlined above, then food insecurity exists. The people who are ‘food-insecure’ are those who do not take food to their sufficient energy/calorie level and they begin to show symptoms of nutrient and energy loss because of the insufficient diet which doesn’t allow the body to use the food to give energy and protect the body from diseases and infection, which makes them more susceptible to injury as well. Food insecurity could also be the result of insufficient healthy food and takes into account the physiological functions of the body which are considered healthy and normal. Individuals still fall in the same pool of ineffiency and reduced productivity as well high turnover. Poverty is also predominant in the rural areas and this is due to agriculture, poverty and hunger. Three quarters of the people in the world reside in rural areas and earn their living from rural areas. Malnutrition and hunger are rampant in these areas, and more prevalent than in urban areas. Their income also completely relies on farming and agriculture, and that too without the technologies and free markets of the modern world and therefore they are faced by fluctuations that harm them more than other people and therefore they suffer from such issues as malnutrition even more. The improvements in technology and agriculture should first be implemented in rural areas since their population relies entirely on agriculture. The demand will continue increasing over the years for food and crops and in the next fifty years in is expected to double as the global population continues to rise and the resources still remain the same. People will need to make changes in the world accordingly to utilize the scarce resources to the maximum. Those areas which are dependent on rain should be reduced, fertility should increase, crop areas need to increase, irrigation channels can be made and demand can be reduced by changing diets and reducing the amount of losses that are incurred after harvesting every year. Communities need to come together as well as states to create food programs because if these important needs aren’t met then there is no room for growth in the country since they cannot move beyond their problems of hunger. [Bro10] Water crisis There are water deficits in many small underdeveloped countries of the world, but may even become a problem for large countries as well. The water tables are affected by the invention of powerful machines that can haul out water and therefore people have started using it carelessly and it is still in limited supply, the scarcity and shortage of water leads to many issues and an eventual fall in the budgets for grains and agriculture. This will lead to prices of staple food products to go upwards. Many people in the future are predicted to be born in an age of water shortage, and countries which are already facing major shortages are Pakistan, China, India to name a few. And most of these countries rely heavily on agriculture, whether import or export and so these deficits will be detrimental to countries like Pakistan who produce their own grains and for countries like China which already import a large amount of their grains, this will further aggravate the problem. The World Banks has been striving to solve this problem starting by reclaiming desert land in Peru in 1990 to convert it into a land which has now become the biggest supplier of asparagus globally. Constant irrigation is also detrimental to the water table and the rate of depletion of water has gone up to eight meters per year, which is the most rapid rate of depletion of water the world has ever witnessed. The wells that countries own as well as the other sources of water supply are running out and farmers who are already underpaid will receive lesser and lesser of their share as compared to buyers due to water shortage and less activity.[Jul10] Degradation of land As the inhabitants of the world continue to rise, and the amount of land in the world remains the same, as well as the intensive activities of agriculture have lead to a great deal of land related problems as well. Land which is destroyed by intensive practices is about 40% globally. Africa especially has trends which will destroy it if it continues with similar activities and by 2025, it may only be able to feed 25% of its population according to UNU’s estimates. [Asi11] Land deals Corporations and governments are interested in their own self-interest and in that attempt as well as their future concerns about themselves and their families, they buy up large tracts of lands in developing countries. FAO head, Diouf, has said that neocolonialism could strike as a result of these land deals, in which these developing states will be producing for the rich governments and they will be facing dearth in their own countries and will not be able to provide for their own people. South Korea has also purchases land from Madagascar in order to grow their own biofuels and crops such as maize fro biofuel as well. Other states such as Libya and China have also ventured into other countries. Arabs are also extremely wealthy due to their oil and they are also looking towards other countries to buy these large tracts of land and create land deals. Some countries do not exchange on the basis of money but maybe for some grain or some other incentive.[Kad12] Climatic changes Climatic changes include floods, droughts etc. Many people in the world live in drainage basins and areas which experience frequent floods followed by long periods of drought which are both devastating. These include India, Pakistan, and China etc. Glaciers also provide a great deal of water for those countries that are dependent on them and they are melting due to global warming and this would even lead to states drowning below sea level. Not only that, the sea level is expected to rise due to the climatic changes and this will lead to furthermore less land available for cultivation and agriculture. According to World Trade Food, the yields of grain will also decline in the world, especially in areas in the lower latitude, where most developing areas of the world are located. And this will again lead to increase in food prices and every price increase will lead to more hungry people around the world. Everything will change according to the climate; the length and time of farming as well as the seasons will change, and the moisture and soil content as well the temperature will affect the growing, sowing, harvesting season of crops. Another issue related to climate is the rust which was growing on the stems of wheat in Africa and Asia in 2007. It originated in Africa and it was a viral disease that had the potential to destroy the world’s major wheat crops which would leave thousands and millions of people to be malnourished and even starve. This is a fungus and there are other varieties of wheat that can be also used to create a more resistant type of wheat. This is called ‘genetic diversity’ which includes cross breeding. [Ron08] Biotechnology Farmers can also benefit from biotechnology. Genetically engineered are crops which are either cross bred or grown with the help of technology. These seeds can be sown in developing countries especially so that they can catch up with modern nations and because their need is also becoming dire. Genetically engineered crops in developing nations are steadily increasing as statistics show and Brazil was the leading in these. However, these figures seem to be inaccurate since the strife for food continues to increase instead of decrease, and not just because of the increasing population. There are however, also innovations in the genetically engineered crops, to create a variety which is well born by developing nations and packaged and sown in a way that the farmer is also familiar with and would thus understand it better. Research groups have undertaken biotechnology projects that are for a non-profit purpose to cater to the developing nations. They don’t involve high costing methods such as germplasm as well as high technology, so that they can be conducted in developing areas. Other areas such as perennial rice are also being developed in areas like China, especially for small farmers and to prevent soil erosion globally since this seems to be on the of the main problems that the world faces. [Mar08] Political issues It is felt in today’s world that no problem is unaccompanied by political issues, especially food. Dictatorship and kleptocracy are a few to being with. Drought etc. are natural disasters that are beyond our control, however they severity on a state is determined by the government and the actions it takes to save its people. Governments whether intentionally or not, seem to suppress this issue of food security that does exist in the world. These include especially those governments which have not come into power by fair means and therefore have no scrupulous decision making skills. Distribution of food is another food issue that is political. Governments usually prioritize urban and not rural areas and favor the richer people more who belong to families which are powerful or enterprises. They also discriminate against rural areas and they do not give them incentives, by growing crops at extremely low prices by artificial methods and they can never get out of their vicious poverty cycle in this manner and are bound to be stuck there forever. Warlords and dictators also withhold food or use food to their advantage and they may deny food in places which don’t accept or succumb to their power. Food is then sold at high prices to gain support and power and to show people that they do withhold the power by taking basic necessities of life from them. Governments can also allow farmers to grow crops for trading purpose only and by taking over production, they also allow the farmers to sell only to the government at lowest prices possible and sell to other locals at high prices. The government however has the power to sell these products to global markets at high prices and they keep the change, rather than sharing them with farmers. This demotivates the farmers to an extent that they don’t feel producing at such meager offers and amounts, when they would still be poor. Without any laws as well, farmers do not have motivation to be productive. Even though they are producing lower quantities however, they would be happy with that since they would have their land usurped and be made lower prices even if they were producing exceptionally well so they don’t feel the need to produce well and this leads to lower supply and higher prices further. Without their property in their own name as well they are more likely to starve and the state will bend them to make them fear them and to establish their power. Feudalism especially should be eliminated and places like India have managed to do so, but some areas like Pakistan still have feudalism which only worsens the gap between the rich and the poor. [Wor08] Children Children bear the greatest brunt of these changes and shortages all over the world. They are the most vulnerable party since they need food for growth and development. Clean water and food is especially difficult to get in Asia and Africa and the population continues to rise. They are the biggest food producers in the world along with the United States, however even this doesn’t eliminate the fact the millions are insecure including millions of children. Even the prices of food varied for children across their age, race and education etc. Even in grade school and kindergarten children were food insecure and malnourished. But these mostly belonged to African or Hispanic origins and white children were only 5% of this ratio. As a result, there has been awareness of this uneven distribution of food and a Current Population Survey is conducted in US to find the number of people in the country as well as questions as asked about the amount of money spent on food and the quality of food bought both by children and adults as well as intake of food that may have caused harm etc. Hunger is no longer defined as the extreme of food insecurity and US has also started a Food Stamp Program, which targets people who don’t have the income to buy food. Food stamps and programs seem to be the best way to tackle this problem of insecurity. Higher HDI (human development index) was in countries in which population was low, economic growth was faster and agriculture was good as well. This seems to be the solution to the problems of the world. [Per11] UN Millennium Development Goals One of the initiatives to improve the situation of food around the world had been the development of the UN Millennium development goals that states that the aim of the UN is to eliminate poverty and extreme hunger in the world and agriculture and productivity plays a massive role if this issue is addressed at the right time. It has eight goals and one of them is to reduce poverty and hunger and this is also the clause which is the most dependent on agriculture. One of the ways that the problem can be tackled in developing nations, especially tropical ones seems to be making use of fewer resources to get the most and gather wild foods and edible plants to alleviate this problem of food security. [IMF04] Other issues and consequences There are many other issues that the world faces which lead to rising prices of food. Women face issues as well be it in terms of owning the land, working on the land, payment and receiving equal share of the food as well. They do not have access to technology as well. This means that the world is not capitalizing on all its resources and women are one of them. They make the majority of family decisions and make most of the food and therefore they have a better idea about the needs and type of plants, grains etc. that are needed. Center for Women’s Global Leadership was developed to create awareness of liberalization and rights of women. Credit is also difficult to attain for developing nations as well since they don’t have the established credibility. They also aren’t educated enough to innovate or to understand the new technology let alone implement it. Sovereignty is interested in food regimes and is influenced in Marxism and social movements and it believes that movements in the food regime reflect the movements and tensions among society members. However it ignores the fact that farmers may not have willingly chosen their profession, and they aren’t underprivileged everywhere in the world. It also ignores a few major political reasons that exist in the world more so in the modern world than before. [Ive09] Finally, there are many reasons beyond the reasons discussed for the global food price increase. There was a crisis from 2007-2009 as well that resulted due to population increase, the changing demand of people for food that required more resources, increase in petroleum and fertilizer prices, declining stockpiles and a deteriorating financial system and vulnerability worldwide. Bibliography Wil10: , (Schanbacher, 2010), Bry10: , (McDonald, 2010), Kat10: , (Peacock, 2010), Bro10: , (Peterson, et al., 2010), Jul10: , (Cribb, 2010), Asi11: , (Bank., 2011), Kad12: , (Al-Eyd, et al., 2012), Ron08: , (Trostle & Service., 2008), Mar08: , (Clemmitt, 2008), Wor08: , (Bank, 2008), Per11: , (Pinstrup-Andersen & Watson, 2011), IMF04: , (IMF, 2004), Ive09: , (Perfecto, et al., 2009), Read More