When we look at the headlines, gold and oil price is soaring. But when it comes to needs for basic human survival, wheat, soybeans, rice and corn, spotlight is taken away.
But we need to be aware of how much of a complication and social havoc it results. We have witnessed food riots in several countries. Food rationing was introduced in Russia and Pakistan. To conserve declining stocks, India has prohibited the export of rice, and other big rice-eating countries, particularly the Philippines, are talking of a “rice crisis.”
Is the world running out of food? I hope not. But we are at the starting point of some serious trend that could upset the international system with increasing costs and potential scarcity in the time to come. According to the UN’s World Food Program, the reason for today’s higher price is rising energy costs. We’ve gone from competing with our animals for grain to competing with our cars.
It is expected in the larger centers of the developing world to face food shortage. The world’s poorest people will now have to spend a larger portion of their income on food or do without. This is the new face of hunger. There is food on shelves, but people are priced out of the market.
Entry 8. 20601002
Posted by yosemite15
