Global Food Crisis Begins! Food riots, soaring price in Third World. Biofuels, Global Warming Hit!

[Dems Will Win]

This is bad. I hope the candidates address this immediately!

Empty shelves in Caracas. Food riots in West Bengal and Mexico. Warnings of hunger in Jamaica, Nepal, the Philippines and sub-Saharan Africa. Soaring prices for basic foods are beginning to lead to political instability, with governments being forced to step in to artificially control the cost of bread, maize, rice and dairy products.

Record world prices for most staple foods have led to 18% food price inflation in China, 13% in Indonesia and Pakistan, and 10% or more in Latin America, Russia and India, according to the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO). Wheat has doubled in price, maize is nearly 50% higher than a year ago and rice is 20% more expensive, says the UN. Next week the FAO is expected to say that global food reserves are at their lowest in 25 years and that prices will remain high for years.

...

The price rises are a result of record oil prices, US farmers switching out of cereals to grow biofuel crops, extreme weather and growing demand from countries India and China, the UN said yesterday.

...

He said cereal stocks had been declining for more than a decade but now stood at around 57 days, which made global food supplies vulnerable to an international crisis or big natural disaster such as a drought or flood.

...

Lester Brown, president of the Washington-based Worldwatch Institute thinktank, said: "The competition for grain between the world's 800 million motorists, who want to maintain their mobility, and its 2 billion poorest people, who are simply trying to survive, is emerging as an epic issue."

...

Supply will be further restricted if fish stocks continue to decline due to overfishing, and if soils become exhausted and erosion decreases the arable area.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/nov/03/food.climatechange

Better plan a survival garden in the Spring peoples!

[RaleighNCDUer]

1. Hey, look for the silver lining!

As fishing fleets are grounded, due to lack of fuel, fish stocks around the world will rebound!

And after the 2 billion poorest die off, the rest of us will be able to get all the fish we can eat!

[Dems Will Win]

2. That's true, 2 billion starving to death will bring down prices and inflation

Maybe this could become part of next year's Republican platform...

[Rex]

3. Don't give them any ideas.

They might run with it.

[flashl]

10. Getting rid of billions was part of Regan's National Security Plan. n/t

[Doctor Cynic]

4. The short term solution is simple.

1) End all federal subsidies for biofuel, until they can come up with something that does not involve food. Like cellulose. And then urge all other countries to follow suit. That alone would ease food inflation a lot.
2) End agricultural subsidies to farmers who do not cultivate land. Right now there are huge swaths of the Great Plains that could be farmed for food, but are not, since Uncle Sam paid the farmers not to farm, and keep prices high. Also, urge the EU to rebuild their CAP.
3) Stop pressuring third-world countries to give up subsidies (http://storiesonmalawi.blogspot.com/2007/10/how-malawi-went-from-nation-of-famine.html)
4) Put more funding into grain reserach. Design grains that are resistant to disease, and grains that can survive droughts and lack of nutrition.
5) Encourage local agriculture, and that starts by stopping urban sprawl (though this might be unnecessary when families start fleeing McMansionland).
6) Train more people in third-world countries in managing agriculture.

I think those would go a long way to easing any food shortage (and would probably end in overproduction), and it might even save the average taxpayer. But given the amount of money Agribusiness gives to candidates, I'm not sure those will happen.

[lvx35]

5. Thanks! I love a post with solutions.

I think local agriculture (#5) is a big and easy step we can take to soften the coming shocks. It's something we can all work on now.

[robinlynne]

6. You overlook the obvious. Jeb Bush owns the company buying up all the biofuels in the US.

That is probably the only reason it's even happening: family profits.

Edited to add, and monsanto....profits...

[Deja Q]

14. Hmmm

1) Agreed
2) Agreed
3) Lemme think about that
4) Genetic modification - doesn't bother me, but it does bother some
5) Wholly agreed
6) Also train them not to engage in rampant breeding, which only compounds the problem.

[MadHound]

15. A few alternatives and contentions

1. I agree with this, fortunately we already have a solution at hand for this, using oil rich algae as the biodiesel feedstock. It would only take 15,000 square miles of water surface to provide enough fuel to fulfill all of our fuel needs. <http://www.unh.edu/p2/biodiesel/article_alge.html>

2. We can't have a broad based end of subsidies, it would destroy small farmers and also our farmland.
First, programs like the CRP are putting marginal and over worked farmland into trees, something that we desperately need to rebuild our soil and act as a carbon sink. Second, wiping out subsidies for all farmers would mean that small farmers would be unable to let their fields lie fallow, thus draining the soil of nutrients in short order, since they would be unable to compete with factory farmers who have the financial cushion to allow fields to lie fallow. We have to be selective with our subsidy cuts, aiming them at the factory farmer while promoting small farmers and sustainable farming practices.

3. No problem here

4. We have the genetic diversity that we need. In fact the last thing that we need is more genetically engineered foods. Instead we should swing back the other way, going back to more heirloom varieties. You can find within this wide spectrum of seeds plants who fulfill the requirements that you specify, and frankly heirloom plants are more nutrient dense than any GE crop.

Five and six I have no problem with either. One caveat though on number five, not only encourage local agriculture, but also encourage sustainable, organic small farms that are less energy intensive and better for human health and welfare.

[AuntPatsy]

7. I wonder how we here in America will act when it begins effecting us on that large scale

that is surely in our very near future. What are we willing to give to our neighbor, how much are we ourselves willing to give up without having similar riots right here on our very own streets?

I think America has become for the most part a me me me place though we have many that are not, the majority are and I see it getting pretty ugly and that really saddens me.

[AdHocSolver]

8. Global climate change ("global warming") is changing rainfall patterns causing drought in many areas

Many rivers are running dry, lakes are drying up, water tables are being drained, and it is "business as usual". Agriculture is very water intensive. Using precious water resources to grow corn - food - to create ethanol to burn in cars is sheer insanity. However, this is what we get when a country practices unregulated capitalism.

One statement stood out as emblematic of why there is so little understanding of the issues.

(snip)...
Lester Brown, president of the Washington-based Worldwatch Institute thinktank, said: "The competition for grain between the world's 800 million motorists, who want to maintain their mobility, and its 2 billion poorest people, who are simply trying to survive, is emerging as an epic issue."
....

What nonsense to state that the people demand ethanol for their cars. I don't want ethanol put in gasoline, because I realize that it is costing us dearly. First, ethanol reduces gas mileage. I have proved this many times comparing mileage when using ethanol gas and when using gas without ethanol. There is a noticeable difference of 3 to 4 MPG better mileage without ethanol. Using ethanol means I have to buy more gasoline to go the same number of miles. So it costs me more, and there is no saving of oil.

At the same time, the cost of food is going up dramatically. Milk price rises of 6o cents a gallon, yogurt and cheese prices going up proportionately. And ethanol hasn't reduced gasoline prices. It just went up 20 cents a gallon in the last two weeks. The only ones who are benefitting are the oil companies and the big agribusinesses like Monsanto, Conagra, and Cargill.

I say screw the oil and agribusiness companies and feed the people, instead. But that wish is as useful as pissing in the wind.

[Lorien]

13. I don't want ethanol either. I want a fully electric car and that

100 square miles of solar panels that one prominent scientist recently stated could power the entire US.That would get us out of the Mideast entirely...oh, but yeah, a certain 1% of the richest wouldn't be making money hand over fist on fossil fuels, military contracting and weapons systems. Scratch that.


:argh:

[WinkyDink]

9. Ethanol: It's Not Just for Breakfast Anymore. Literally. (& why Bush has promoted it.)

[conspirator]

11. Bush hasn't finish killing people for oil and it is already starting to kill for biofuel nt

[Dems Will Win]

12. kick

[Pavulon]

16. Sorry..Still gonna pay more for B20

would buy b75 if I could. Cleaner, renewable, grown here in the us. Redirect money to farmers rather than theocracies and communistas. (barring canada and mexico of course)

[Dems Will Win]

17. kick