Over next two decades, food prices will double
Thanks to Sarah Jaffe for catching a line from Tim Lang's piece at the Guardian's Comment is Free yesterday: “Oxfam prophesises that food prices will double by 2030.” Of course, it's doubtful world incomes will double in the next twenty years. Welcome to the world food crisis. Lang comments it's the result of many problems, including environmental issues, wealth disparity, and misguided solutions:
The 20th century squandered scientific possibilities. It created the fiction that ever more food can be produced by tapping oil, throwing fertiliser at seeds, spraying endless water and treating the soil as blotting paper, a neutral medium. We now know how fragile that mix is, and how fragile the Earth's crust and biology are too. Slowly, some of the institutions created over the last 60 years are recognising that political leadership and redirection are needed. The FAO, WHO, Unicef and Unep all collate the food story. Ministers meet, but in silos. The big picture eludes them. Inaction triumphs.
Lang is responding to a report from Oxfam, called a “Growing a Better Future” which you can read HERE.
The report says "staple foods, already at its highest ever, will more than double in the next 20 years—at least half of that increase due to climate change."
Obviously, this will hit the world's poorest the most.
Jaffe writes:
Oxfam's GROW campaign is targeting the corporations and governments who prop up a broken food system, but Lang notes that it may be an uphill battle getting action from politicians.
And yet there's little time for hesitation. "The food system is pretty well bust in the world," Oxfam Chief Executive Barbara Stocking told reporters.
Oxfam maintains that the current food system only works for some, so it's launched the GROW campaign in 43 countries.
The campaign will urge world leaders to make food more affordable and available by investing in small-scale food production, stopping subsidies for the corn-ethanol industry, updating food aid and ending agricultural commodity speculation that drives up prices. Help make sure people throughout the world have enough to eat. Support GROW by spreading the word or signing a global petition. Oxfam is also accepting donations through the Impact links.
