Wednesday, April 30, 2008 Editorials: A global food crisis
THE present global food situation appears more threatening and morally debilitating than most world leaders probably think.
It is as if the threat is surrealistic, not having been experienced by Planet Earth since World War II.
Already, reports have it that the price of rice alone has more than doubled in six weeks, fueled by the soaring price of oil.
The World Bank estimated that “food prices have risen by 83 percent” in the past three years.
The World Food Program says the crisis that is now threatening over 20 million of the world’s poorest children, “are complex, controversial and may fall far short as demand soars.”
Unrest
No less than Prime Minister Gordon Brown of the United Kingdom said that spiraling food prices threatens to plunge millions back into poverty.”
Brown said that tackling hunger is a moral challenge of national leaders as hunger is also a threat to the political and economic stability of nations.
Likewise, former United Nations secretary general, Kofi Anan, believes there would be more food protests in developing nations.
In fact, the executive director of the World Food Program, in a remark made after the recent summit on the food crisis in London, likened the global food situation to a “’silent tsunami’ of hunger sweeping the world’s most desperate nations.”
In depressed areas, unrest over the food shortage has led to deaths.
It has in Cameroon and caused the fall of Haiti’s prime minister, while Malaysia and Indonesia are hurrying new rice production plans.
Lucky
The Philippines should feel lucky since up to this moment, the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry, Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD) claims there is no such crisis, but it is ready to “give alternative crops in case the shortage will happen.”
The PCARRD director for crop research predicts “that rice harvest this year would be greater than in 2007.”
The issue is not rice shortage but rice distribution.
The claim affirms the suspicion that it is the rice cartels and dealers that is actually behind the current panic over rice supply.
Also, prices are increasing because of the increase in the price of fertilizer, pesticide, gasoline, and wages of workers.
