The World Food Crisis

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The World Food Crisis
Fred Magdoff fmagdoff_at_uvm.edu
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1.) There is a catastrophic food crisis. 2.) In
addition to routine hunger. 3.) It is
interacting with a longer term underlying food
crisis and making it worse.
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A Broad Overview
Total world population 6 billion people
In cities 3 billion people
In rural areas 3 billion people
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The Wretched of the Earth

• 3 billion live on less than 2 per day
• 1 billion live on less than 1 per day
• 1 billion live in slums
• 25 million per year migrate to cities
• 1 billion have no access to clean water
• 2 billion have no electricity
• 2.5 billion have no sanitation systems

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Hunger

• The UN estimates that 840 million people suffer
  from undernourishment, although the number may be
  considerably higher.
• The number suffering from mineral shortages, food
  insecurity and temporary food shortage may
  approach 3 billion.

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Hunger amid plenty in the U.S.

• In 4 million U.S. families (with 9 million
  people) someone skipped meals because of lack
  of food.
• 12 million U.S. families (with about 34 million
  people) are food insecure.
• Huge increases in the last decade in those
  using food pantries, food shelves, soup
  kitchens, etc.

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Hunger frequently occurs amid plenty in poor
countries too
Poor in India Starve as Surplus Wheat Rots (New
York Times, 12/12/02) Want Amid Plenty, An
Indian Paradox Bumper Harvests and Rising Hunger
(Wall St. Journal, 6/25/04)
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There is enough food produced world wideand
usually within most countriesto feed everyone.
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Why are people hungry?

• Because they are poor (working or not) and living
  in an economic system that
• a) needs, creates, and maintains an underclass,
  and that
• b) does not admit a right to basic necessities
  such as food.

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The availability of food to people reflects very
unequal economic and political power
relationships within and between countries.
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Percent of total national income
(2001) 49.2 23.2 15.0 9.0 3.6
Quintile Highest Fourth Third Second Lowest
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Household distribution of net worth in the United
States (2001)
Percent of families Top 1 Top 5 Top 10 Top
20 Bottom 80 Bottom 40
Percent of net worth 33.4 59.2 71.5 84.4 15.5 0.
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The Current Crisis
Bangladeshi demonstrators protest over high food
prices and low wages
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Haitis President Tries to Halt Crisis Over
Food April 10, 2008 The police in Haiti struggled
Wednesday to control looting and rioting over
high food prices
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Food Inflation, Riots Spark Worries for World
Leaders Wall Street Journal, April 14, 2008
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Rioting in response to soaring food prices
recently has broken out in Egypt, Cameroon, Ivory
Coast, Senegal and Ethiopia. In Pakistan and
Thailand, army troops have been deployed to deter
food theft from fields and warehouses. World Bank
President Robert Zoellick warned in a recent
speech that 33 countries are at risk of social
upheaval because of rising food prices. Those
could include Indonesia, Yemen, Ghana, Uzbekistan
and the Philippines. In countries where buying
food requires half to three-quarters of a poor
person's income, "there is no margin for
survival," he said.
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The price of rice, the core of the Bangladeshi
diet, has jumped by more than 30 percent since
then a major problem in a country where nearly
half the population survives on less than 1 a
day.
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An adviser to the country's Ministry of Food,
A.M.M. Shawkat Ali, warned of a 'hidden hunger'
in Bangladesh and economists estimate 30 million
of the country's 150 million people could go
hungry a crisis that could become a serious
political problem for the military-backed
government.
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"Inflation of staples is really out of control.
We've never seen this beforeIf we don't react
now, this summer will be full of danger. WFP
representative Gian Carlo Cirri
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The world's poor are living very close to the
edge as it isIf they are pushed further, they
are typically the first who will spark
unrest.' Robert Zeigler, director-general of
the International Rice Research Institute in the
Philippines.
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Rising prices threaten millions with starvation,
despite bumper crops The Independent
(UK) Sunday, 2 March 2008 There has never been
anything remotely like the food crisis that is
now increasingly gripping the world, threatening
millions with starvation. For it is happening at
a time of bumper crops.
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Effects in U.S. are less than in poor countries

1. Ingredients are small part of price of highly
   processed foods.
2. In U.S. people have higher incomes and spend less
   a of their income on food.

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Causes of Current Crisis
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But its not just ethanol also problems with
biodiesel primarily from soybeans and oil palm
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• Increase in fuel prices (biofuels plus food
  system is VERY energy intensive).
• Increase in meat consumption (Per capita
  consumption has more than doubled in last 50
  years.)
• Formerly self-sufficient countries now
  importing food.
• Weather (Australia, Bangladesh)
• Speculation (local hoarding as well as
  speculation in the commodities super cycle.)

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Governmental Responses
Emergency imports Eliminating import
duties Freezing exports of foods More food
subsidies etc.
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Governmental Responses
Bush Orders 200 Million in Food Aid By
Associated Press 431 PM EDT, April 14, 2008 (A
congressional analysis shows the Iraq war costing
taxpayers almost 2 billion a week.)
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The long-term crisis
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The long-term crisis
Neoliberal Policies Decreased support to small
farmers Lowered food production by small
farmers Increased migration to city
slums Increased larger farms
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The Future?

• Fewer than 20 million highly productive and
  mechanized farmers can grow all the worlds food.
  
• (Note one person in Brazil the governor of the
  state of Mato Grosso, the soybean king
  controls about 250,000 acres.)

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The Future?
If 20 million farms can produce all world food
needs regardless of where the farms are located
what will be the fate of billions of people
that will not find other employment?
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How can poor nations keep the large mass of
people in rural areas productively employed in
agriculture?
One of the great moral, economic, and political
issues of the 21st century.
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• A healthy food supply should be recognized as a
  human right.
• Policies should be implemented to ensure that
  people have access to sufficient food.

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• Protection of, and active government support
  for, agriculture.
• Developing agriculture primarily to provide
  food for their own people needs to be a
  priority for poor countries.
• Promote farming carried out by small to medium
  producers working alone or in cooperatives.

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• Promotion of appropriate ecologically sound
  practices.
• Institute land reform where needed (Brazil,
  Venezuela, South Africa, the Philippines, etc.).
• Major urban agriculture programs to help poor in
  cities grow their own food and/or derive income.

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Monthly Review, May 2008
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www.uvm.edu/fmagdoff/WorldFoodCrisis.ppt
fmagdoff_at_uvm.edu
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