The food we eatUN warns of potential food crisis

A UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) official recently warned that countries are not doing enough to increase food production to meet rising demand and that the world could be headed for a global food crisis.

Jacques Diouf, the director general of FAO, said, “If we add the impact of droughts, floods, hurricanes and other events exacerbated by climate change and the speculation on agricultural commodity futures markets, it becomes clear that the current situation is the chronicle of a disaster foretold.”

In its recent report, FAO projects that global food production must rise by 70 percent in order to meet the estimated demand for food. With demand outpacing supply, food “prices are projected to increase over the next decade and to continue to be at levels, on average, above those of the past decade.”

Food prices have already soared in recent months and in 2010 food prices increased by 25 percent. These rising prices in turn sparked food riots in Egypt and Tunisia, which contributed to the overthrow of their governments. Last year in Egypt the price of wheat increased by more than 50 percent.

In 2008 the cost of food soared to record levels and prices have remained volatile ever since. As a result, in 2009 the number of chronically hungry people around the world rose above one billion.

Thierry Kesteloot, Oxfam’s food-policy adviser, said, “Millions more people are sliding into poverty as they struggle to afford basic food supplies and more and more are at risk of going hungry.”

Large disasters and droughts have reduced crop yields across the world. For instance, in China critical grain producing regions are suffering from their worst drought in nearly sixty years.

China is the largest wheat producer in the world and has been self-sufficient in feeding its massive population. If the drought significantly hinders crop yields, China would be forced to import grain on the open market, sending already high prices even higher.

Further threats to wheat crops include a deadly fungus, Ug99, that is killing crops across the world including southern and eastern Africa, the central Asian republics, and India.

As supply has fallen, demand has spiked with more crops dedicated to the manufacturing of biofuels and population growth has increased the need for food.

The FAO report found that more than 100 million tons of food was diverted from consumption to the production of biofuels. In the United States nearly 40 percent of the corn harvest is dedicated to the production of ethanol and demand is increasing.

To ease these strains on the global food chain, FAO recommended that governments increase investment in agriculture.

In particular, FAO said that reducing the gender gap in agricultural production and encouraging more women to farm could boost developing countries’ crop yields by 2.5 to 4 percent, helping to feed an additional 100 to 150 million starving people.

Officials in the United States are calling on the government to increase funding for agricultural assistance programs in developing countries.

The Obama administration has requested $1.4 billion for the Feed the Future initiative, $600 million more than its 2010 budget. The program is designed to help increase food production in poor countries and was established after the 2008 food crisis.

Given the current Congressional budget climate, the Republican controlled House is looking to cut the international agricultural aid budget. The current House spending bill would cut the Feed the Future program’s budget to as little $310 million.