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Weapons and waste are on rise as food crisis deepens

Iqbal Latif - 7/16/2008

An estimated $1.2 trillion was spent on weapons in 2006 while aid to agriculture fell by more than half, from $8bn in 1984 to $3.4bn in 2004. The FAO is calling for $1.7bn of emergency funding to tackle the shortage in production The recent crisis is believed to have pushed 100 million people into hunger worldwide. Poorer countries are faced with a 40% increase in their food imports bill this year, and experts say some countries' food bills have doubled in the past year.

"In real terms, the share of agriculture in public aid to development has fallen, from 17 per cent in 1980 to three per cent in 2006," he said. UN says soaring price of basic foods such as rice and cereals could affect about 100 million of the world's poorest. Global rice stocks have halved since hitting a record high in 2001 while demand is continuing to rise. In Asia, rice prices have almost tripled this year alone.

Financial speculators, rising populations, floods, droughts, increased demand from developing countries, and removing crops from the food chain to produce biofuels have been cited as factors. Price rises have led producing nations to enforce export restrictions, further putting the squeeze on supply, especially in countries relying on imports.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged nations last month to seize an "historic opportunity to revitalise agriculture" as a way of tackling the food crisis. Mr Ban told a UN-sponsored summit in Rome in June that food production would have to rise by 50% by 2030 to meet demand. Mr Ban said export restrictions and import tariffs ought to be minimised to alleviate the crisis.

In face of these severe shortages the irony of disgraceful waste is shockingly brazen. Billions of dollars are being wasted on feeding obese people in the West while millions starve around the world, Jacques Diouf, the United Nations food agency chief, told world leaders at a summit on food security in Rome. "No one understands... how over-consumption by obese people in the world costs $20bn each year," Diouf said not only waste is a problem but there is "$100bn in indirect costs resulting from premature deaths and associated diseases." A recent government study in UK shows that UK wastes 4m tonnes of food every year, adding £420 to a family's shopping bills.

"Resolving the global food crisis could cost as much as $30 billion a year and wealthier nations are doing little to help the developing world face the problem", UN officials said at the Food Summit in Rome.

NYT reported in May that ''recent study by the Environmental Protection Agency estimated that Americans generate roughly 30 million tons of food waste each year, which is about 12 percent of the total waste stream. All but about 2 percent of that food waste ends up in landfills; by comparison, 62 percent of yard waste is composted. After President Bush said recently that India’s burgeoning middle class was helping to push up food prices by demanding better food, officials in India complained that not only do Americans eat too much — if they slimmed down to the weight of middle-class Indians, said one, “many people in sub-Saharan Africa would find food on their plate” — but they also throw out too much food. ''

NYT asserts that ''eliminating food waste won’t solve the problems of world hunger and greenhouse-gas pollution. But it could make a dent in this country and wouldn’t require a huge amount of effort or money.'' The Department of Agriculture estimated that recovering just 5 percent of the food that is wasted could feed four million people a day; recovering 25 percent would feed 20 million people

Jacques Diouf, head of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), was sharply critical of wealthy nations who have been cutting back on agriculture programs for the world's poor and ignoring deforestation — while spending billions on carbon markets, subsidies for farmers and biofuels production. As oil prices rise, using corn in biofuels as an alternative to fossil fuels becomes more attractive, and this has helped to raise the price of corn from about $4 a bushel a year ago to its current record levels.

"The developing countries did in fact forge policies, strategies and programs that — if they had received appropriate funding — would have given us world food security," Diouf, said, adding that international community finally began to mobilize to help after images of food riots and starvation emerged in the media. He said there had been plenty of meetings on the need for anti-hunger programs and agricultural development in poor nations in the last decade but not enough money to make them a reality. Nations instead of spending on arms, overeating and reinventing fuel through food can do something concrete to go back to basic to help mankind from ghost of starvation and famine. Peaceful co-existence, less wars, less waste and conventional form of energy where gas guzzling and SUV’s are avoided can change global prospects.

Only a small portion of $1.2 trillion that was spent on weapons in 2006 and cutting over-consumption of obese people that costs $20bn last year can solve problems of scarcity. Is someone listening?