[comment] Matthew Bartlett: If you think food prices are high here, try Africa

from the Union Leader

GROWING UP in New Hampshire, I was blessed enough to live in a place free from the tragedies and hardships of abject poverty, widespread disease and desperate hunger. Here at home, a person can visit a local farm for fruits and vegetables, or purchase them in a local grocery store. Children in New Hampshire are routinely inoculated and easily enrolled in school. Yet a world away in much of Africa, this situation is far from the life we treasure in the Granite State.

It is with that sense of New Hampshire values and blessings that I recently traveled to Mozambique, Botswana and Zambia to view firsthand where American-led efforts are fighting extreme poverty and saving lives, most notably through Presidential Malaria Initiative (PMI) and Presidential Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

PEPFAR was enacted to focus on global HIV prevention and providing AIDS medication for the infected. In just five years, the program has helped to prevent millions of new infections and is currently responsible for putting more than a million people on lifesaving medication. Not only is it the largest and most aggressive global AIDS program in the world, it is also one of the most effective and efficient.

Today, the new PEPFAR bill, now called the United States Global Leadership Against HIV/AIDS Act, has overwhelmingly passed the House of Representatives with significant bipartisan support and is currently being championed in the Senate by Sens. Joe Biden, D-Del., Richard Lugar, R-Ind., and John Sununu, R-N.H.

While in Africa, I saw the successes to combat disease and extreme poverty as well as some of the challenges that remain, particularly regarding infrastructure and corruption.

Yet everywhere I went there were creeping questions about the growing problem of skyrocketing food prices and the resulting malnutrition and widespread hunger.

We in New Hampshire have felt the effects of rising food costs. A few more dollars for a pizza or buns for a weekend cookout have, at best, pinched wallets and, at worst, shifted family diets and budget priorities.

But in impoverished areas in Africa, where people already spend close to half of their income on food, even a few cents more for food has drastic, dire implications.

At a nursery school operated by the global non-profit FORGE in northern Zambia, I was welcomed by school kids eager to test out their English lessons on us Americans. After singing a few songs for our group, the children took a break for lunch. But nearly one-third of the children had no food to eat. The teacher confessed to me that many of the parents are unable to send food for their kids and oftentimes parents will forgo their only meal so that their children can have at least one meal a day.

If prices continue to rise, experts predict that millions more children will go without food, and as many as 100 million people could be pushed into extreme poverty.

The good news is that there are ways to mitigate the global food crisis. Earlier this month, President Bush called on Congress to approve $770 million to help ease global food prices in the short term and provide aid to those suffering from hunger and malnutrition. But this is just a start. What's needed is a comprehensive approach to not only meeting emergency needs, but helping these farmers increase their productivity so they can better feed themselves.

In Japan next month at the G8 meeting of the world's largest free-market leaders, global food prices and shortages will be on the agenda. President Bush and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown have already signaled the urgent need for better international policies that help the developing world. A united global response to the food crisis could stave off massive human tragedy.

At the same time, new and innovative approaches are being developed on the ground in Africa to fight hunger and malnutrition. In Mozambique, I met with agricultural scientists and experts who are working on new ways to fortify crops to produce stronger and healthier vegetables rich in vitamin A and zinc. Support for these efforts will be crucial in developing long-term, lasting solutions.

The growing global food crisis is a complicated and challenging emergency that puts millions of lives at risk. The small ripple of rising food costs we feel here in New Hampshire disproportionately turns into a riptide in the poorest countries on Earth. But there are concrete ways to help find solutions and results that will undoubtedly depend on sound and just U.S. policies and leadership.

In a land of plenty and in a world in need, we have the resources to help greatly minimize and mitigate the global food crisis. From the campaign trail to halls of Congress, and from the White House to the G8 summit in Japan, the world must focus more attention to enacting better global food policy for all.

Matthew Bartlett of Manchester is regional organizer for The One Campaign.