As Food Costs Rise, So Do School Lunch Prices

from the New York Times

This article explores the effect that rising food prices are having on school lunches. School officials point out that what kids are getting for a dollar or two in the cafeteria would cost 6 to 7 dollars at a restaurant. - Kale

By WINNIE HU

Gas pumps, grocery stores, and now school cafeterias.

Prices on some school lunch lines are going up this fall as school officials, like many others, struggle to pay higher prices and delivery fees for staples like bread, milk, fresh fruit and vegetables. The price increases, generally about 25 cents a meal, come as school districts in New York and across the country try to eke more out of already tight budgets, with some switching to four-day schedules to reduce utility and busing costs, and others asking more of their students to walk to school or limiting out-of-town games for athletic teams.

But for many parents, nothing hits the pockets quite like lunch prices.

“It’s 25 cents a day, but if you have three kids, over a week that’s the price of a gallon of milk,” said Harry A. Capers Jr., a past president of the New Jersey Parent-Teacher Association. “I think it’s something people will notice and I am really concerned about those who have to make tough choices.”

New Jersey’s largest school district, Newark, is raising the full price of its daily lunches to $1.50 from $1.25, as its overall food budget grows to an estimated $5.2 million from $5 million last year. (Most Newark students do not pay the full price. In most cases there and elsewhere, increases in the cost of full-price lunches will not affect the reduced prices — a maximum of 40 cents a meal — that students from poorer families have to pay.)

In Paterson, N.J., the full price is also increasing by 25 cents — to $2.25 in high schools and $2 in elementary schools — to help cover a 23 percent increase in bread prices alone in the last year. The district, which serves 18,000 lunches a day, now pays 12 cents for each hot dog bun, compared with 9.5 cents a year ago.

“It’s something we have to do,” said Tonya Riggins, Newark’s director of food services, who oversees 29,000 daily lunches. “People may not be happy, but it’s the economy and it’s beyond our control.”

Across the metropolitan area, many suburban and rural schools are raising lunch prices while large urban districts are taking other measures to cover rising food bills, from reducing food management costs in Yonkers to shopping around for cheaper plastic plates and cups in Syracuse.

The New York City schools, which serve 626,670 lunches a day, will keep full lunch prices steady at $1.50. But the system will save money by, for example, replacing individual bread rolls and cherry tomatoes in salads with slices of French bread and whole tomatoes that can be bought in bulk. “It’s a lot of little things that add up to big savings,” said William Havemann, a spokesman for the city’s Department of Education.

To help offset higher food costs, the United States Department of Agriculture, which subsidizes school lunches, has increased its average lunch reimbursement to districts this year by 10 cents to $2.57 a meal for students who qualify for free lunches, and $2.17 for those who qualify for reduced-price lunches. Last year, the increase was 7 cents.

The department issued a report this summer, called “Meeting the Challenge of Rising Food Costs,” to help districts develop strategies to control food costs and stretch budgets. In addition to cash reimbursements, it will provide more free food this fall to 101,000 school districts participating in the lunch program. It will also expand another program, which provides free snacks of fruits and vegetables, primarily to low-income districts, to all 50 states from 14 states last year.

But many school officials contend that the federal lunch money is not keeping up with rising food prices, particularly in districts that are stocking their cafeterias with healthier food choices like skim milk, whole grains and fresh fruit.

“When you start including more fresh fruit and vegetables instead of green beans in a can, your costs increase,” said Brian Sirianni, assistant superintendent for business in the Ballston Spa district, north of Albany. His 4,500-student district is raising lunch prices by 35 cents, to $2, in the middle and high school, and by 25 cents, to $1.75, in the elementary schools — and may have to increase prices again in the next two years.

Affluent suburban schools are also feeling the pinch. In New Jersey, the Mount Laurel district, which serves an average of 1,985 lunches a day, will raise its lunch price by 20 cents — the highest increase in recent memory — to $2 in the middle schools, and $1.90 in the elementary schools. “We’re not trying to make a profit, we’re just trying to break even,” said Marie Reynolds, a spokeswoman for the district.

In poorer areas, people will definitely feel squeezed, said Irene Sterling, president of the Paterson Education Fund, a nonprofit group made up of parents and community leaders seeking to improve that city’s schools. “I think there’s going to be people upset, but I also think there’s very little anybody can do about it, because it’s part of a bigger picture,” Ms. Sterling said.

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Food, Fuel and Water Crises Converging

from IPS News

The food and fuel crises are bad enough, but add water into the fray and it could be disastrous. The World Bank still insists on water privatization before making loans. - Kale

By Thalif Deen

STOCKHOLM, - "It's the spectre of a food, fuel and water crisis," says Lars Thunell, executive vice president of the Washington-based International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank group.

"I believe we are at a tipping point," he said, because the scarcity of water poses a threat to the food supply just when the agricultural sector is stepping up production in response to riots over food prices, growing hunger, and rising malnutrition.

Speaking at the conclusion of the weeklong Stockholm International Water Conference Friday, Thunell said the growing demand for water is outpacing supply.

The world's current population of over 6.0 billion is expected to rise to about 9.0 billion by 2050, with more than 60 percent living in mega cities.

"Since water consumption goes up where there is development and improved lifestyles, we can expect even greater demands on fresh water," Thunell said.

The most water-intensive sector, agriculture, is expanding and industrialisation and energy production are further driving demand, he added.

The conference, which was attended by over 2,400 water experts and government officials, ended with an ominous warning: that water and sanitation are not far behind the food, energy and climate crises.

Summing up the weeklong proceedings, the Stockholm International Water Institute said that slow progress on sanitation will cause the world to badly fail the U.N.'s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). At the same time, weak policy, poor management, increasing waste and exploding water demands will push the planet towards the tipping point of a global water crisis.

According to U.N. estimates a little less than one billion people worldwide still don't have access to clean drinking water while over 2.6 billion people lack adequate sanitation.

The MDGs aim at a 50 percent reduction both in the number of people without drinking water and without basic sanitation. The deadline has been set at 2015. But most of the world's poorer nations are likely to miss the deadline.

Colin Chartres, director general of the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) said the causes of water scarcity are essentially identical to those of the food crisis.

"There are serious and extremely worrying factors that indicate that water supplies are close to exhaustion in some countries," he said.

He pointed out that current estimates indicate the world will not have enough water to feed itself in 40 years time, "by when the current food crisis may turn into a perpetual crisis."

Chartres said he and his water science colleagues have raised a warning flag that significant investments in both research and development and water infrastructure development are needed, "if dire consequences are to be avoided."

IFC's Thunell said providing clean water and sanitation services are not only business opportunities but also opportunities to improve lives. He said investors see an opportunity in the 450-billion-dollar global water sector, where stocks are performing strongly worldwide.

Private firms also regard water supply as a business risk and are tackling it as an integral part of their risk-management strategy.

"I believe the moment is right," Thunell said. "We can avert a crisis -- as partners, working together."

He said IFC will do its part by investing in companies that pursue opportunities in water conservation and quality, and by fostering public-private partnerships in the water sector.

But Patti Lynn, campaigns director of Corporate Accountability International, has a different take on the role of the private sector.

"The crisis stems from a confluence of problems, but perhaps no contributing factor is more insidious and correctable than the privatisation of the resource," she told IPS. "When people's access to clean drinking water is reliant on the profit interests of a handful of transnationals, all of us pay a premium and because of this many of the world's poor go thirsty."

Asked if the international community will meet the MDGs relating to water and sanitation by 2015, she said: "Not if we don't change immediate course."

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African nations gear up to raise rice production

from Commodity Online

A group of NGO's are trying to double rice production in Africa in 10 years. Here are details on the efforts. - Kale

By Savitri Mohapatra

Everyone to the farm,” is the new decree of President Wade of Senegal—a country that has seen massive riots in the last few months, when thousands of citizens carrying empty rice sacks on their heads marched in protest against soaring rice prices. The President has just unveiled an ambitious agricultural plan called the Great Offensive for Food and Abundance (GOANA), which aims to make Senegal self-sufficient in food staples, especially rice.

GOANA’s target is to produce in the next season 500,000 tons of rice—2.5 times more than the current production. Senegal, where rice-fish called cebbu jen is the most popular daily dish, consumes about 800,000 tons of rice per year and nearly 80% of this is imported at a cost of more than 100 billion CFA francs (US$247 million).

Some Senegalese call this the “tyranny of rice” because of its huge negative impact on the national economy. President Wade has said that GOANA will help free Senegal from this tyranny, urging farmers to grow more rice (and even asking his ministers and government officials to farm at least 20 hectares each).

The government has earmarked 750 billion CFA francs ($1.85 billion) for boosting national rice production. The money will be used to improve irrigation facilities and farmers’ access to seed, fertilizer, and equipment.

Similar announcements have been made by governments of several African countries in the wake of the rice crisis—news that comes as a relief to local rice farmers. “We think that the crisis has forced our government to pay attention to local rice production, which has been neglected for so long,” says Abdoulaye Ouédraogo, a rice farmer from Burkina Faso, which is now investing massively in agriculture.

He added that if the government had listened to the farmers earlier, the country would not have been in such a crisis, referring to food riots that recently broke out in the cities. As expected, in contrast to urban consumers, African farmers are happy about the high price of rice. “I have never seen this kind of price hike in 30 years,” says Abdoulaye. “Just a few months ago, 1 kilogram of paddy [unhulled] rice was selling here for 110 CFA francs [$0.27] and now it is 225 CFA francs [$0.56].” In neighboring Mali, the grain is so much in the limelight today that some citizens joke the country will soon have a Minister of Rice.

In April 2008, the government launched an Initiative riz (rice initiative) as “a structural response to the rice crisis.”

The aim of this program is to double Mali’s annual milled rice production in 2008-09 to 1 million tons, which will not only meet domestic demand but also provide a surplus of 100,000 tons for export. In addition, Prime Minister Modibo Sidibé is placing considerable importance on the national rice research program. “There is no agricultural development without research,” he said. According to the Africa RiceCenter (WARDA), the rice crisis offers a big opportunity for Africa to use its latent potential for production and break from decades of policy bias against agriculture.

Except for Egypt, Africa is a net importer of rice with Nigeria, South Africa, Senegal, and Côte d’Ivoire ranking among the top 10 importers of rice in the world. With nearly 40% of the continent’s total rice consumption coming from the international market, African national rice economies are more exposed to unpredictable external supply and price shocks than those of other continents.

Africa is especially vulnerable because of the high prevalence of poverty and food insecurity. “Africa faces not only problems of affordability of rice but also of availability in the international market because of the rice export bans by several countries,” says WARDA Director General Papa Abdoulaye Seck. “Since 2006, WARDA has been systematically alerting the governments of its member states to a looming rice crisis in Africa.”

According to Dr. Seck, the best option for Africa to manage the crisis is to combine emergency responses in the short term with measures that favor sustainable expansion of the continent’s rice supply in the longer term. Short-term measures include reduction of customs duties and taxes on imported rice and setting up of mechanisms to avoid speculation in rice markets. At the same time, governments must avoid undermining incentives for domestic rice production.

In the medium and long term, taxes on all critical inputs, cost saving agricultural machinery and equipment, and post harvest technologies need to be reduced. Governments should also facilitate access to credit for farmers, expand rice areas under irrigation, and improve rural infrastructure. There also needs to be concerted investment in regional research capacity to support the development of rice varieties resistant to major pests and diseases and sufficiently robust to withstand drought and climate change induced environmental shocks.

To assist the African countries that have been severely hit by soaring prices, an Emergency Rice Initiative for Africa was launched in June 2008 by WARDA, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations(FAO), IFDC (an international center for soil fertility and agricultural development), Catholic Relief Services, and the International Fund for Agricultural Development. Urgent assistance will be provided to 11 pilot countries in four major areas: seed, fertilizer, best-bet technologies, and postharvest and marketing. WARDA, the International Rice Research Institute, FAO, and Sasakawa Global 2000 will play a key role in enhancing Africa’s rice research capacity and facilitating access to important rice information and knowledge.

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Growing our own food - South Africa

from the Mail and Guardian

This article profiles new food co-operatives in South Africa that are being used to combat rising food prices. - Kale

by NOSIMILO NDLOVU

Salaminah Motsoagae (23) is a single mother who lives in an informal settlement in Orange Farm, Gauteng. She lives with her mother, who is a domestic worker and the only income earner in the family.

Rising food prices have put a financial strain on Motsoagae's family, leaving them with less money than before to buy food. "We are down to two meals a day," she says.

"Things are especially tough on people in my community who are HIV-positive because they must eat a nutritional meal each time they have to take their antiretrovirals (ARVs). Most of the time there just isn't enough for them to eat and they become very ill. Our government needs a wake-up call because we cannot continue to live like this."

Motsoagae and her family are among the estimated 1,7-billion people worldwide lacking basic food security as prices soar.

It was against this background that a public policy debate was organised recently ahead of the Southern African Development Community summit in Johannesburg to raise awareness on the extent of the food crisis and explore policy options for urgent action.

Speaking at the panel discussion on food security in Southern Africa, Professor Sam Moyo says: "Food security is not about the physical availability or scarcity of food at the national and household level, but also the qualitative degree and temporality of access in relation to nourishment, social resilience and vulnerability."

Moyo says domestic food production and consumption per capita have declined and led to persistent chronic food insecurity among at least 40% of the regional African population. "These are extremely poor, both as a cause and effect of food insecurity."

Jemina Mkhize, a pensioner from eMpendle, a small rural area in KwaZulu-Natal, says she believes the government should support small-scale farmers and improve rural development as one of the main solutions to the food crisis. "I have a fairly big yard and my house is not that big, so I am left with quite a lot of space to grow food to feed my family. I have spinach, potatoes, cabbages and pumpkin growing in my own backyard," she says with pride.

"I couldn't afford to take a bus to town every weekend to buy food -- the transport was getting expensive, the food was getting expensive. I could see starvation getting closer for my grandchildren, so I decided to spend my money buying seeds to plant the food myself. Now I not only feed my own family, but other people in my community who go hungry because they cannot afford the high-priced food."

Mkhize says the people in her community are working together to secure land they can use to farm food to feed the community, adding that more and more people are opening their gates to allow community members to use their land to plant vegetables.

"This poverty is contributing to more people getting sick. People are weak and falling ill easily, therefore not being able to work at a time when they need all the money they can get to feed their families. If the government wants to solve [the problems of] crime, unemployment, HIV/Aids and TB, it must look at solving the food crisis."

Beatrice Mkwaila of the National Smallholder Farmers' Association of Malawi, says the country's economy is almost entirely dependent on agriculture, which provides 85% of the population with its livelihood. She says while the estate sector is a significant contributor to the economic picture it is not the largest, "for in Malawi the largest producers are the smallest".

Smallholders constitute 90% of Malawi's farmers, but they face a range of challenges including poor infrastructure, lack of resources, lack of access to value-adding technologies, dependency on rain-fed agriculture, increasing costs of production and unreliable produce markets.

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India sees food crisis easing as plantings rise across the world

from the Wall Street Journal's Live Mint

Finally some good news! Signs that the world food crisis is easing. - Kale

Farmers from Australia to China have increased plantings of wheat, corn, rice and soya bean, helping stockpiles gain from 30-year lows

by Thomas Kutty Abraham and Pratik Parija

Mumbai / New Delhi: A worldwide food crisis that sent wheat, corn and rice prices to records and sparked riots earlier this year may be over after farmers increased plantings, a top official at the ministry of consumer affairs, food and public distribution said.

“I don’t think there’s a crisis now,” said T. Nanda Kumar, food secretary, who is responsible for formulating food security policy in the world’s second most populous nation. “Food will be available.”

Farmers from Australia to China have increased plantings of wheat, corn, rice and soya bean, helping stockpiles gain from 30-year lows. An end to the crisis may help countries including India and Egypt ease trade barriers and cool inflation.

The global production outlook for wheat and soya bean is “very good,” while rice is still expensive, Kumar said on 18 August. “Rice is softening, but I don’t think it has softened adequately.”

Still, grain prices will remain higher than the average of the past five years even as production improves, he said.

Soaring food and energy prices increased the number of hungry people by about 50 million last year, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization. The food shortage spurred strikes in Argentina, riots in Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Morocco and Ivory Coast, and a crackdown on illicit exports in Pakistan and the Philippines.

The UBS Bloomberg Constant Maturity Commodity Index of 26 raw materials more than trebled in the past six years as global demand led by China outpaced supplies of crops and metals.

Rice has tumbled 29% from its record, while wheat and corn have dropped 35% and 26% from their peaks.

India, the second biggest producer of rice and wheat, may need a second “green revolution” to meet food demand driven by rising incomes among its 1.1 billion people, Kumar said.

M.S. Swaminathan, the 83-year-old agriculture scientist who spearheaded the country’s Green Revolution in the 1960s, has said the solution to higher farm output lies in providing better remuneration to growers.

“You may call it by any name, what we need is more food,” said Kumar. India needs to increase its wheat and rice production by 3.5 million tonnes (mt) every year to meet its growing demand and cover emergencies, he said.

Supplies of farm products haven’t kept pace with demand from consumers who have become richer in the past five years as India’s economy registered the fastest economic expansion since independence.

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Dubai forum to focus on global food crisis

from Emirates Business

The impact of the global food crisi in the middle east will be the subject of an upcoming conference in Dubai. - Kale

The crisis has triggered a broad review of agricultural and economic priorities in the region, where nearly all the states are net food importers. And new challenges such as climate change have hit agricultural production in the poorest countries.

These problems will be discussed at the 2008 Regional Round Table Meeting on Commodity Development. The event is being held on August 24 and 25 by Amsterdam-based Common Fund for Commodities, an international financial institution established by the United Nations.

The round table meetings are normally held in Africa, Asia and Latin America. However, this year the fund decided to hold a separate session in Dubai to address the unique needs and requirements of the region's commodity sector.

"We're holding the 2008 meeting here in Dubai to elevate regional public attention to a number of important issues related to the ongoing food crisis and its impact on the Middle East," said Ali Mchumo, the organisation's managing director.

"We need to rethink and formulate innovative pathways for new policies to boost investments in regional and global agricultural productivity to meet the growing demand for food.

"Certainly this is one way to connect the importance of international action and co-operation on commodity development in producing countries, which form the majority of the fund's membership. The international community must address both the matter of the food crisis and security, as well as economic growth on the part of commodity producers, since their full participation in global trade is the only realistic solution for ending poverty and guaranteeing sustainable food production, supply and security."

The meeting, which has been organised with help from the UAE's Ministry of Environment and Water, will focus on the importance of commodity-related economic development in the Middle East and the Arab World.

Many of the challenges faced by the region are common in the world. But a combination of factors such as climate change, desertification and rising energy production and consumption costs means it is imperative that the Middle East increase its regional integration efforts, says the fund.

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Soaring fertiliser prices threaten world's poorest farmers

from the Guardian

A lot of the stories we share on here only touch on the fertilizer issue. This one gives more detail on how the higher costs of fertilizer is hurting food supply. - Kale

by John Vidal

A global fertiliser crisis caused by high oil prices and the US rush to biofuel crops is reducing the harvests of the world's poorest farmers and could lead to millions more people going hungry, according to the UN and global food analysts.

Optimism that soaring food commodity prices could lift millions of developing country farmers out of poverty and lead to more food being grown have been dashed, says the UN. This is because small farmers either consume their own crop or have no access to global markets to take advantage of the higher food prices.

There is little prospect of relief. A world fertiliser forecast report, due to be published by the UN this week but seen by the Guardian, states that prices will remain high for at least three years and possibly longer.

Fertiliser prices have mostly doubled and in some cases risen by 500% in 15 months as US farmers have rushed to plant more biofuel crops and countries such as India and China have bought fertiliser stocks in large quantities to guarantee their food stocks.

But while the unprecedented price explosion has barely affected large commercial farmers, it is leading directly to civil unrest among small farmers in developing countries. There have been fertiliser riots or demonstrations in Vietnam, India, Kenya, Nepal, Nigeria, Egypt, Pakistan and Taiwan in the last few months. Last week one man was killed in a stampede at a government handout of fertiliser in Hyderabad, India.

Senior UN Food and Agriculture organisation analyst Dr Jan Poulisse warned the poor were being hurt the most by the crisis. "High commodity prices allow commercial farmers in developed countries to cope with high fertiliser prices. But rising food prices hurt subsistence farmers, particularly in Africa," Poulisse told the Guardian. "People just cannot afford [fertiliser]. They were in dire straits before, but now the situation is worse."

Farmers in sub-Saharan Africa have been hardest hit because they have the least chance to benefit from soaring food prices on the world market, but desperately need fertilisers to replenish nutrient-depleted soils.

World fertiliser prices have risen more than oil or any other commodities in the last 18 months. Of the three main types, diammonium phosphate (Dap) sold for US $250 per tonne in January 2007 but has risen to $1,230 per tonne. Potash-based fertilisers have risen from $172 to over $500 a tonne, and nitrogen based fertilisers have risen from $277 to over $450 per tonne.

Much of the price rise is attributed to first world farmers who have applied high levels of fertilisers to maximise harvests of grain to take advantage of record grain prices, said Dr Balu Bumb, policy leader at the International centre for Soil Fertility and Agricultural Development (IFDC) in the US.

The UN fertiliser forecast blames capacity constraints for the price rises. "Strong global demand for fertilisers is stretching current production capacity to its technical limits. This situation will persist until new capacity comes on line", it states.

"It can take 5-7 years to open a phosphate mine, 10 years for a potash mine and three years for a major nitrogen plant", said Dr Poulisse, one of the report's authors. At least 50 new plants to make nitrogen fertiliser are believed to be under construction, and phosphorous and potassium mines are being expanded.

Fertiliser prices have in the past been largely controlled by governments because they are so politically sensitive. But keeping prices down in the current crisis is now impacting heavily on other areas, such as education and health.

India is expecting to have to spend $24bn supporting fertiliser prices this year compared to only $4bn three years ago and countries such as Malawi have had to borrow millions to introduce a fertiliser subsidy programme. However, the president of Malawi admitted last week that the subsidy programme was failing the poor. "Sadly, it is the rich who are benefiting a great deal. They are selling maize to the poor at exorbitant prices," he said.

Agriculture and development experts say the world has few alternatives to its growing dependence on fertiliser. As population increases and a rising global middle class demands more food, fertiliser has become the preferred route to higher yields.

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World Bank says biofuels major diver of food prices.

from Reuters

You don't say? :sarcasm: - Kale
By Lesley Wroughton

WASHINGTON - Large increases in biofuels production in the United States and Europe are the main reason behind the steep rise in global food prices, a top World Bank economist said in research published on Monday.

World Bank economist, Don Mitchell, concluded that biofuels and related low grain inventories, speculative activity, and food export bans pushed prices up by 70 percent to 75 percent.

The remaining 25 percent to 30 percent was due to a weaker U.S. dollar, higher energy costs and related rises in fertilizer and transport costs, he wrote.

An unfinished version of the research that surfaced in news stories sparked a heated debate earlier in July, with trade groups for the ethanol industry calling the 75 percent figure "a stretch" and others saying it confirmed the dangers of current biofuels policies.

The outcome of Mitchell's research is controversial because it goes beyond most other estimates for the impact of biofuels on rising food prices.

Still, its research corresponds somewhat with the International Monetary Fund, which estimated in May that biofuels accounted for 70 percent of the increase in maize prices and 40 percent in soybean prices.

Meanwhile, the Bush Administration has estimated that biofuel production pushed food prices higher by 2 to 3 percent. Hoping to wean the country off foreign oil, Washington has boosted incentives and mandates for alternative fuels made from food crop.

But Mitchell said without the increase in biofuels production, global wheat and maize stocks would not have declined, oilseed prices would not tripled and price increases due to other factors, such as drought, would have been more moderate.

Also, food export bans by countries trying to preserve food supplies and speculative activities would not have occurred because they were responding to rising prices.

"The large increases in biofuels production in the U.S. and EU were supported by subsidies, mandates, and tariffs on imports," Mitchell said in the research that looks at rapid rises in food prices since 2002. "Without these policies, biofuels production would have been lower and food commodity price increases would have been smaller," he added.

A widely respected agricultural economist, Mitchell said biofuels policies that encourage subsidized production need to be re-thought because they're hurting poor countries.

He said the increase in grain consumption in developing countries was moderate and did not lead to the large price increases.

Growth in global grain consumption, excluding biofuels, was only 1.7 percent a year from 2000 to 2007, while yields grew by 1.3 percent and area grew by 0.4 percent, which would have kept global demand and supply roughly in balance, he said.

The United States is the largest producer of ethanol from maize and is expected to use about 81 million tons for ethanol in the 2007/08 crop year. Meanwhile, Canada, China and the European Union used roughly 5 million tons of maize, which was about 11 percent of the global maize crop.

The use of maize for ethanol in the United States has global implications because the U.S. produces about one-third of the world's maize and two-thirds of global exports, and used 25 percent of its production for ethanol in 2007/08.

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Reducing taxes for food

from IRIN

This subject was debated during the food summit last month. Past calls to cut taxes for chartable food purchases has met a lot of resistance. - Kale

The World Food Programme (WFP) has welcomed a call by the World Bank for a UN resolution to scrap taxes and export controls on food aid purchases, but experts say there is little chance of such a resolution being effected.

Robert Zoellick, president of the World Bank Group, called on the UN General Assembly's 63rd session, coming up in September, to vote for a resolution to exempt humanitarian purchases from export restrictions and taxes.

A global food and fuel price crisis has not only pushed up the cost of food aid but made finding adequate quantities to purchase and transporting them even more problematic, as governments attempt to control food supplies to ensure that their people have enough to eat. Some have even imposed export bans or taxes.

Nicole Menage, WFP's head of Procurement, told IRIN that "the world is really riddled with export control measures now, which makes the already difficult task of buying food in the present highly volatile and thin markets even more of a challenge." WFP usually requires US$3 billion a year in voluntary contributions but needs $5 to $6 billion this year, and a similar sum next year.

More donors are giving cash instead of food. In an attempt to widen the sources of food supply, in 2007 WFP purchased in 82 countries, of which 69 were developing. The food aid agency's choice has become even "more restricted now" as a result of the export controls, "at a moment when, again, globally the availability of food is so much more limited," said Menage.

Besides the new export control measures, the cost and the process of getting export and import permits were also barriers to providing timely aid, said Richard Lee, WFP spokesman for Southern Africa.

But will it happen?

"The problem is that the UN General Assembly can pass a resolution to this effect, but it cannot enforce it if passed," said Christopher Barrett, who teaches development economics at Cornell University, New York, and is the co-author of the book, Food Aid After Fifty Years: Recasting Its Role.

"The sharp domestic political pressures that lead politicians to adopt such short-sighted and ultimately ineffective policies as export restrictions and export taxes will likely trump the gentle diplomatic pressure of UN member states," he commented.

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Famine in East Africa due to drought and food prices

from Red Dragon FM

The direct link below also has some video, that I couldn't embed here. Another report on how the rising food prices are hitting the poorest regions of the world. - Kale

Millions of East Africans are at risk of starvation due to rocketing food prices, Oxfam has warned.

Spiralling costs combined with successive droughts, violent conflict and endemic poverty have left up to 13 million in the region in urgent need of aid.

Oxfam has called for immediate action and increased donor support to avert the coming crisis, noting that a UN appeal for emergency assistance for Somalia has received only 37 per cent of funding needed.

Food costs have soared in recent months, with the cost of imported rice in Somalia rising by 350 per cent since the beginning of last year.

Areas of Ethiopia have seen the price of wheat more than double over a six-month period.

It is estimated that in those two east African nations alone there are an estimated 7.2 million people in need of emergency assistance.

In Turkana, northern Kenya, an Oxfam survey suggests that a quarter of children are suffering from acute malnutrition.

Oxfam's Rob McNeil, who has just returned from the region, said: "This is a catastrophe in the making. We have time to act before it becomes a reality.

"The cost of food has escalated by up to 500 per cent in some places, leaving people who have suffered drought after drought in utter destitution.

"Some of the roads we travelled on were littered with dead livestock.

"People are increasingly becoming desperate. I saw people in one village reduced to pounding the food pellets intended for their animals into porridge to feed their families."

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[comment] How to solve the growing global food crisis, in three steps

from the New York Daily News

Bono's guru finally weighs in on the global food crisis. - Kale

BY JEFFREY SACHS

The surge of world food prices this year came like a bolt out of the blue, but warning lights were in fact flashing. Imbalances of global food supply and demand had been building for years beneath the public view.

It's our job now to restore a balance of food supply and demand, and to defuse the long-term factors that can still come back to haunt us.

To date, American policy has been part of the problem, not the solution. In a mix of misguided energy policy and brazen special interest politics, the U.S. adopted a bio-fuel boondoggle. Taxpayers pay billions of dollars each year to subsidize large grain companies to covert corn to ethanol. Yet on balance, corn-based ethanol saves little if any oil and natural gas, since the production of corn and its conversion to bio-fuel uses enormous amounts of energy. Meanwhile, ethanol drives up world food prices, especially considering that as much as one-third of the total corn crop this year is destined for the gas tank.

To add insult to injury, for decades the U.S. and Europe lectured Africa, Haiti and other poor countries not to subsidize their own farmers - even for farmers so deep in poverty that they can't afford to buy the most basic inputs of fertilizer and high-yield seeds in order to get started as commercial farmers.

That bad advice is only now ending, but as a result of it, Africa's and Haiti's peasant farmers have remained stuck with the world's lowest grain yields, roughly one third or one fourth of what they'd get if they planted with fertilizer and improved seeds. Matters have gotten worse over time, as soils have been depleted of nutrients because of the failure to replenish the depleted tropical soils with a proper mix of chemical and organic fertilizers. In our misguided and lobby-driven politics, we wait for food disasters to strike, and then ship emergency food aid.

We have the opportunity to start fixing things, for our own good and the world's, if we do three things fast.

First, the U.S. and other rich countries should increase funding for the World Food Program so that it can cover the rising costs of its urgent programs to feed the world's hungriest and most vulnerable people. The WFP needs around $2 billion in the coming year, which comes to around $2 per each person in the U.S., Europe and Japan.

Second, we need to cut drastically the misguided U.S. bio-fuels program. This will save billions of taxpayer dollars, lower food prices and help to relieve the crisis hitting the poorest of the poor. We should focus instead on developing a second generation of bio-fuels using woodchips and other nonfood biomass rather than corn.

Third, let's truly help Africa, Haiti and other impoverished countries end the cycle of famine and emergency food aid, by helping the poorest farmers get started with fertilizer, improved seeds and small-scale irrigation equipment where applicable. Africa could double its food production within five years. There's already one success story: the southern African country of Malawi, which has roughly doubled its food production since 2005.

Doubling grain production in sub-Saharan Africa would mean roughly 100 million tons more of cereal grains, more than enough to replace its current imports of around 35 million tons. The cost to the rich countries would be around $10 per person per year, one of the great bargains on the planet. Food prices would ease worldwide.

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Experts ask Congress to boost antihunger funds

from Reuters

There are plans for another economic stimulus package in the US. So politicians are coming up with add ons to the package. Help for those with food stamps is another one. - Kale

WASHINGTON - With food-stamp enrollment at record levels, antihunger experts urged Congress on Wednesday to increase benefits, at least temporarily, in the largest U.S. program that helps poor people buy food.

Some 28 million Americans received food stamps at latest count, the highest total ever except the 29.8 million recipients in November 2005, when emergency aid was given to victims of hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma. Benefits average $1 per meal.

"We strongly support efforts to provide a temporary boost in basic food stamp benefit levels to help people afford a basic healthy diet," said George Manalo-LeClair of the California Food Policy Advocates.

Minneapolis physician Diana Cutts and the Food Research and Action Center also backed an increase in benefits as part of a new economic stimulus bill.

Rep. Joe Baca, the California Democrat who chairs the House Agriculture subcommittee that oversees public nutrition programs, said food stamps should be included in a stimulus bill.

"The problem we're going to have is the pay-go requirement," said Baca, referring to a rule requiring budget cuts to offset new spending.

"The United States is quite unique among industrial democracies because we let so many of our people go hungry and we seem to be doing precious little to close this gap," said Larry Brown, of the Harvard University School of Public Health.

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Doubling of grants to UN food aid agency urged

from the Financial Times

A report from an UK parliament committee asks for the doubling of aid to the UN's World Food Programme. - Kale
By Javier Blas in London

Donations to the United Nations' World Food Programme must double to secure aid for those pushed into poverty by rising food and fuel prices and to compensate for higher procurement costs, a report warned yesterday.

The UK parliament's International Development Committee said that significant increases to the WFP's budget would probably be needed in the short term and sustained over the years. "The usual annual total of $3bn [€1.9bn, £1.5bn] in voluntary contributions may need to double."

Last year, the WFP received donations of $2.7bn, up from $1.7bn in 1998. After mounting an appeal this year, the WFP received $2.6bn in the first six months of 2008 and is likely to need about $6bn.

The report is the first to look at the WFP's future financial needs. It suggests that the Rome-based agency must sustain over the medium term this year's emergency appeal for extra funds. Although the WFP is likely to raise enough money this year, it is unclear whether it could continue to do so in subsequent years.

Diplomats said that some of this year's large donations, including one of $500m from Saudi Arabia, looked more like one-off contributions than permanent commitments. John Powell, WFP deputy executive director, said: "They [donors] need to recognise that this is not a passing storm, but something that is going to stay with us."

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Famine looming for 14m in Africa

from the Financial Times

Warnings of another famine in Ethiopia, this time due to the food crisis. - Kale

By Barney Jopson in Khartoum and Murithi Mutiga and Javier Blas in London

Hunger on a massive scale is looming across the Horn of Africa as a combination of drought and high food prices has left more than 14m people in five countries in need of emergency food aid, according to the United Nations.

Ethiopia is the centre of the crisis, with 10.3m people, or 12 per cent of its population, in need of emergency aid in the next few months, the World Food Programme said. But the risk of starvation has spread in an arc that runs from Somalia and Djibouti through to Kenya and Uganda.

The primary cause of the crisis is a prolonged drought across large parts of the Horn which has been exacerbated by the soaring costs of food and fuel.

The impact is compounded because some countries, such as Ethiopia, have nearly exhausted their food reserves as rising prices forced the governments to subsidise food this year.

The strategy was to placate the urban poor and avoid food riots in the hope that global prices would fall soon enough to rebuild stocks with imports. But prices remain high and countries face poor crops without reserves.

“This is a regional crisis and the number of people affected is higher than during the 2006 regional drought when about 11m were at risk,” said Peter Smerdon, a WFP spokesman in Nairobi.

“Rising food prices mean there are more people who cannot afford food even if it is for sale in their area.”

In addition to those suffering in Ethiopia – where 5.7m people were already on food aid but needed more – there are 2.6m in need of assistance in Somalia, where drought has been compounded by conflict between the fragile government and its opponents, which is disrupting agriculture and trade.

In tiny Djibouti, 115,000 people need food aid as do 900,000 in the arid areas of northern Kenya and 707,000 in the Karamoja region of northern Uganda.

While launching an emergency appeal on Monday, Mohamed Diab, WFP country director in Ethiopia, said: “Millions of lives will be at risk if we can’t get food to them within the next two months.” The WFP estimates that it will need an additional $420m in order to meet food needs across the Horn for the rest of the year.

Grain in Ethiopia has become so scarce, the food agency said, that prices for most domestically produced cereals are now higher than for imported grains. Sonali Wickrema, WFP head of programmes in Addis Ababa, said: “This is a shock that we did not foresee.”

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Africa's Last and Least

from the Washington Post
In Burkina Faso, many women prepare the meals, but have the rest of their family eat, while they go without. A great story here on the global food crisis. - Kale

Cultural Expectations Ensure Women Are Hit Hardest by Burgeoning Food Crisis

By Kevin Sullivan

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso

After she woke in the dark to sweep city streets, after she walked an hour to buy less than $2 worth of food, after she cooked for two hours in the searing noon heat, Fanta Lingani served her family's only meal of the day.

First she set out a bowl of corn mush, seasoned with tree leaves, dried fish and wood ashes, for the 11 smallest children, who tore into it with bare hands.

Then she set out a bowl for her husband. Then two bowls for a dozen older children. Then finally, after everyone else had finished, a bowl for herself. She always eats last.

A year ago, before food prices nearly doubled, Lingani would have had three meals a day of meat, rice and vegetables. Now two mouthfuls of bland mush would have to do her until tomorrow.

Rubbing her red-rimmed eyes, chewing lightly on a twig she picked off the ground, Lingani gave the last of her food to the children.

"I'm not hungry," she said.

In poor nations, such as Burkina Faso in the heart of West Africa, mealtime conspires against women. They grow the food, fetch the water, shop at the market and cook the meals. But when it comes time to eat, men and children eat first, and women eat last and least.

Soaring prices for food and fuel have pushed more than 130 million poor people across vast swaths of Africa, Asia and Latin America deeper into poverty in the past year, according to the U.N. World Food Program (WFP). But while millions of men and children are also hungrier, women are often the hungriest and skinniest. Aid workers say malnutrition among women is emerging as a hidden consequence of the food crisis.

"It's a cultural thing," said Herve Kone, director of a group that promotes development, social justice and human rights in Burkina Faso. "When the kids are hungry, they go to their mother, not their father. And when there is less food, women are the first to eat less."

A recent study by the aid group Catholic Relief Services found that many people in Burkina Faso are now spending 75 percent or more of their income on food, leaving little for other basic needs such as medical care, school fees and clothes.

Pregnant women and young mothers are forgoing medical care. More women are turning to prostitution to pay for food. And more families are pulling children -- especially girls -- out of school.

The food crisis has not yet led to famine, and in places such as Burkina Faso, people generally appear relatively healthy. The WFP and other agencies have pumped in millions of dollars' worth of aid and food, and markets generally are well-stocked -- just prohibitively expensive. But for poor people, food is increasingly difficult to come by, and many families sometimes eat as little as one meal a day. Aid agencies worry about the long-term effects of dramatically reduced diets.

As the crisis continues to build around the world, perhaps its most pervasive effect is the ache in the stomachs of millions of poor women like Fanta Lingani.
Sweeping for Pennies

Lingani, who sleeps on a concrete floor, began one recent day at 4 a.m. and dressed quietly in the dark. All around her, children slept on the cracked floor under a tin roof, common conditions in a country that ranks 176th out of 177 on the U.N. Human Development Index.

A year ago, Lingani might have started a small fire to boil herself a cup of weak coffee. But even that is now too expensive.

Such sacrifices led to food riots in February in Ouagadougou, the capital, and towns across the country. Hundreds of people were arrested after they set fires and smashed government buildings to protest rising prices. But for Lingani, the struggle is quieter, and harder by the day, and it starts before the sun comes up.

Lingani, who said she is about 50, walked across the dirt courtyard past the two-room hut where her husband was sleeping in his own double bed, with a thick mattress. The dirt street outside was muddy and steamy from an overnight rain shower.

After a half-hour walk on the black-dark streets, she reported for work and pulled on the long green smock of the Green Brigade, a city program that pays poor women the equivalent of about $1.20 a day to sweep streets two mornings a week.

Lingani picked up a pair of small straw brooms and pushed a wheelbarrow onto a wide, deserted avenue. In the orange haze of streetlights, she bent over at the waist, so far that her bottom was higher than her head, and started pushing red dust into little piles.

The "shssssh shssssh" of her sweeping was the only sound, except for the crowing of a few roosters and occasional laughter from men at an all-night bar down the road.

She worked a section of road about 150 yards long, while a dozen others in the all-female brigade swept along. A tanker truck sped down the street, kicking up a cloud of dust into her face and blowing away her little piles. She coughed, pulled her pink head scarf across her face and swept the same dust all over again.

Lingani swept until the sun came up, pushing her piles onto a small metal dish, then dumping them into a wheelbarrow and finally into a pothole on an unpaved side street.

By 7 a.m., she'd finished her section. But she had to wait an hour for a male supervisor to show up and check her work. In two weeks, she would get her monthly pay of less than $10.
'The Job of Women'

Lingani walked a half hour back to her house, where her huge family was starting to stir. She took off her smock and picked up a green plastic basket about the size of a shoebox.

Market time. She and one of her two "co-wives," Asseta Zagre, do the shopping on alternate days. Their husband's other wife, the senior of the three, is nearly blind and can't do chores anymore.

Polygamy is common in much of Africa. In this household, the patriarch is Hamado Zorome, 68, a retired police officer whose pension is the family's main income -- but he doesn't tell his wives how much he gets.

The pension of a mid-level civil servant is probably modest in Burkina Faso, where the United Nations says nearly 72 percent of the country's 15 million people live on less than $2 a day.

Zorome also collects a "tip" of 60 cents from each of his two working wives when they get their monthly pay, which he uses to buy the kola nuts he likes to chew.

Lingani and Zagre, who also sweeps streets, said Zorome doles out small amounts of money for them to buy staples such as cornmeal. But the bulk of the family's meals are paid for out of the wives' sweeping wages.

Preparing to leave for the market, Lingani kept bending over and rubbing her ankles and feet. She said they hurt from sweeping for so long. She has never weighed herself, but she said she can feel a significant loss in her weight and strength in the past year.

Last month's sweeping money was already gone. So she went to her husband, who handed her about $2.50 for groceries. He told her to spend no more than about 75 cents and save the rest for another day. "Women are born with this job" of feeding the family, Lingani said, as she walked around puddles and past goats tied to trees. "The man has to have his share. And we have to make sure the kids have their share. So we eat less."

Lingani said none of the older boys in the family has a steady job, since work is hard to come by in this poor city, so the boys mostly spend their days doing odd jobs or playing soccer. What little money they earn they tend to spend on food and beer for themselves, she said.

"A man can never sit at home. They are always out somewhere," Lingani said. "They don't do anything. They don't help."

Lingani walked past stands where women were selling fruit or water, assisted by small girls. A few men sold bags or charcoal, but most were sitting in the shade and talking.

"Men and women should fight together for the children," Lingani said. "But if the men won't do that, the women have to fight alone."

Zorome, Lingani's husband, said that men don't help with shopping and cooking because "that is the job of women." Like many men interviewed here, he said African culture clearly defines roles for men, who work outside the house, and women, who manage children and meals.

He said that men are willing to work but that jobs are scarce. He would prefer it if his wives didn't have to sweep streets, but "life is much more expensive now."

"Last year, we could eat well, but now, forget it," he said. "My sons don't work, so it's up to me to feed 25 people. That's why the women sweep. We don't have anything, so they have to work. That's life."

On her way to the market, Lingani explained the ugly math: A year ago, she could feed her entire family a nutritious meal of meat and vegetables and peanut sauce for about 75 cents. But now the family gets much lower-quality food for twice the price.

She said the cost of six pounds of cornmeal has risen from 75 cents to $1.50. A kilogram -- 2.2 pounds -- of rice cost 60 cents last year and costs a little more than $1 now. Other basics such as salt and cooking oil have also doubled in price.

Fuel costs have more than doubled for trucks that haul food to landlocked Burkina Faso, helping keep food prices high.

Beef or goat meat is now so expensive -- about $1.20 for a tiny portion -- that the family has given up meat completely, eating cheap dried fish instead. Rather than seasoning their sauces with vegetables and peanuts, they now use the tough leaves of baobab trees, the gnarly giants that flourish here in the dry lands south of the Sahara.

To soften the leaves' sour taste, Lingani mixes in potash, a paste made by boiling down water strained through ashes.

"In the past, our money would last the whole month. We might even have some left over," Lingani said. "But now as soon as it arrives, we spend it."

Dinner happens only if there is a bit of food left over from lunch. Even then, she said, there is rarely enough left for women.

"When the children ask for food, we have to give it to them," she said. "We're mothers."
Never Enough

"Are you sure you don't want more?" the vegetable vendor asked Lingani. "Is that enough for your family?"

Lingani, standing in a crowded neighborhood market, had just asked the woman for 30 cents' worth of baobab leaves.

"No, it's fine," Lingani said, handing over a few coins.

The vendor shrugged and stashed the coins under a sack of tomatoes covered with a beard of small flies. She handed Lingani some change, which she counted carefully.

At the next stall, Lingani bought four small onions. As she turned to leave, the seller tossed in a fifth with an understanding smile. Lingani caught her eye and thanked her.

Moving through the churning mass of people, Lingani bought a bag of dried fish, a small plastic bag of salt, two small cubes of beef bouillon and a bag of potash, the paste made from ashes.

In 10 minutes, her shopping was done. She had spent double her budget of 75 cents.

After the half-hour walk home, with the temperature already above 90, Lingani and Zagre started plucking the baobab she bought at the market, saving the leaves and throwing away the thick stems.

For an hour, the two women methodically pounded the rough leaves in a wooden bowl, then dumped them into a pot boiling over a wood fire. Then Lingani added the dried fish and some of the ash flavoring.

"Of course we would prefer something else," she said. "But it's the cheapest thing we can buy, and we can afford enough to feed everybody."

Two hours after she started cooking, Lingani scooped out six bowls of flavorless food. The first was for Zorome, delivered to his hut. He ate it alone, then said he felt as though he needed a nap.

Others were set aside to be shared by the children.

The last bowl, slightly larger than Zorome's, was to be shared by 10 people: Lingani, Zagre and eight small grandchildren. Lingani took two bites before letting five hungry toddlers finish her food.

Near the front gate, half a dozen children sat in a circle. They had built a play fire out of pieces of bark. On top they had placed a plastic cup, overflowing with street garbage.

They were pretending to cook. "We're cooking rice with meat!" said a beaming Ousmane, 6, the head chef.

His father, Zorome, watched the game and laughed. He was asked if he would eat again today. Yes, he said, Lingani would make him a little rice or porridge for dinner that night.

Nearby, his daughters and granddaughters heard him and exploded. "What are you talking about?" they said. "Why are you saying that? We have no food."

Zorome smiled sadly and admitted his lie.

"When we have food one day, we have to tighten our belt the next," he said. "But it is very hard for a man to admit when things are not good."

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Food prices will continue to rise around the globe

from Politico

An examination on the political effects on soaring foord prices in the US. - Kale

By: Samuel Loewenberg

In 1928, Republicans famously promised “a chicken in every pot.” These days, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to promise even an apple for every schoolchild.

And the growing number of poor people around the world will just have to wait in line.

Soaring food prices will surely present unprecedented challenges to the new administration, Republican or Democratic. The impact of the price hikes, with commodities prices up at least 50 percent worldwide, are disproportionately hitting lower-income populations.

Domestically, that means big strains on food stamps and subsidized school lunch programs.

Internationally, an estimated 100 million people are being pushed deeper into poverty — which means hundreds of millions more dollars are needed for foreign aid. And the low value of the dollar exacerbates the situation, since that’s the currency in which most food commodities are traded.

“We are definitely talking about higher prices straining the system for a while,” said Kimberly Elliott, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development.

The soaring food costs are the result of mix of factors: high energy prices; increased demand from emerging economies such as China and India; the explosive growth in biofuels; and the droughts, desertification and floods that may be linked to climate change.

Food prices are expected to rise domestically by as much as 5.5 percent this year. That affects not only commodity grains but also poultry and dairy products, which will require more expensive feed. The relatively small effect on American food prices is due to the fact that most American food is heavily processed, and therefore commodity grains figure much less in the total price.

The World Bank has projected that the high prices will linger for at least the next two to three years. Corn and soybeans in particular are expected to remain expensive because of their use in biofuel production.

“It is hard to delink the food crisis from the energy crisis,” Elliott said.

At the center of the public policy debate is corn, which has nearly doubled in price over the past year.

Much of the increase is blamed on increased demand, as higher oil prices have led to a significant rise in the use of corn-based ethanol, which receives substantial government subsidies.

The task for the new administration, then, will be to get rid of or reduce the ethanol mandate and subsidies, as well as to allow cheap Brazilian ethanol into the country, suggested David Orden, a professor at Virginia Tech and senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute.

And that will put the new administration at odds with farm state members of Congress, who so far have proved to have an iron grip on government support of corn-based fuel.

“It could potentially pit an administration against farm state interests,” Orden said, adding that the fight could put particular pressure on Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, the presumed Democratic presidential candidate, who has been a strong ethanol supporter.

Ethanol has been a difficult issue for the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Arizona Sen. John McCain.

Before his latest run for the White House, McCain had been a vocal opponent of subsidies for the corn-based fuel, contending that it in fact raised gasoline prices. But by the time he was campaigning in Iowa this cycle, he was calling ethanol a “vital alternative energy source.”

Most recently, he joined 23 GOP senators in asking for a repeal of mandates on ethanol use, contending it contributed to the food crisis.

The food price spikes reverbrated on Capitol Hill last week, with officials in charge of school lunch programs saying they were having trouble providing healthy meals. Schools give subsidized meals to 31 million of the nation’s school children, for many of whom it’s a major source of nutrition. “We are struggling to make ends meet,” Katie Wilson, the president-elect of the School Nutrition Association, told the House Committee on Education and Labor. “We simply don’t have the funds to continue with this.”

Federal guidelines mandate that school lunches have large helpings of fruit, vegetables and whole grains. But these are exactly the food groups that have seen the sharpest price hikes.

Nearly three-fourths of Americans are concerned about rising grocery prices, and almost half say that the high food costs are making life difficult in their households, according to a USA Today/Gallup poll.

Domestically, the food crisis is likely to force more people to turn to government assistance in buying food. Those already on food stamps will need even more assistance, because their current food allowance won’t go as far, Orden said.

One important question is how long the crisis will last and whether the current high food prices signal a long-term shift or will ease off after a few years. “Whether it’s really a structural shift, we just don’t know,” Orden said.

What is clear is that the price spikes disproportionally affect the poor in developing countries. In the United States and other wealthy countries, people spend only about 10 percent of their budget on groceries. But in poor countries, people use between 60 percent and 80 percent of their incomes on food.

On July 8, President Bush and the other G8 leaders, meeting in Japan, issued a statement outlining their plan to deal with the crisis, including a commitment of $10 billion to support food aid and agricultural development. The statement also called for speeding up negotiations during the Doha round of the World Trade Organization to reduce trade barriers.

But globalization is not a panacea, and free trade isn’t enough, some critics say. “We should care about economic inequality even in a world where growth has brought unprecedented affluence. Inequality means that international markets provide fewer benefits to poor countries,” said John Echeverri-Gent, a professor at the University of Virginia who recently led a task force of the American Political Science Association on globalization and poverty. Its report found that persistent poverty limits “the number of people who can take advantage of the opportunities offered by economic development.”

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EU executive endorses farm aid plan for Africa

from Reuters

Here are some more details on the EU's newly proposed food fund. It is already being welcomed by NGO's that work in Africa. - Kale

By Jeremy Smith

BRUSSELS - The European Commission backed a plan on Friday to give 1 billion euros to farmers in Africa next year to help tackle high food prices and boost output, despite opposition by many EU states.

The EU cash, largely the result of underspending and leeway in the bloc's massive agriculture budget, comprises 750 million euros earmarked for 2008 and the remainder for 2009. This year's amount could be given retrospectively from mid-June.

At least eight EU member countries, including Britain, Sweden and the Netherlands, have questioned the legality of the scheme but have not challenged the merit of the idea.

EU ministers and the European Parliament, which has also voiced doubts about using unspent EU farm funds, will have to agree to the plan before it can enter into force. The Commission would like cash to start flowing in early January 2009.

"There's a fairly broad consensus on the need to act here, given the crisis which is taking place," Commission spokesman Johannes Laitenberger told a daily news briefing.

"In the Commission's opinion, this is the most efficient and most rapid instrument that could be used."

If approved, the money will be channelled to developing countries through international or regional organisations, such as the United Nations and World Food Programme.

Four areas of financial support are envisaged, the main two being to improve access to farming "inputs" like fertilisers and seeds and ways to improve agricultural capacity and production.

But the most difficult debate may come after the summer: how to set eligibility criteria for recipient countries and how much cash will be allocated by country. Those negotiations should be concluded by December, the Commission says.

Criteria are expected to include how much food a country produces to feed itself, its political stability and social vulnerability, its level of food price inflation and reliance on food imports -- including shipments of food aid.

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UN chief calls for sharp hike in world farm output

from the AFP via Google



A farmer collects melons from his field in Djilakh, Senegal

The UN chief speaks out on the Global food crisis, during debate at the UN General Assembly. - Kale

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) — UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Friday called for a sharp hike in world farm output, warning that high food and fuel prices threatened much of the progress made in reaching global poverty-reduction targets.

Addressing a day-long debate of the UN General Assembly on the global food and energy crisis, the secretary general warned: "the double jeopardy of high food and fuel prices threatens to undermine much of the progress made in achieving the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs)."

And he noted that the effects of climate change, including increased exposure to drought, rising temperatures, more erratic rainfall and extreme weather events, were threatening water and agricultural systems, potentially triggering malnutrition and water shortages for millions of people.

"To reach the MDG on reducing poverty and hunger (by 2015), we need a Global Partnership for Food. Governments must be at the center, but we all have to work together," Ban said.

"We must act immediately to boost agricultural production this year," he added.

"We do this by providing urgently needed seeds and fertilizers for the upcoming planting cycles," especially for the world's 450 million small-scale farmers."

Ban said UN agencies were already doing so, but added: "with so many millions of people threatened by this crisis, all of us, including member states, need to do much more -- immediately."

He hailed the European Commission's proposal Friday to set a special facility worth a total of 1.5 billion dollars for a rapid response to the food crisis.

The secretary also outlined a broad strategy that would scale up food aid and other nutrition interventions, hike predictable financial support for food aid, exempt purchases of humanitarian relief food from export restrictions and set up a global reserve system for humanitarian food.

He said it was also high time "to reverse the dramatic and deplorable downward trend in agriculture's share in official development assistance (ODA) by rich nations. ODA for farming has fallen from 18 percent 20 years ago to just around three percent today, he noted.

Ban also urged the eight leading industrialized countries to improve fair trade and the free flow of markets by cutting their farm subsidies.

He said investment in farming and rural development must be significantly boosted and global food commodity markets strengthened to meet the needs of all countries and people, particularly the poor.

Ban also addressed the need to reassess subsidies and tariff protection for biofuel production.

"It is true that biofuels will need to remain a part of the equation in our fight against climate change," he noted.

"But we also need to establish an international consensus and agreed policy guidelines on ways to balance the development of biofuels with food production priorities."

France's UN Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert, speaking on the behalf of the 27-member European Union, welcomed the UN chief's call for a Global Partnership for Food.

And he stressed the need to boost global food security through for greater coherence in trade, environmental, monetary, fiscal and legal policies.

Ripert said all stakeholders, international institutions, farm groups, enterprises, civil society, institutional investors and the banking sector, should be associated to this effort.

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EU proposes $1.6 B for food

from the Winnipeg Sun

The EU is making a move to help in the global food crisis. They have asked member nations to ratify this proposal by November. - Kale

BRUSSELS, Belgium — The European Union is proposing a $1.6-billion, two-year emergency fund to help poor countries cope with the global food crisis.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso says the fund will aim to help mostly African nations and stabilize supply markets.

The fund has been put together from cash that has gone unspent in this year’s EU farm budget.


The EU Commission will only give out cash to countries that are found to be the most reliant on food imports and have been hardest hit by food price inflation.

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WTO deal among keys for food security - UK government

from Reuters


Even prosperous countries are growing more food due to food secuirity concerns. As this Reuters article explains, the