* The Food 'Crisis'
by Mervyn Carter
August 2008
'Crisis - what crisis?'
That is the important question.
Do we mean the farmers whose crop yields are falling due to soil erosion and climate change, and who are complaining about the prices of fuel and oil-based fertilisers?
(Note: agricultural, low taxed, diesel fuel, widely used by farmers, is around 65p/litre.)
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/farmers-make-hay-
thanks-to-food-crisis-880 318.html
Do we mean the crisis of rising retail prices while farm incomes decline in spite of huge subsidies? But who's making the bucks and who's passing the buck?
http://www.corporatewatch.org/?lid=2629
Do we mean the crisis of the fishing industry, which demands higher subsidies and larger quotas as they fish the seas sterile for short-term profits?
http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/oceans/problems/overfishing-emptying-our-seas
Do we mean the supermarkets who are exploiting farmers, while raking in huge profits and justifying consumer price increases attributed to 'market pressures'?
[Corporate Watch on 'What's Wrong With Supermarkets' at http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/?lid=2596 ]
Do we mean the poorer households whose freely disposable income has been eroded by financial instability caused by greedy banks and commodity trader spivs? The instability in financial markets has made commodity trading look relatively safe and more profitable.
http://www.grain.org/articles/?id=39
Do we mean the political and economic structural crisis that lets the rich of the world waste food while the poor go hungry?
http://www.truthout.org/article/half-haitians-face-starvation
(Haiti's population of about 8 million people rear about 1,5 million cattle, 1,9 million goats, 1 million pigs, 153,000 sheep, 190,000 ducks and 5,5 million chickens ! [UN FAO figures]
What could they achieve if they didn't have to feed that lot? In reality, of course, they go hungry, not because there is not enough food, but because they are too poor to be able to afford it, and imported food, especially rice, is produced by subsidised USA farmers at below local production costs.)
[More 4 news video on effect of import subsidies on Haitian food crisis at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSWJmq4XC2s ]
Do we mean the effects of good food being diverted from the food markets to make biofuels to power gas-guzzling SUVs? (The idea is highly questionable and the trend is worrying, but the present proportion of world food crops used is modest. The price of rice has rocketed in the last year, but rice is not used to make biofuels.)
http://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/
Do we mean the crisis of health services pushed to breaking point by the consequences of poor diets and obesity linked to high intakes of animal-derived fats?
[House of Commons Select Committee on Health report (focusing mainly on obesity) at
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200304/cmselect/cmhealth/23/2304.htm ]
Do we mean the vast amounts of high-grade food products wasted on fattening the three livestock animals that we are feeding for every human on earth?
[UN report 'Livestock's Long Shadow' via
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=20772&Cr=global&Cr1=warming ]
['Eating meat starves other people' video at
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=m1Lf-GIo7fw ]
[Note: This video and others linked on the page, include distressing images of suffering]
Do we mean that we have failed to control our population on a finite planet so that we can live within the earth's sustainable limits?
http://www.optimumpopulation.org/
Consider signing their petition for UK population control at http://www.optimumpopulation.org/opt.petition.html
Argghhhhh ... It all looks so complex, so intractable.
But it's not really!
Short term:
We have enough food to feed everyone, but we live with an economic system geared to corporate profits, which means that the rich world has obesity and the poor world has starvation.
Some countries where food price hikes are hitting the poor are exporting food and animal feed crops. The UK imports vast amounts of soya from South America, much of which is used as livestock feed. Haiti exports fruit and cocoa. Many poor countries are pressured to import and export food under 'free trade' rules, usually to their long-term disadvantage.
Moreover, trade in food, like other commodities, is mediated through derivatives markets where traders in City offices bet fortunes on price movements with little interest in the real trade in produce. Limited stocks of food and fluctuating supply and demand make such speculation more profitable than actual trade. Prices fluctuate way beyond levels justified by the realities of supply and demand changes. Farmers' incomes are squeezed and retail prices rocket; between the two, the fat cat brokers and spivs take an ever-larger slice of the pie.
[War on Want on trade and the food crisis at
http://www.waronwant.org/Trade20and20the20Food20Crisis+16084.twl ]
And we're wasting food like there's no tomorrow.
And for many people around the world, there won't be a tomorrow.
In round figures, on average, one person starves to death every two seconds.
The media make a big noise about the one-third of the food we buy that goes in the waste bin, unopened. That's shocking and terrible - and must be addressed. But the media make less noise about the 70% of protein stock that is fed to livestock, to create meat that has a food value only a small fraction as great as the feed used. Little is said of the environmental costs of livestock either - around 18% of all greenhouse gases arise from livestock rearing.
Right now, the best thing we can do is to stop wasting food. And the fastest way people can stop the waste is to stop using animal-derived foods completely. No other measure would make such a difference to the balance of supply and demand and make more affordable food available to the world's poor. Shifting the balance of supply and reduced demand would push prices down. Ironically, a vegan diet would also make a huge difference to health in rich countries, reducing saturated fat intakes, balancing diets, eliminating many infectious diseases and reducing antibiotic resistance in microbes. It would also eliminate the subsidies paid to livestock farmers and the costs of dealing with diseases spread by exploitative livestock husbandry practices - watch out for the return of Blue Tongue disease next year...
Long term:
We really do have enough food to feed everyone at present - but for how much longer?
World population is still rising rapidly, heading from today's 6.7 billion people towards 10 billion. The planet can only support that many people due to the short-term availability of fossil fuels for ploughing, harvesting, artificial fertilisers, pesticides and transport, and the use of irrigation, sometimes from underground reserves of water that are also being rapidly exhausted.
[See Earth Policy Institute article on ground water depletion at http://www.earth-policy.org/Books/Seg/PB3ch04_ss2.htm ]
Once the temporary oil binge is over, we have to learn to live within the sustainable limits of the planet. Living entirely from sustainable resources, it is likely that the world can provide a reasonable standard of living and good nutrition for about 2 billion people - and that's on a vegan diet. If you want to include eating meat, you may need to halve that figure.
It's tough, but we either have to plan to reduce our numbers to bring our collective footprint within the planet's carrying capacity, or nature will do it for us. And nature's way of reducing a species' population is not an attractive option.
As oil becomes ever dearer, we need to reclaim the local economy and local sourcing of our food. Soaring costs of transport will add to the rising costs of production, so locally grown, vegan food will become more competitive and will eliminate much of the profit creamed off by intermediate traders. Be aware, too, that some UK-grown meat is reared on imported feedstocks: 'food miles' figures are not always as clear and simple as they may seem. In future, we will also make time to grow our own food and share surpluses around our kith and kin.
So what must you really do to make a difference right now?
* Check out the real 'food crisis' - the policy and trade crisis
* Understand the influence of livestock as a large part of the causes of waste and malnutrition - for the rich as well as the poor
* Move away from meat towards veganism - the sooner and further the better. There's plenty of help and advice around on nutrition and a planned vegan diet is healthy and appetising. So go for it!
* Challenge media coverage that simplifies the issues and omits the livestock connection as a major contributor to the 'crisis'. Keep 'phone numbers of media organisations close to hand, eg in your 'phone memory. Call them and keep up the pressure for the whole truth of the 'food crisis'
* Try to buy local, seasonal, vegan food from local businesses
* Spread the word to friends and family
* Mind the gap - the population gap. Use a [vegan] condom! (Most condoms are not vegan - they include milk derivatives.)
Helpful and interesting web resources:
UN FAO overview: http://www.fao.org/worldfoodsituation/en/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/world/2008/costoffood/default.stm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/interactive/2008/may/27/foodcrisis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007–2008_world_food_price_crisis
Advice on going vegan:
http://www.goveg.com/
PETA's 15+ reasons to be vegan:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=z2e-z8C6pZk&feature=related
[Note: this video, and others linked on the page, include distressing images of suffering]
August 2008
'Crisis - what crisis?'
That is the important question.
Do we mean the farmers whose crop yields are falling due to soil erosion and climate change, and who are complaining about the prices of fuel and oil-based fertilisers?
(Note: agricultural, low taxed, diesel fuel, widely used by farmers, is around 65p/litre.)
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/farmers-make-hay-
thanks-to-food-crisis-880 318.html
Do we mean the crisis of rising retail prices while farm incomes decline in spite of huge subsidies? But who's making the bucks and who's passing the buck?
http://www.corporatewatch.org/?lid=2629
Do we mean the crisis of the fishing industry, which demands higher subsidies and larger quotas as they fish the seas sterile for short-term profits?
http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/oceans/problems/overfishing-emptying-our-seas
Do we mean the supermarkets who are exploiting farmers, while raking in huge profits and justifying consumer price increases attributed to 'market pressures'?
[Corporate Watch on 'What's Wrong With Supermarkets' at http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/?lid=2596 ]
Do we mean the poorer households whose freely disposable income has been eroded by financial instability caused by greedy banks and commodity trader spivs? The instability in financial markets has made commodity trading look relatively safe and more profitable.
http://www.grain.org/articles/?id=39
Do we mean the political and economic structural crisis that lets the rich of the world waste food while the poor go hungry?
http://www.truthout.org/article/half-haitians-face-starvation
(Haiti's population of about 8 million people rear about 1,5 million cattle, 1,9 million goats, 1 million pigs, 153,000 sheep, 190,000 ducks and 5,5 million chickens ! [UN FAO figures]
What could they achieve if they didn't have to feed that lot? In reality, of course, they go hungry, not because there is not enough food, but because they are too poor to be able to afford it, and imported food, especially rice, is produced by subsidised USA farmers at below local production costs.)
[More 4 news video on effect of import subsidies on Haitian food crisis at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSWJmq4XC2s ]
Do we mean the effects of good food being diverted from the food markets to make biofuels to power gas-guzzling SUVs? (The idea is highly questionable and the trend is worrying, but the present proportion of world food crops used is modest. The price of rice has rocketed in the last year, but rice is not used to make biofuels.)
http://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/
Do we mean the crisis of health services pushed to breaking point by the consequences of poor diets and obesity linked to high intakes of animal-derived fats?
[House of Commons Select Committee on Health report (focusing mainly on obesity) at
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200304/cmselect/cmhealth/23/2304.htm ]
Do we mean the vast amounts of high-grade food products wasted on fattening the three livestock animals that we are feeding for every human on earth?
[UN report 'Livestock's Long Shadow' via
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=20772&Cr=global&Cr1=warming ]
['Eating meat starves other people' video at
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=m1Lf-GIo7fw ]
[Note: This video and others linked on the page, include distressing images of suffering]
Do we mean that we have failed to control our population on a finite planet so that we can live within the earth's sustainable limits?
http://www.optimumpopulation.org/
Consider signing their petition for UK population control at http://www.optimumpopulation.org/opt.petition.html
Argghhhhh ... It all looks so complex, so intractable.
But it's not really!
Short term:
We have enough food to feed everyone, but we live with an economic system geared to corporate profits, which means that the rich world has obesity and the poor world has starvation.
Some countries where food price hikes are hitting the poor are exporting food and animal feed crops. The UK imports vast amounts of soya from South America, much of which is used as livestock feed. Haiti exports fruit and cocoa. Many poor countries are pressured to import and export food under 'free trade' rules, usually to their long-term disadvantage.
Moreover, trade in food, like other commodities, is mediated through derivatives markets where traders in City offices bet fortunes on price movements with little interest in the real trade in produce. Limited stocks of food and fluctuating supply and demand make such speculation more profitable than actual trade. Prices fluctuate way beyond levels justified by the realities of supply and demand changes. Farmers' incomes are squeezed and retail prices rocket; between the two, the fat cat brokers and spivs take an ever-larger slice of the pie.
[War on Want on trade and the food crisis at
http://www.waronwant.org/Trade20and20the20Food20Crisis+16084.twl ]
And we're wasting food like there's no tomorrow.
And for many people around the world, there won't be a tomorrow.
In round figures, on average, one person starves to death every two seconds.
The media make a big noise about the one-third of the food we buy that goes in the waste bin, unopened. That's shocking and terrible - and must be addressed. But the media make less noise about the 70% of protein stock that is fed to livestock, to create meat that has a food value only a small fraction as great as the feed used. Little is said of the environmental costs of livestock either - around 18% of all greenhouse gases arise from livestock rearing.
Right now, the best thing we can do is to stop wasting food. And the fastest way people can stop the waste is to stop using animal-derived foods completely. No other measure would make such a difference to the balance of supply and demand and make more affordable food available to the world's poor. Shifting the balance of supply and reduced demand would push prices down. Ironically, a vegan diet would also make a huge difference to health in rich countries, reducing saturated fat intakes, balancing diets, eliminating many infectious diseases and reducing antibiotic resistance in microbes. It would also eliminate the subsidies paid to livestock farmers and the costs of dealing with diseases spread by exploitative livestock husbandry practices - watch out for the return of Blue Tongue disease next year...
Long term:
We really do have enough food to feed everyone at present - but for how much longer?
World population is still rising rapidly, heading from today's 6.7 billion people towards 10 billion. The planet can only support that many people due to the short-term availability of fossil fuels for ploughing, harvesting, artificial fertilisers, pesticides and transport, and the use of irrigation, sometimes from underground reserves of water that are also being rapidly exhausted.
[See Earth Policy Institute article on ground water depletion at http://www.earth-policy.org/Books/Seg/PB3ch04_ss2.htm ]
Once the temporary oil binge is over, we have to learn to live within the sustainable limits of the planet. Living entirely from sustainable resources, it is likely that the world can provide a reasonable standard of living and good nutrition for about 2 billion people - and that's on a vegan diet. If you want to include eating meat, you may need to halve that figure.
It's tough, but we either have to plan to reduce our numbers to bring our collective footprint within the planet's carrying capacity, or nature will do it for us. And nature's way of reducing a species' population is not an attractive option.
As oil becomes ever dearer, we need to reclaim the local economy and local sourcing of our food. Soaring costs of transport will add to the rising costs of production, so locally grown, vegan food will become more competitive and will eliminate much of the profit creamed off by intermediate traders. Be aware, too, that some UK-grown meat is reared on imported feedstocks: 'food miles' figures are not always as clear and simple as they may seem. In future, we will also make time to grow our own food and share surpluses around our kith and kin.
So what must you really do to make a difference right now?
* Check out the real 'food crisis' - the policy and trade crisis
* Understand the influence of livestock as a large part of the causes of waste and malnutrition - for the rich as well as the poor
* Move away from meat towards veganism - the sooner and further the better. There's plenty of help and advice around on nutrition and a planned vegan diet is healthy and appetising. So go for it!
* Challenge media coverage that simplifies the issues and omits the livestock connection as a major contributor to the 'crisis'. Keep 'phone numbers of media organisations close to hand, eg in your 'phone memory. Call them and keep up the pressure for the whole truth of the 'food crisis'
* Try to buy local, seasonal, vegan food from local businesses
* Spread the word to friends and family
* Mind the gap - the population gap. Use a [vegan] condom! (Most condoms are not vegan - they include milk derivatives.)
Helpful and interesting web resources:
UN FAO overview: http://www.fao.org/worldfoodsituation/en/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/world/2008/costoffood/default.stm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/interactive/2008/may/27/foodcrisis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007–2008_world_food_price_crisis
Advice on going vegan:
http://www.goveg.com/
PETA's 15+ reasons to be vegan:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=z2e-z8C6pZk&feature=related
[Note: this video, and others linked on the page, include distressing images of suffering]