A global opinion poll conducted by the independent research firm GlobeScan and released by Oxfam on June 14th found some disheartening results having to do with hunger and rising food prices. The survey, which was conducted in 17 countries and had 16,421 respondents, reported that 54% of people questioned globally answered that they were not eating the same food as they did two years prior. Of this 54%, 39% reported that their diet had changed because of the rising cost of food and 33% identified health reasons. In the U.S., 56% of those surveyed said that they were not eating the same food as two years ago, and 31% cited food prices while 49% cited health reasons. Furthermore, 8% of Americans surveyed answered that they sometimes, rarely, or never had enough food to eat on a daily basis (1).
While it is encouraging that a considerable number of people are changing their diet with health in mind, it is clear that rising food prices are seriously affecting people's access to food, both domestically and globally. This should not be shocking to anyone - rising food prices have been a significant issue recently. Remember the riots in Haiti in 2008, or, in current events, the so-called "Arab Spring"?
Increasing food costs are changing the world, and this will likely remain the case over the coming years. According to a joint report released by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, high global prices are expected to persist for at least the next decade (2). This report predicts that the real prices of cereal will be 20% higher, and the real prices of meat will be 30% higher in the coming decade than they were in the last.
Yesterday, the agricultural ministers of the G-20 met in Paris and reached an accord to combat these rising food prices. They agreed to create a transparent market for tracking global food supplies, establish emergency food reserves, further research new wheat strains, and create a rapid response system for dealing with drought in producer countries (3). This is an important agreement, especially because the new transparent market will hopefully prevent panic induced price spikes by providing better information on food supplies. Oxfam, however, has criticized the accord for being too minimal. As Jean-Cyril Dagorn of Oxfam said, "Fixing the global food system and ending the food price crisis requires major surgery, yet the G-20 produced little more than a sticking plaster" (4).
It is not clear specifically what Mr. Dagorn has in mind in the way of "major surgery," but it is clear that our global food system can only be fixed through a multifaceted approach. A number of factors are contributing to the rise in food prices, not the least of which are severe weather and the rising price of oil.
There are other less visible factors, however, that are not mentioned along with such hot-button issues. For example, as many residents of Memphis know first-hand, food is far more expensive in food deserts than in communities that have grocery stores. Without a grocery store nearby, residents of food deserts turn to corner stores, which are always more expensive.
Furthermore, we must consider that not only our problems, but also our solutions should be multi-faceted. For example, one way of alleviating the strain put on food prices by higher oil prices is, of course, to work to lower oil prices in the short term and develop alternate energy technologies in the long term.
Another solution, however, is to cease transporting our food over vast distances when it could be grown locally. Or, even more importantly, we can use less energy in our food system by avoiding processed foods. The large majority of energy costs in food production actually come from processing and packaging, not from transportation.
Increased supervision of our food system, no matter how "transparent," is not enough to remedy its most pressing problems. We need fundamental change.
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1) http://www.oxfamamerica.org/press/pressreleases/globescan-survey-rising-food-prices-are-changing-what-we-eat
2) http://ictsd.org/i/news/bridgesweekly/109150/
3) http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=137363032
4) Ibid.
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