As we enter a season of “culinary extravagance” we should perhaps think about the food crisis that is impacting people throughout the world. In 2021 acute food security affected 193 million people globally, and in North Africa, almost half – a million people are facing starvation and death.
The U.S. provides $2 billion annually or half of the world’s food aid. But our generosity is undermined by the fact that food aid must be purchased in the U.S. and transported on U.S.-flagged ships. While 25,000 people are now dying daily of hunger, the U.S. throws away 96 billion pounds of food each year – or 320 pounds per person.
There are several factors that overlap. Global food prices rose to new heights in 2021, due to COVID-19 and supply chain disruptions. Around 21 million refugees face “conflict food insecurity,” from North Africa to Yemen, and most recently in Ukraine.
The temperate lands of the Global North have control over many primary commodities, crops, and minerals grown in the Global South, through the control of seeds, fertilizer, and distribution. Russia and Ukraine together account for 33% of the world’s exports of wheat, and Russia is the leading exporter of nitrogen fertilizers globally.
And then there is climate change, from devastating floods in Pakistan and typhoons in the Philippines to hurricanes in Central America. China has seen both drought and flooding, leaving parts of the Yangtze unnavigable. Drought in North Africa and Yemen in the Middle East acerbates “conflict food insecurity.”
What are the solutions? Certainly, ending the war in Ukraine and shipments resuming from both there and Russia is a near-term option. Many others see a future in genetically modified plants; Bill Gates calls them “magic seeds.” Some believe that supporting and underwriting conventional breeding to improve crop yields, is the future. With this process, there has been a 50% increase in crop yields from 1981 to 2000 and it continues today. Finally, many would say that we need another breakthrough like the one that produced the “Green Revolution,” but those crops are dependent upon expensive fertilizers. At the present, people are dying of starvation.
Please join us for what will be a very lively discussion about a subject critical to our future as a people and even a planet.
For more details contact:
Ellen Murry: ellen@wacaustin.org
Polina Anastassieva: polina@wacaustin.org
