The Global Food Crisis

Vuyo Mkize
Intern at UNIC Pretoria, South Africa


Food shortages and the escalating prices of food have become the overwhelming result of the current global economic recession as well as of climate change. Droughts and floods have become the most common causes of food shortage around the world. Farmers exhaust all their resources in order to make up for low crop produce or livestock losses. In large parts of the developing world this crisis is further compounded by civil and international strife. The food crisis has led to human conflict; as in war-times, food sometimes becomes used as a weapon. What can eventually ensue is what is known as a ‘hunger trap’ which perpetuates the cycle of poverty. Poverty breeds hunger and hunger can spawn unrest and political instability. Poverty has become a global pandemic, with the majority of the developing world living below the poverty line.

According to a recent report by the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), the total number of undernourished people in the world reached 963 million in 2008, nearly 15 percent of the world’s total population. This most certainly calls for a global solution. Organisations such as FAO and the European Union remain at the helm of procuring effective solutions to combat the global food crisis. At the beginning of 2009 the Director-General of the FAO, Mr Jacques Diouf, called for a World Summit on the food crisis, prompted by the organization’s reports on the issue. Mr Diouf said that, “the summit should lead to greater coherence in the global governance of world food security. It will define how we can improve policies and the structural aspects of the international agricultural system by putting forward lasting political, financial and technical solutions to the problem of food insecurity in the world”.

Climate change is playing more of a defining role than anticipated. Droughts, floods and various other natural disasters have caused concern over decreasing food production. In areas such as southern Sudan there have been constant disruptions caused by conflicts, dry spells and flooding since 2008. In the Far East, it has been a matter of trying to manage the severe winter drought in the major wheat producing areas of China, but due to government support, irrigation supplies have been increased, thus improving the situation caused by the drought.

The Gaza strip is one of the places that is severely affected by the food situation. The area is struggling with conflict conditions and is currently being assisted by FAO and the World Food Programme (WFP). An emergency operation was jointly approved by both organizations in January 2009 to provide food assistance to 365 000 people who are strongly affected by the situation. Those included are social hardship cases, vulnerable groups, internally-displaced people and farmers affected over a period of 12 months. Recent reports by the FAO media centre state that the organization has started a major operation in support of small scale farmers in Zimbabwe as part of its joint efforts with the EU to fight hunger this year.

The EU food facility has committed 1 billion Euros over three years to respond rapidly and on a large scale to rising hunger around the world. FAO has received a total of around 200 million Euros for work in 25 countries; these funds are channelled through United Nations agencies and humanitarian organisations. The aim is to bridge the gap between emergency aid and medium to long-term development aid.

It is important, now more than ever, that the developed nations unite with organisations that seek not only to provide food aid to these poor countries but also to implement sustainable development. To eradicate poverty, poverty of the mind should first be abolished. This can be achieved not only by providing seeds to farmers to plant, but also through the seeds of knowledge on how to sustain their crops in the face of climate change as well as the global recession.

I would like to speak of my personal experience, growing up in a rural community in South Africa called the Eastern Cape. This province is riddled with poverty and lack of proper assistance for farmers. Communities such as these receive minimal mention and attention from the broader world community and that is where the first problem lies: no exposure. It is a province of immense wealth in terms of its natural resources; commercially untapped beaches, beautiful landscapes as well a rich cultural inheritance. Developed nations should not overlook the potential of eradicating poverty in communities such as these, since they have great potential to become economically successful.■