In 2008, after years of good crop yields, massive food surpluses and world economic growth, we have entered into the first global food crisis of the 21st Century. Years of agricultural prosperity dating back to the sixties and seventies have resulted in many countries around the world to neglect agricultural growth for the more sexy and prestigious, industrial, technological and services economic growth.
The major factors cited in various media as to what have caused this crisis are as follows:
1. The rapid rise of oil and energy prices which has more or less screwed up the logistics of commercial agricultural production, since agricultural machines cost more to buy, run and repair, food more costly to transport and oil based fertilizers and pesticides cost more to buy.
2. Increased demand for food from India and China as they grow ever more wealthy these days due to their rapid economic growth. Also, with rising economic growth, comes a change in their diet to include more meat, which means that even more food will be diverted from humans to feed livestock.
3. Bad harvest due to weather related events such as the droughts in Australia, a major global food supplier, recently.
4. The shift from growing food crops to biofuel crops, which divert more food away from humans and encourage more wild speculation on the world's commodities market.
5. Reduced investment over the years in agriculture worldwide, causing less supply to be available.
The Economist (April 19th-25th 2008 Edition) has a good cover story about this food crisis and the BBC has compiled some interesting facts and figures in colourful diagrams and graphs here.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Good points right there.
It is rather scary to note that in the 21st century, of all things, the problems we have are about food.
Post a Comment