Find a solution to increasing food prices
There are few topics as emotional as food, or to be more exact, the price of food. Any cursory look at the headlines over the past three months shows that the price of what we eat has been a major news story.
"This has been partly due to the rising cost of fuel, partly due to the credit crunch and also partly due to greater demand from more nations becoming more cash-rich. But lack of planning has also been a factor", opined Gulf News in its editorial today.
Dubai-based English Language local daily added that nothing, obviously, is more urgent to people than what they will eat; all else is of secondary importance. And it may well be that as some time the international community, probably under the United Nations, will step in and demand that enough affordable food is grown and distributed to feed the planet's population.
It noted that "this will not happen tomorrow or next week but if food prices continue to soar it is quite feasible that the source of food and its quality and quantity will be at the very top of the global political agenda".
The paper added that asking companies to put a price cap on the food they sell is a short-term measure to ease the burden on people's pockets but offers within itself no long term solution. This can only be done by increasing the supply of food and possibly temporarily banning some types of food, such as marine life that are over-fished, to ensure their survival.
It reiterated that none of the options that are being considered are necessarily pleasant, but they are a lot better than the alternative.
The paper underscored that if the price the world pays to stave off hunger is the management of food to ensure that we are free from rampant starvation, then it is a price worth paying. There is enough food to feed the planet's population, but are there enough people in the world who will ensure food is available.
/WAM/
"This has been partly due to the rising cost of fuel, partly due to the credit crunch and also partly due to greater demand from more nations becoming more cash-rich. But lack of planning has also been a factor", opined Gulf News in its editorial today.
Dubai-based English Language local daily added that nothing, obviously, is more urgent to people than what they will eat; all else is of secondary importance. And it may well be that as some time the international community, probably under the United Nations, will step in and demand that enough affordable food is grown and distributed to feed the planet's population.
It noted that "this will not happen tomorrow or next week but if food prices continue to soar it is quite feasible that the source of food and its quality and quantity will be at the very top of the global political agenda".
The paper added that asking companies to put a price cap on the food they sell is a short-term measure to ease the burden on people's pockets but offers within itself no long term solution. This can only be done by increasing the supply of food and possibly temporarily banning some types of food, such as marine life that are over-fished, to ensure their survival.
It reiterated that none of the options that are being considered are necessarily pleasant, but they are a lot better than the alternative.
The paper underscored that if the price the world pays to stave off hunger is the management of food to ensure that we are free from rampant starvation, then it is a price worth paying. There is enough food to feed the planet's population, but are there enough people in the world who will ensure food is available.
/WAM/
1 comment:
The reason why food producers cannot make food available on international markets
is that on these markets,
food is being exchanged for a worthless piece of green paper,
also known as the US dollar.
There’s no need for the management of food.
There’s need for a new currency in which international trade can be denominated
so that food can be exchanged against something valuable.
... to be discussed at the GCC Currency Forum 2008, to be held on June 15 at the Monarch Hotel in Dubai.
04 May, 2008
Experts to bring the Euro perspective to the Gulf
http://www.dubaichronicle.com/2008/05/
experts-to-bring-euro-perspective
-to.html
To paraphrase my comments under that article:
It is to be hoped that the GCC Currency Forum 08 will argue for an end to this confusion
by condemning [management of food]
so that {food] can be priced [on international markets] in euro now.
ivocerckel AT siquijor DOT ws
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