Can CEE traditions help to correct the world's gross food imbalances?
By Nathan Johnson
The political and economic changes taking place in Central and Eastern Europe since the collapse of the Soviet Union have touched practically every walk of life for people living in the region, and one of the most radical changes involves how food is grown, procured, distributed and sold. Despite the fact that the Western 'supermarket model' has spread quickly throughout CEE, intensifying global food shortages and recently leaked concerns that biofuels production is to blame for sharply escalating food prices should be clear signals that existing models related to food production, distribution and consumption are seriously, even fatally, flawed.
Photo: Flickr
Something to chew on
A World Bank study leaked to the media in early July revealed that biofuel production is to blame for pushing up global food prices by roughly 75 percent, far higher than earlier estimates. Reacting to recent surges in agricultural commodities, the World Food Program's Josette Sheeran has already warned of an impending "tsunami of hunger," while European MPs quickly agreed in July to slash bloc-wide biofuel targets from 10 percent of transport fuels by 2020 to just 4 percent by 2015.
The reduced target levels and Sheeran's stark metaphor are just two hints at the magnitude of the global food crisis. With more than 6 billion people on the planet, the United Nations estimates that nearly 1 billion suffer from chronic hunger. But even this number "leaves out those suffering from vitamin and nutrient deficiencies and other forms of malnutrition," claims Fred Magdoff, professor of plant and soil sciences at the University of Vermont in Burlington. "The total number of food insecure people who are malnourished or lacking critical nutrients is probably closer to 3 billion — about half of humanity."
Magdoff, in a recently published article in the Monthly Review titled The World Food Crisis: Sources and Solutions, outlines some of the principle reasons behind today's soaring food prices. The first is "related directly or indirectly to the increase in petroleum prices." Developed ostensibly to lessen the dependence on petroleum products, the use of food crops such as corn (for ethanol), soybeans and palm oil (for diesel fuel) clearly means that less food is produced and distributed for human consumption. Bloomberg, for example, estimates that roughly one-third of the US corn crop will be used to produce ethanol over the next decade.
According to the New York Times, a second reason is increased demand for meat in Latin America and Asia — China especially — driving upward the prices of corn, soybeans and soy cooking oil, demand for which has risen sharply to feed cattle, pigs and poultry. In fact, global per capita meat consumption has more than doubled since 1961.
Magdoff highlights a third important reason: Key countries that were formerly self-sufficient in terms of food are now importing food in large quantities, namely, China and India. Part of the net food loss in these countries is that farmland (primarily used to grow rice) is being given over to development projects.
