PES Manifesto

Corinne Bord: The food crisis - the urgent need to understand, the urgent need to act

Published Tuesday, May 13, 2008 at 14:35
by corinnebord (1648 views and 3 comments)

Every five seconds, a child under 10 years old dies of hunger or of its consequences. Who would have thought we were to undergo such an acute food crisis? The increase in prices is worrying but the decrease of the world's food stocks is all too often ignored. The stocks of basic foodstuffs (like wheat, corn or rice) have never been so low for the last 20 years. In 2007, food production decreased in real terms while consumption increased by and large, among others because of a higher industrial demand. At the heart of the debate is the ever increasing use of cereals for biofuel production. This means  in practice that farmlands are increasingly used not for food-producing crops but for the much more profitable production of biofuels.

Rather than questioning our patterns of oil dependency and overconsumption, the Western World has thrown itself into exploiting technological progress without much caring for its human consequences. The bet was clearly profitable but what is the human and environmental price of such a policy? Within a year, the price of wheat has gone up by 130%, rice by 74%, soy beans by 87%, and corn by 53%. It is therefore necessary and urgent to recall that the eradication of hunger is the first of the Millenium Development Goals. Only Socialists in Europe can tackle this issue from the right angle: on the basis of the North-South solidarity, putting the human being at the heart of the economy, in the respect of the environment. Socialists are the only ones who can talk about progress under a social perspective and not just a technical viewpoint. A true reform of the common agricultural policy is fundamental, as are a strong will and means to question our consumption patterns and not leave it up to the market to regulate environmental matters. European socialists should be ambitious and Europe must set the example in its policies, its objectives and its financing programmes.

Tags: biofuels, blogger of the week, food crisis