The Food Crisis of 2008 - Essay Example

?Running Head: Food Crisis Food Crisis [Institute’s Food Crisis During the last few decades, the world has undergone substantial development and advancement in the domain of science and technology, but this growth have moreover experienced by the populace of developed nations. The major catastrophe that the globe experienced during the twenty first century was the food crises that took place in 2008, which has left no economies untouched with its drastic effect. Industrialized and third world nations both felt drastic effects of inflation in food prices, thus, begetting the conditions of economic and political instability and volatility (Shiva & Sagbo, pp. 5-19, 2008). This crisis was one of the threatening incidents that not only affected a big faction of the human race who died of hunger and malnourishment but also grabbed the attention of the developed nations to the fact that with their increase in wealth, they are not performing adequately to surmount the world’s dilemmas and concerns. It has been an observation that the prosperous, successful, and developed countries have the least priority to nourish the starving population, though they have sufficient amount of food that they can provide to the entire inhabitants of the globe. One cannot ignore the reality that governments and United Nations need to put a lot of endeavor in such crises to embark on the problem of hunger. As there is a connection between different problems, resolving of one will lead to solve others as well. The food crises resulted in the sky-high prices of food. As an outcome of it, the fuel prices augmented due to the growing demand from the emergent nations. With the increase in cost of commodities like food, fuel etc, and the unchanging income pattern of the individuals, it became difficult for them to pay for the basic and fundamental needs like food. The people that fall in the category of most effected sufferers are the poor natives like farmers and laborers and other low-income people (Shiva & Sagbo, pp. 5-19, 2008). It is a foremost right of all the natives of a country that government provides them with food security. This phenomenon refers to a condition where sufficient food is available for all the citizens, whether they are poor or rich. According to the research, it came under indication that due to the financial crisis and change in climate/weather the world has experienced, the supply of food to the natives has seen a drastic turn down subjecting food security to jeopardy. The result of the crisis may have a grave effect on the political steadiness and may result in wars to obtain food for one self. According to the reports of United Nations World Food Program, "For the world's most vulnerable, the perfect storm [caused by climate, poverty, environmental degradation and political instability] is hitting with a vengeance” (Cribb, pp.1-14, 2010). This statement reflects the idea about the crisis that the world is undergoing unprecedented food shortage leaving an indelible imprint on the lives of many. Due to its effects, nobody is in a condition to provide an aid to each other. The short-term factors that caused the food crises in the years 2008 and 2011 were innumerable. However, only few came under investigations, which are as follows: some countries, known for only wheat agriculture, which is one of the staple foods for the majority of the population, observed famine in past years resulting in disappearance of wheat crops (Karrer, pp. 45-69, 2008). Another reason for the crisis was the increase in the consumption of meat in developing countries resulting in shortage of meat products. Furthermore, according to studies, the fact has revealed that the proportion of the population who are obese is increasing resulting in over consumption of food worldwide. Due to the increase in oil prices, the transportation cost for carrying foods from farm to market has also risen, adding to the food prices (Karrer, pp. 45-69, 2008). Where global recession has terribly crushed the powerful economies, people who were already poor are further pushed-back beyond the poverty line. They are unable to afford the basic needs such as food, which lead to the hunger and starvation. Where the universe is enjoying the technological boom, there is also a gloomy side to it. People are becoming unemployed because the work that multitudes performed traditionally, are now come under performance by a single machine. Those who are losing their jobs for this reason, mostly belong to the labor class, whose spending behaviors of necessities were hand to mouth. As a result, these jobless labors are unable to acquire even daily meals (Sasson, pp. 132-173, 2009). Those farmers and herders, who are facing a flash of food crisis, are unable to feed their families and animals, due to rise in the cost of cereal crops, this leads to ruining of their farms as well. Moreover, weather, unfavorable climatic change and out breaking of natural disasters such as floods can devastatingly ruin the fields of the farmers, which will lead to dearth of food and drought. In addition, pests and pathogens cause immense and deadly effects on the cultivation that leads to the failures of the crop fields in many Asian and African regions of the world (Sasson, pp. 132-173, 2009). Another gargantuan reason for the hunger is the factor of inequity, biasness, and discrimination that comes under observation socially, politically and economically worldwide. Affluent countries always have an upper hand on the third world nations, as they are even involved in designing food security policies and they overlook the foremost and social rights of the denizens of the third world nations. Therefore, the poor countries get an unfair treatment when talking about food distribution and their governments become helpless in taking any action (Karrer, pp. 45-69, 2008). One of the dominant causes that led to the food crises universally is growing crops for bio-fuels. Since the world population is topping over 8 billion until today, and is under expectation to increase at a rapid pace, the demand for producing more food is increasing on daily basis. The world is facing another deteriorating phenomenon – global warming. The chronic effects of global warming have developed a fear amongst the people as they have realized that the world is standing at the verge of extinction. To combat the effects of global warming, industrialized nations like US, UK, and other European countries have realized that the finest alternative of petrol (hydrocarbons) is bio-fuels, which will abate the pollution by historic proportions. For the production of bio-fuels, large areas of land are cultivated to grow cereal crops begetting lower food production. Fueling vehicles, such as cars, lorries, planes etc results in aggravation of existing food crises and is imposing a fear of starvation on a large scale. United States of America, which contributes more than 50% in the total exports of maize, has experienced that a quarter of its production came under usage to make bio-fuels for vehicles in the past one to two years. Bio-fuels are controversial as they are not completely environment friendly and pollution free. The demand of both food and bio-fuels are increasing, resulting in rise in the prices that are already high, thus, worsening the food crisis, as the production is not sufficient that can satisfy the needs of both, bio-fuels and food (House of Commons, pp. 24-27, 2008). The importance of famine comes under ignorance, rather the importance of the production of bio-fuels is coming under focus, and this has come under verification through research studies. An individual can consume the food for the whole year with the same amount of cereal crops as compared to the production that gives just one tank of bio-fuel, used for a sports vehicle. Therefore, it is not wise action to use cereal crops in the production of bio-fuels as it is not ever lasting, in place of it, it should come under consideration for the consumption as food. If the practice of overshadowing the importance of consuming cereal crops as food by the importance of producing bio-fuel, the survival of the world and its inhabitants will be in danger (House of Commons, pp. 24-27, 2008). With the world population, increasing at an alarming rate, it brings a major challenge of ensuring adequate food supplies to all the people across the globe. With the growing demand of agricultural commodities/food and unmatchable supply, the promising solution that can come into practice is making use of modern technology of genetic engineering. Through this molecular biological technology, genes can undergo manipulation to develop the desirable traits in the specific crops that are in high demand. This requires less input and increases the crop yield to satisfy the ever-growing demands to feed the global residents (Karapinar & Haberli, pp. 242-272, 2010). Regulation of food prices sold in the market by food inspectors is essential due to the reason that merchandisers or sellers stock a certain amount of food creating a false image of shortage in the market in order to sky-rocket the prices, this would eventually result in crisis of food. If the prices tend to remain reasonable, then the entire population would be able to afford purchasing and consuming it (Karapinar & Haberli, pp. 242-272, 2010). Both large-scale and small-scale farmers should get quality assistance from the governments to take measures to protect the crops from the destruction of harsh climate such as heavy rainfall, which ruins the crops before harvest, which might be conducive to famine. In addition, government should encourage farmers to use green technology to grow and increase the yield of crops, which would minimize the high dependency on external inputs such as fertilizers, pesticides etc (Karapinar & Haberli, pp. 242-272, 2010). The entire universe has seen a global calamity of food crises in the twenty first century, which is embracing not only rural areas but also the urban regions to feel its consequences. The lives and lifestyles of multitudes have felt a drastic change with the rapid increase in food prices. The chief causes of the food shortage and its dreadful effects includes growth in population, unemployment, unfavorable weather conditions, increase in demand of producing bio-fuels, low agricultural output of cereal crops and oil prices that is surging ahead. The cost of other sources of food such as meat, poultry, eggs, and dairy products etc. has seen acceleration due to the increase in the price of cereal crops. However, every enormity has a solution to it, likewise, food crises is also a problem that one can confront with great zeal for which all the nations should get united on a global arena to work out on possible solutions as mankind is an entity that is of prime importance. References Cribb, Julian. 2010. The coming famine: the global food crisis and what we can do to avoid it. University of California Press, Ltd. House of Commons. 2008. “The World Food Programme and Global Food Security.” The Current Food Crises. Volume 1, pp. 24-27. Karapinar, Baris, Haberli, Christian. 2010. Food Crises and the WTO: World Trade Forum. Cambridge University Press. Karrer, Linda. 2010. Global Food Crisis. VDM Verlag. Sasson, Albert. 2009. The global food crisis: causes, prospects, solutions. Imprimerie Lawne. Shiva, Vandana, Sagbo, Patrice. 2008. Food Crisis. GRAIN. Read More