"Global Food Crisis"

Many experts in today's society claim to have identified a potential "global food crisis." Three major sources of this current crisis include: rising food costs, unusual weather patterns, and Americas inability to assist other nations.

Rising food costs have been a major factor in the current food crisis. A few products which have recently increased in price include: wheat, corn, rice, and many others. The rising cost has affected the global community more than we think. In the words of Lester Brown, "The New Geopolitics of Food," Americans may see only a small "difference between a $2 loaf of bread and a loaf costing maybe $2.10." Whereas, in Jakarta, when the "world price of rice doubles, so does the price of rice in your neighborhood market." There is clearly an unequal distribution globally in rising food costs. Perhaps the people in most need of this minimally increasing food costs would be some of the planet's poorest 2 billion people. According to Brown, "50 to 70 percent of their income" is spent on food. It seems outrageous that some people are struggling to provide their families with two meals a day, while we see the increase in prices at the supermarket as an "annoyance." Two reasons for the rising food costs are attributed to a greater population and more of a demand for food. Rising food costs are a major factor in the global food crisis.

Another major source of the "global food crisis" could be the inability of the United States to assist other nations in their time of need. In 1965, "President Lyndon Johnson's administration shipped one-fifth of the U.S. wheat crop to India," essentially preventing famine. The U.S. no longer assists other nations in this manner mostly because our "safety cushion is gone." Lots of our grains are used to feed animals such as: cows and horses. In the past 5 years, there has also been an increase in the production of ethanol, which is a corn product used as fuel. Many of our farmlands are not used to help produce food for consumption, but rather produce food for alternate purposes. This contributes greatly to our inability to help other nations through this "global food crisis."

A third major factor in the "global food crisis" is the unusual weather patterns seen throughout the world. Brown believes that"a monsoon failure in India, a drought in the former Soviet Union, a heat wave in the U.S. Midwest" have all contributed to a food shortage. Frank Newport of the Gallup believes the food crisis can be seen in our own backyard. He claims that 25 percent of people living in Mississippi have struggled to buy food for their families at least once in the past 12 months. I believe this could be traced back to an unusual weather pattern experienced by residents of Mississippi in 2005, Hurricane Katrina. Global warming is another unusual weather pattern contributing to the "global food crisis." Farmlands are drying out quicker, so there has been a rise in over pumping for irrigation purposes. This in turn depletes the water resources, and eventually, all grains will be imported into the country. According to Brown, this process is currently being seen in Saudi Arabia. One other weather pattern contributing to the "global food crisis" is the formation of new deserts where once fertile farmlands were located. This process is taking place in the northern regions of China at an astonishing rate. Some reports claim that nearly "1,400 square miles of land in northern China turn to desert" each year. This is a major reason why unusual weather patterns are a source of the "global food crisis."