World Population Increasing and Becoming Hungrier

Published April 29, 2008

By Charles Winkleman

Has anybody else noticed the price of gas these days? If you don’t have a car you probably wouldn’t, but I just brought mine up to UVM and it cost me $80 to fill up. That’s ten hours worth of my wonderful minimum wage labor. On top of that, KKD and other fine eateries have raised their prices due to the rising cost of gas and wheat. Furthermore, when I go to buy my rice at Walmart for cheap prices, I’ll only be allowed to buy 4 bags of rice instead of my regular 6. Man, do I have it bad.

The past several weeks there have been riots in the Philippines, Haiti and Egypt. The World Food Program has warned of a ‘silent tsunami’ of hunger in many developing countries, with 20 million of the poorest children’s lives being threatened. In the last five weeks alone the price of rice has doubled, and many people living in developing countries are spending an even higher percentage of their wages on food and rent. Economists would call such inflation similar to a tax on the poor because of the impact it has on their spending.

Already because of the food crisis there have been deaths in Haiti and Cameroon, the resignation of the Haitian Prime Minister, protests in many countries, and clashes in Bangladesh between workers and police. Needless to say, this will only be the beginning.

Trying to find a short term solution, the United States and Britain pledged almost $260 million in food aid to ailing countries. On top of this, four Latin American countries have created a $100 million plan to keep food prices stable in Bolivia, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Cuba.

The U.S.’s demand for biofuels was blamed for the price increase, but this isn’t the only reason. Fuel prices would be an obvious factor. While Exxon and Shell, among others, manage to produce record breaking sales, we’ll be seeing $4 gallons in the northeast, with other parts of the country nearing $4.50. The price of diesel fuel has already reached above $4.00 a gallon, and this has been adversely affecting truck driver’s wages and will certainly be affecting food prices more soon enough.

Now I know that Congress looked into this issue and remembered they couldn’t bite the hand that feeds them, so we can either wait for the oil companies to become sympathetic or we can do something on our own. One idea to slow this problem: Eat local foods and support local farms. Take advantage of Rideshare and use public transportation.

Another factor to this problem is the unpredictable and harsh weather that has been occurring this year. Australia is in a drought and their food staple production was significantly lower than most years. Now I’m not blaming anything in particular (global warming, cough cough), but I remember this past winter when Tropicana orange juice got more expensive because of freezing citrus crops. I’m pretty sure I almost contracted scurvy that month. True story.

Now we could also blame India and China’s burgeoning middle class and subsequent higher food demands, especially since China’s demand for meat has risen significantly. By 2050 the world population is expected to reach 9 billion people. Also, the upcoming middle class will eat more than the lower class. While it takes only 2,000 liters of water to produce a kg of wheat, it takes 5 to 6 times this much to produces a kg of beef.

Yet we could also look at our own meat consumption and our rising production of biofuel. Biofuels take up land available to grow crops for food. It is expected to make up 30% of US corn crops by 2010, pushing up international prices in this global economy.

Faith in technology may be the answer. Scientists are trying to create a new “Green Revolution” through the use of new farmlands in Russia and Brazil and new farming practices. This previous revolution is what has kept these food shortages from occurring since WWII, and scientists are trying to replicate this success. Genetically modifying seeds to be pest, weed, and drought resistant will be better suited for areas where crops were unable to grow or unable to provide large amounts of nutrients.

Some more radical ideas involve creating synthetic meats to save grain supplies, optical sensor scans of crops to know what nutrients are needed for the soil, and a machine that will allow multiple crops to be grown on a field and keeping these crops from being susceptible to disease and soil degradation.

I think as a global generation we are aware of the food crisis and will work to better the poorest of the poor in the developing world. I hope that as we all go back home or to work this summer we will try to be environmentally aware of our actions. We live in a country of greatness and abundance and we must always remember those less fortunate than we are.

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