More than just food!!

In the last two years, a worrying global phenomenon has been emerging as reports of food scarcity, rising prices and the declining nutrition levels of vulnerable populations become commonplace. In 2007 images of sporadic rioting in about 25 countries worldwide including Egypt, Haiti and Ivory Coast as a result of rising food prices was telecast showing the global outreach of the problem.

The World Food Program (WFP) has described this phenomenon as a ‘ silent tsunami’ threatening to plunge more than 100 million people on every continent into hunger whilst the Asian Development Bank (ADB) estimated that one billion people in Asia could be seriously affected by the surging food prices.

The most severely affected will be the developing countries in Africa and Asia, whilst food exporting countries like those in the Middle East will be affected by the drop in supply and the increase in prices.

The first question to ask is how have the food prices increased so tremendously that it is now causing a global crisis? The second question to ask is what does this mean for people? The third question to ask is what should be done about it?

To a certain extent despite many warning signals, it is obvious that this problem has crept up on the world catching it unawares. In 2007 the food price index calculated by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) rose by nearly 40%, compared with 9% the year before which was replicated again in 2008. With the global recession taking effect in the first half of 2009, this trend is set to continue. Nearly every agricultural commodity has been part of this rising price trend. However, humanitarian organizations, governments and the other bodies seem unable to have forecasted it and powerless to prepare for the repercussions.

The increase in food prices is being driven by several factors such as:

• Income and population growth which has affected food demand and supply
• Climate change
• high energy prices
• subsidized bio fuel production
• globalization
• urbanization
• land and water constraints
• underinvestment in rural infrastructure and agricultural innovation
• lack of productivity

The combination of these new and ongoing forces has affected the prices of food commodities which in turn have caused changes in food availability, which have had crucial implications for the livelihoods of poor and food-insecure people.

At the national level, countries that are net food exporters could benefit from improved terms of trade, but some of them may miss out on this opportunity by banning exports to protect consumers. Net food importers, however, will struggle to meet domestic food demand. This means that for example, almost all countries in Africa are net importers of cereals, and will inevitably be hard hit by rising prices.

At the household level though, surging and volatile food prices will hit those who can afford it the least—the poor and food insecure. For example, rising food prices could lead to:

· deterioration of the nutritional status of pregnant and lactating women and of preschool children

· the withdrawal of children especially girls from school

· the distress sale of productive assets.

· Compromising the future ability of individuals and households to escape poverty.

Because of their economic circumstances, poor households are more responsive to changes in food prices than the wealthy, but there are variations across countries in the magnitude of this sensitivity. The food security and nutrition of the poor are at risk when they are not shielded from the price rises. At the household level, it is common for the poor in developing countries to spend 50 to 70% of their budget on food, and a large proportion of the food budget on staple foods. Further, the poor tend to have remarkably monotonous diets, getting the vast majority of their caloric intake from staple crops and consuming little in the way of animal-source foods, fruits, or vegetables, which are rich in essential micronutrients. The few poor households that are net sellers of food will benefit from higher prices, but households that are net buyers of food—which represent the large majority of the world’s poor—will be harmed.

The nutrition of the poor and the vulnerable (like children and the elderly) is also at risk when they are not shielded from the price rises. For example malnutrition that leads to stunting in preschool children directly affects their ability to learn in school and thus their ability to earn income as adults. Higher food prices will also lead poor people to limit their food consumption and shift to even less-balanced diets, with harmful effects on health in the short and long run.

Many countries have already taken steps to try to minimize the effects of higher prices on their populations. Countries such as Argentina, China, Egypt, India, Russia, Thailand, Ukraine, Venezuela, and Vietnam are among those that have taken the easy option of restricting food exports, setting limits on food prices, or both. China has banned rice and maize exports; India has banned milk powder exports; Bolivia has banned the export of soy oil to Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela; and Ethiopia has banned exports of major cereals. Other countries are reducing restrictions on imports: Morocco, for instance, cut tariffs on wheat imports from 130% to 2.5%; Nigeria cut its rice import tax from 100% to just 2.7%.

Price controls and changes in import and export policies undertaken by these countries may begin to address the problems of poor consumers, who find that they can no longer af­ford an adequate diet for a healthy life, in the short run, but in the long run, some of these policies are likely to backfire by making the international market smaller and more volatile. In addition price controls reduce the price that farmers receive for their agricultural products and thus reduce farmers’ incentives to produce more food. Hence specific policies are needed to deal with the causes and consequences of high food prices.

Although the current situation poses policy challenges on several fronts, there are effective and coherent actions that can be taken by countries to help the most vulnerable people in the short term while working to stabilize food prices by increasing agricultural production in the long term:

• First, in the short run, developing-country governments should expand their social protection programs (that is, programs like food or income transfers and nutrition programs focused on early childhood) for the poorest people—both urban and rural.
• Second, developed countries should eliminate domestic bio fuel subsidies and open their markets to bio fuel exporters like Brazil. Biofuel subsidies in the United States and ethanol and biodiesel subsidies in Europe have proven to be misguided policies that have distorted world food markets.Subsidies on bio fuel crops also act as an implicit tax on staple foods, on which the poor depend the most.
• Third, the developed countries should also take this opportunity to eliminate agricultural trade barriers. Although some progress has been made in reducing agricultural subsidies and other trade-distorting policies in developed countries, many remain, and poor countries cannot match them.
• Fourth, to achieve long-term agricultural growth, developing-country governments should increase their medium- and long-term investments in agricultural research and extension, rural infrastruc­ture, and market access for small farmers. Rural investments have been sorely neglected in recent decades, and now is the time to re­verse this trend. Farmers in many developing countries are operating in an environment of inadequate infrastructure like roads, electric­ity, and communications; poor soils; lack of storage and processing capacity; and little or no access to agricultural technologies that could increase their profits and improve their livelihoods. Recent unrest over food prices in a number of countries may tempt policy­makers to put the interests of urban consumers over those of rural people, including farmers, but this approach would be short-sighted and counterproductive.

Organizations like Muslim Aid are now developing Food Security Programs in order to deal with this crisis. Making use of traditional and seasonal programs such as Ramadan and Qurban is one way of working to address the issues of rising food insecurity. Working in the spirit of supplementary food provision, which is what these programs are designed to address, organizations can meet the rising need for nutrition and food security programs to be developed. In particular the following will need to be looked at:

• An emergency food package which can also incorporate aspects from Ramadan, Qurban, Fidya, Kaffara and Aqiqah. All of these programs means that there is a seasonal continuity of funds available to run these programs
• Child and mother nutrition
• Fast impact food production
• Financial services for small holders
• Advocacy and awareness programs

What is it that we as individuals can do?

Firstly it is to realise that there is a problem. The worrying part is how little concern there is about this issue which, more than any other, should be gripping people. The mere fact that some are going to bed hungry while others have plenty to eat is by all spiritual teachings a crime. There are still people wasting food when others can make use of them.

There are still weddings taking place in grand hotels and exclusive dinners held where food is thrown away without any concern for its value. There are still people who insist on eating rice three times a day, simply because they want to.

At times like this there is a need for dialogue and discussion on how people can respond collectively to this globally emerging crisis. People must plan how to address vulnerability in the short, medium and long terms.

Elsewhere, countries have set up food banks and are talking about improving agriculture and trade. Many people are considering a change in diet and lifestyle. People should be conscious about wasting food or overeating. People should be aware of their consumption habits. Where there is excess food, people should consider giving this away to those in need. Often it is the silent needy who are most vulnerable and these people need to be sought out.

We may still be a long way off from the food-related riots that have gripped other parts of the world, but we're soon likely to see the need for food aid distribution spread more widely among our people.

This originally appeared in Islamonline