A major food crisis has come knocking on our doors and will most definitely engulf the poorest of nations in a survival for the fittest while the rich mill most definitely survive as they sit comfortably on top of the food chain. It is time that we do our part to help alleviate the food crisis. Generally the first step is to analyze the problem, find solutions and act upon it. I have two presentations to share, the first presentation is a good explanation of the problem which mostly equates it to a misguided global political agenda as one element which lead to the precipitation of the food shortage. The next presentation also analyzes the food crisis and goes a step further to offer a solution.
“The world’s 200 wealthiest people have as much money as about 40% of the global population, and yet 850 million people have to go to bed hungry every night.”
Hugo Chavez, Venezuela’s socialist president: “The problem is not the production of food … it is the economic, social and political model of the world. The capitalist model is in crisis.”
We all know that each and every one of us must play our small part in this jigsaw puzzle to contribute towards the greater good.
The Question to you – What have YOU done to help alleviate the food crisis?
Comments
42 responses to “Understanding the Global Food Crisis”
Great topic!
The food and energy crises have already taken over the globe. CNN’s Planet in Peril, for example, is one of the mainstream media programs that has strung together stories from around the world.
In many developing countries, the attitude is to politicize the issue. The problem may be there, or may not be there; but the SOLUTION is not there. This is because the crises are very urgent, and in that case, urgent solutions are sought.
In countries such as Pakistan where private enterprise is largely free, citizens’ solutions are the need of the day. Mere over-identification of the problem on an intellectual level serves no one.
On Earth Day, April 22nd, Aga Khan University arranged a seminar and exhibition in which various NGO participated. One exhibit was about windmills, which are being successfully installed in Karachi, and have led to better irrigation and thus greening the areas. That’s really what it’s all about: collective citizen-level decision-making. Changing our behavior, and then ask our neighbor to change theirs by inspiration – rather than blame or expect from political behemoths.
We don’t have time!
This is report on the Earth Day festivities mentioned in the comment above:
http://karachi.metblogs.com/2008/04/23/earth-day-festivities/
Thanks!
For the record this post is generally a continuation of the discussion Ramla and I were having on Facebook. Walk for Judiciary
Ramla you and I might have a different approach but I feel even in Pakistan the political aspect must be taken hand-in-hand, one must remember that the chink of the cash / money available to create a good change lies within the exchequers of the governments. Private conscious entrepreneurs must be lauded for their efforts but its a drop in the ocean if Government polices do not change to support / subsidize the issue for the greater good. its all wasted
Private entrepreneur goes only so much of non-profit work but Government can effect a larger change for its people. Hence the political activism is practically essential for alleviation of the Food Crisis amongst other problem plaguing our world – its like the spokes of a bicycle wheel. Work on each spoke of the wheel to make the wheel turns properly. Each spoke is essential for effecting a change for the larger good.
Pakistan needs to invest heavily on Wind Mill Farms (which are plagued by idiotic policies of transmission line problem) BioDiesel which too is a projected deliberately undermined as the petroleum mafia does not want to harm its business
@ Teeth:
I like the wheel example because that hits the nail on the head. We study a model called PEST (politics, economy, society, technology) or STEEPLE (society, technology, economy, environment, politics, law, ethics) as a tool for analysis or implementation etc.
I think as a tool, STEEPLE can be applied much more creatively – for example, it can be the seven spokes of the wheel of national priorities.
What’s happening, though, is that the P and L spokes are outdoing each other – consuming the STEEE spokes. We have to DELIBERATELY take attention into these areas as well.
* What’s the society’s food consumption pattern? Are we consuming too much refined food, which will mean wastage of essential nutrients and total food mass?
* What’s the technology (there are 5 types of technology) for enhanced food production? Why is it not being used? Are the reasons socio-political, or lack of skills?
So on and so forth. The issue is Pakistan (and other countries) is that the focus is sometimes too problem and blame-oriented, too narrow. In Pakistan, media people are talking heads primarily, which is out collective issue because of course media is too nascent to have any field-qualified people. I.e. the person commenting on tech issue is just someone who talks well, not someone with field knowledge of tech.
This is changing slowly… but meanwhile we have to understanding the totality of our issues. and work TOGETHER. We are not going to be any safer by taking punitive measures against one person or another.
In the Musharraf vs. the Judiciary case, Musharraf has visibly retreated from his position. A collective decision is about collectively taking the forces back.
The judicial movement is appearing completely oblivious to the changing ground realities. It is not letting anyone catch a breath and placing blames while taking no responsibility. The headlines warn of “We will not be responsible; we’ll put people on the streets.”
Are they insane? Haven’t they learned from December 2007? The cartoon protests? The Sher Afghan beatings? The people are hungry, they don’t give a damn to Musharraf or Zardari or even the Chief Justice, they are just looking for someone to beat up. If the tides of power turn, the mobs will kill the lawyers one day – and I say that as a concerned Pakistani.
This madness has to be prevented collectively – by anyone who can see it coming.
Excuse my frantically mistyped English please. Early morning, breakfast awaits.
Awab, I visited your Facebook link and gone thru discussion. It was interesting to read what Ms.Akhter was trying to insisit:
The whole world is integrated. Rivers and fish know no boundary, nor does pollution and the climate.
Ironically, Ms.Akhter’s mentor(Musharraf)always whined about “Pakistan first” rather talking about world.
My two cents!
I am no expert on global economics and commodities, but having lived here in the west for the past 30 years this is my lay man’s observation. I believe that what we face are patterns, shifts and themes like “the next best thing” “the next big crisis” “the next bubble to burst” that we are all victims of. Of course there are many theories about what forces are behind them, but it does appear that each ‘created’ crisis results in huge amount of wealth transfer from one class to the other, and it is always in only one direction. Just in the last decade we have had the dotcom bubble that wiped out a huge amount of equity and right after that another bubble was manufactured by 24/7 ruining printing presses of FED, the housing bubble. It appears that this will be even a bigger whammy! Huge price hikes in oil has caused great deal of hardship for common man every where in the world and now this below the belt strike, food. It is simply hard to believe that these are naturally occurring patterns.
That said, in my opinion the richer countries in the west can may be afford this but countries like Pakistan do have to come up with revolutionary (and yes I have used the word correctly) methods and models to shield their economies from these manipulations and to safeguard the price and supply stability for essential goods and services. Each one of these so called global crises sucks countries like Pakistan further into the clutches of institutions like IMF and World Bank, which for all practical purposes are instruments of continuation of colonial rule. Geographically Pakistan is located ideally for devising and implementing such a policy. China, India and Iran being the neighbours, each one of these countries have gone through unique experiences and economic transformation in the past 30 years that Pakistan benefit from. Needless to say, I do not believe that any country can completely avoid such global crisis’s but unfortunately regimes like the one in Pakistan are unable to even provide a minimum cushion to their citizens.
Why? Essentially there is no political leadership in the country. None, no vision, no ideas, nothing zip zero.
Not enough can be said about the corruption in the political system of Pakistan, the armed forces of Pakistan, the primitive agricultural feudal system and modern day industrial feudal system. Even the supposed intellectual class lives in its own elitist bubble. This dog eat dog individualist “western liberal democratic” culture will sustain itself here in the west but it will destroy lives and the fabric of society in countries like Pakistan if it is not accompanied with rapid economic growth, and I simply do not see economic growth happening under the present system. I don’t know if we will have another in the near future, but I feel that Pakistan had one shot in the history to take control of its destiny and that was with ZA Bhutto. Perhaps the only leader with universal appeal and charisma who could have done any thing he wanted in Pakistan. Alas, it was not to be. I guess he was not able to complete his transformation from a privileged feudal landlord to a true national leader or he was a pretender right from the start. I believe his personal failure was determent to Pakistan’s destiny and since he was removed from the scene it truly has been downhill.
@ Karim:
What we need, then, is a time machine. That is generally the best solution we can all agree on: choose a golden time in history (subjectively) or paint a rosy picture of tomorrow (subjective, again).
Now there is going to be a lot of discussion about which picture to choose: your, or mine? The rule of the thumb is: I am right, you are wrong.
And that is the only worthwhile activity to be undertaken by a national time machine mindset.
@Karim, I am not sure whether it fits well or not but that shift thing reminded me famous dream of Yousuf(AS) which he interpretated as given in (12:47-49)
I don’t know what to make of two above comments, I am not smart enough to .. Regardless, I wait to be enlightened!
Interesting thread. Could not help to comment and add my 2 cents.
Are we ready for a social reform. Allah does not change a nation’s halat unless it does not stand for its own oppression. Are we ready to take that stand and may be political and economic reform would follow.
I am really really sorry if I am going to offend any one here, but bringing religion into this is just not necessary. Be practical people, sure we all have our political ideas on economic and social issues but to mention God on each and every subject is just a copout. So say some thing or…
Let’s focus on the issue at hand – which is the global food crisis.
In Pakistan, one of the growing trends is consumption of refined food – which is being discouraged world-wide. Refined food could be in any form. One example is the over-whelming number of new brand of potato chips. They are troublesome, because they are not only catastrophic for health, but fried chips means a potato goes through excessive refinement and loses nutrients. So the people who consume it are constantly hungry.
Globally, movements such as local sourcing of food and fresh eating are gaining serious momentum because otherwise we have a variety of issues to deal with, including health problems, waste in the preparation process, and HUNGER.
So we need to focus on contemporary issue in contemporary context and find contemporary solutions. In my house, for example, we recycle organic trash by turning that into compost, and now experimenting with our own vegetable garden.
Yemen’s city Sana’a has community vegetable and herb gardens. Urban center over the world are re-considering their city plans to make space for closer-to-home food production.
But it’s still not enough. One of the major changes is at the consumption end: how much are people eating, and wasting… it’s here that everyone can take personal action which become collective.
So yes, nothing changes if people don’t change themselves.
Here is an example:
http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/100-mile-diet-local-eating-for-global-change
“100 Mile Diet”-like ideas show us what is wrong within Pakistan with the food supply. Wastage occurs naturally if food is procured over long distance. To keep it fresh, a huge amount of investment would be required – which means food gets expensive and people stay hungry.
The first step, in our country, is to be at least aware that such a crisis is looming OVER the world, and we can’t get away in Pakistan by blaming it on our leaders. Even if we kill them or they beg for our mercy, it is NOT going to feed people. Food will feed people, not blaming.
So for our own survival, we need to get real and get moving.
There will very soon come a time when we would not be helped by any leader in the country – no judicial system, nor the lack of it. No leadership, no army.
Suo moto judgments or the army’s coercion do not produce food. People do. It’s come to a tipping point where we no longer have time to dream, but the moment to DO. ALl over the world citizens are taking personal action…. and correcting themselves and then demanding appropriate change at the state level.
Even media is cooperating, consider CNN’s shift away from war-tripe to social entrepreneurship, Africa, change…. these are the real issues – and there are real solutions.
Good luck to us on our quest!
Ramla A, no disrespect, but what does any of what you are saying has to do with food shortage. You are addressing lifestyle, environmental or nutritional issues. These are issues of personal choices that do have great value in them as far as our sense of global community is concern. I would argue that most of them are just ‘feel good’ choices that are often subject of discussion among ‘educated sophisticated’ classes whose representatives show up on the totally corrupt and “embedded” mainstream media ABCBBCSBCNBCCNBCCNNFOX and alike. I compare it to the actions like holding candle light vigils by the children of people who are profiting from war or Hollywood types that want to save Darfur, Tibet or whatever.
I will certainly agree with you that people in the east are blindly copying the unhealthy western eating habits in the name of modernity and there needs to be efforts on that front to make people understand that this lifestyle has brought a great deal of problems like high rates of cancer and heart disease and chronic obesity in the west. But, that aside the problem at hand is some thing else. Let us just consider the situation with global oil prices for a moment. We can expect Microsoft, Apple, RIM or Nintendo to rack in huge profits if they have introduced a new product in the market that is better, more user friendly with more features and so and so, but how does it make sense that Exxon, Shell or other oil companies to make such enormous profits without having introduced any new product, what did they invent? Well, lets see what their friends invented for them, they invented lots and lots of dollars without any backing, they invented wars and that opened the door for speculation and price inflation, hence the billions siphoned from you and me. Some economist suspect that oil is presently 30% to 60% over priced. The grains are probably going the same way, there will be a lot of profiteering by hoarding and speculation and we can talk as much as we want about the personal choices but it is a global policy issue. Speculators will corner the market, set the price and create a crisis. Poor countries will borrow and put themselves in a bigger hole, after all a lot of loans were forgiven in the past few years because of those rock concerts and so called war against terror, things need to get back to NORMAL, and they will big time.
Unfortunately, individually there is very little we can do, we can probably protect ourselves and our families IF WE HAVE THE MEANS, but people who have limited means and bread is their main food staple and they have never been able to afford more than that, I really don’t know if I will be able lecture them on life style changes.
Karim:
If I have to choose between making detailed analysis of evil corporations, or to do something at my end, I will choose to do something at my end. In fact it is this blaming the bad guys that is a luxury. When people are hungry, it’s far more practical to change one’s lifestyle. Little choices add up to big ones. That’s systems theory.
How is that ‘feel good’?
It makes sense, also. Have you studied the concept of value chain? It ends in consumption. When lifestyles change, the process behind production does, too.
What is the value of believing that we are being controlled by someone? If I shift from a car to a cycle, how are oil prices going to frighten me out of my sleep?
There is a choice, and we have to assume it.
Personally, I’ve never understood the whole romance with the big good guys and the big bad guys. The true ethic is that each person has their own responsibility.
It is true whether this is understood by way of religion, by systems theory, by chaos theory, by the theory of self-organizing systems, or by simply actively living one’s life.
And that was the whole point of my debate with Teeth Maestro to begin with. Why is sometimes Musharraf the messiah of the people? Then Chief Justice Iftikhar? What if either or both of them die in an earthquake tomorrow – who’s going to babysit the Pakistani nation?
When it’s as easy as shaking oneself out of a romantic dream to be shaken out of a romantic dream, why aren’t we shaking ourselves out? Why are we hiding behind blaming one person or another?
I met a man today who’s found a simple solution to bad vegetables: he’s growing his own veggie garden. It produces real veggies, and feeds real people! It’s real food! End of crisis as far as one household is concerned.
Doing a PhD on the flaws of global leaders is a mental trap we get ourselves into. What really is the fault of a few thousand people who get in a controlling position because billions of people are letting them to!? Not much.
Oh, BTW, Microsoft siphons my money no more. I found out Zoho, and OpenOffice.org, for instance. In fact I knew them for a long time, but didn’t try them out. Then I said, what the heck, there’s a choice out there to switch from MS, why not?
The Open Source movement started off as a maverick dream of the few – but today millions live off of it. This is how dreams are turned into reality. Not by blaming or romancing uncles. 😉
I thought I could steer the debate on more practical solutions on a global level. An example of it was recently demonstrated by Venezuela and Iran where they completely eliminated the middle man (banks) by changing directly services and goods value for value..but it seems it has bogged down! I retreat in disgrace and take back every thing!!
Oh no – why? Debates are about discussing viewpoints. You were talking about what’s going on globally – I am saying that OK, that’s true – but it’s nothing we can’t DO something about – UNLESS WE START WITH OURSELVES.
Eliminating financial “middle-men” – aka banks – is actually a growing trend. People-to-people banking has been made popular by the likes of Kiva.org and the Facebook Causes application. That’s an example of action started by people which is in turn inspiring governments.
On a citizen-level, discussing issues in a manner that it becomes an idealistic, far-off debate concluding on “we can’t do anything” is almost dangerous to human existence.
Here, for example, are the resources needed by an average middle-class Pakistani household to deal with food shortage:
– A small garden space, if not, then pots. If not enough space for pots, then multi-level gardens-in-a-rack
– seeds, usually freely available from raw vegetables
– water
– gardening tools
– willpower
– dedicated time
Where water is scarce, it is harvested from rain.
That’s all there is to it. I made a study myself today, which I will be blogging about – in fact a few of us are getting together to learn the art of growing food. This isn’t hypothetical. This is a serious strategy citizens of many cities are collectively – or individually in places where this is considered crazy – deciding upon.
Pakistanis are just living in a 1980’s wonderland where Saudi and American money takes care of all ills.
I visited Africa recently. In Zimbabwe, they are selling their craft for a bit of food or clothing. There is no consumable product there! In the very same continent, South Africa is flourishing. And Africa has such a rich climate it’s astounding that people aren’t taking up initiatives to cultivate their own resources.
I agree with Teeth that political system has to do with it. Economist Amartya Sen argued that. But its people who form the political culture!
What’s the culture like in our very own households? Feudalism!
We got to put an end to our own behaviors, it’s as simple as that.
You know Ramla, I was going to rest, the case that is. But here I am sucked in again. There are many things that I would like to say on this subject but I believe the starting points are so far apart that even in moving towards each others point of view we will miss each other completely. So I guess it boils down to this, perhaps what I am advocating is grass root activism towards collective policy reforms, the classic class struggle for justice and fundamental rights and human dignity, affordable food, shelter and education as corner stone values of a society. You on the other hand believe that individuals or communities can by their own initiatives insulate themselves from whatever the big guys can throw at them. I see your point; I accept the personal responsibilities that we individually have towards our plight, but it will never address the problem that people most in need have. I see great many people of the world in shackles and generational bondage. In rural Pakistan the f*&$@#g waderas, choudhrys, khans have the ordinary man by the balls. This same class produces majority of the ruling elites that go on to protect their class interest. In a different form a similar situation also exists in the so called democratic countries.. but that’s a show for another day. It comes back to this, can I, a poor farmer, labour, whose rights are totally subject to the whim of the guy in the big house, whose representative in legislative bodies are the cousins of the guy in the big house, can do any thing, alone, to protect my self and my family?
Can you?
Elaborate! Can I what?
http://www.ft.com/world/asiapacific/india
Story: India considers ban on trading food futures
RE: “It comes back to this, can I, a poor farmer, labour, whose rights are totally subject to the whim of the guy in the big house, whose representative in legislative bodies are the cousins of the guy in the big house, can do any thing, alone, to protect my self and my family?”
Can you?
Thailand is proposing a rice cartel. There is already bidding on world’s shrinking food resources. We’d be hit sooner than we can say, “Yes. We. Can.”
The second presentation above enlists many initiatives that are taking place amongst organizations of the world. In Pakistan, one of my own students turned from marketing to gentleman farming – which is just a way of saying that he decided to bring some method to the farming madness that is the province of Sindh. There seems to be no internal motivation in that area to explore better farming techniques. This man made a decision to use his knowledge as an MBA to organize his own farm – and I advised him to in turn teach others, not hold his knowledge back.
From India to Africa, local communities are rising to the occasion – with great support pouring in from the people of more developed nations. That’s real action. That’s how farmers will be liberated from tyranny – be real enabling and empowerment – with skills and tools, not rhetoric.
Pakistanis just got to move on… start by realizing this is not 1940’s-2007. It’s 2008.
I also know a young Balochi sardar, also an MBA, who, when engaged in a conversation about uplifting the social condition of his people rather than lifting up arms, chose to listen and act upon that advice. I later got to hear that he is running a very well-organized export business, packaging Pakistani fishery produce in quality packages, thereby reducing loss.
When given awareness, even people who are perceived as big bad guys change. When approached without ulterior motives and power struggles, many humans open up.
The politics of confrontation, blame, and protest are passe. They at best produce dead bodies – from “us” or “them.” At any rate, it’s a loss of human life.
What else can be done? This is what the progressing world is thinking. We all must.
Ramla A. You have credentials and you have individual examples of people having done good for themselves and their community.
I have rhetoric and slogans, and I also have the persecuted, the hungry, the occupied and the shell shocked. I will from now on preach the Palestinian that even if his olive trees have been uprooted he can change his situation by community farming. I will tell the Congolese that even if they are arming militias all around him to steal diamonds, he can better his life by farming potatoes in his backyard. I will sit and pray with the Guatemalan farmer that his employer United Fruit or Delmonte will not assassinated the union leader that is negotiating for better pay and work conditions for him. And I am sure the world will be a much happier place after!
And while we’re at it, it is clear planting potatoes cannot address some other critical issues the haunt my dreams:
– art theft
– AIDS
– Shoaib Akhtar’s manners, or the lack of them
– stock market crashes
– rivalry in matters of love
– other people’s salaries
– earthquakes, glacier shifts, and volcano eruptions
– and, of course, the Kashmir issue
But it seems that farming can, come to think of it, solve some part of the hunger issue by helping at the consumption. Terribly simple, ain’t it?
Besides one still wonders what strategy exactly, on a personal level, do you have in mind for Palestine, Congo, and Guatemala?
—-
Let’s end it here. I only want to point to the layers of issues that cloud our heads while solutions are right in front of us. How are you going to stop child prostitution with farming? Is there a link?
Why this perplexity? Do we even have time?
Meanwhile, I am learning how to plant a garden – so there!
Of course, lets end it there. By the way there is a lady that brings these ‘community baskets’. Vegetables are wonderfully fresh and the baskets are full of surprizes because I have no control over what I get. Apparently this is that 100 km radius farming project, I am thankful for their initiative. But yes, you are right, I do not risk much for a very long time for whatever it is that I believe in, except of course going on the net and being a pain in the neck! Do let us know how your farming project works out, while growing up in Karachi as a child I had a project like that, have truly beautiful memory of it.
Peace
Karim:
Thank you.
Who is this ‘community baskets’ woman? Is she supplying to homes? Is this in Pakistan?
These movements have become widely spread over the past 2-3 years, I initially thought it was fringe lunacy and just a curious new idea – but a bit of household economic management has revealed troublesome scenarios for the future. I am astounded at the level of waste produced in the kitchen because food is not fresh. We recycle organic waste in my family, but it’s week’s worth of production in the compost bin!
Then I learned in a Pakistani agriculturalist’s book – printed at least 2 decades ago – that Pakistan will face wheat/grain crisis because our palates are imbalanced. It seems that nature needs to serve a balance, and at the consumption end, we need to maintain that balance too.
I observed organic farming initiatives in South Africa recently. The community-collective action model seems to be working there as far as fresh/ pesticide-free produce is concerned.
Once awareness on an issue is created, the community seems to be moving to take action. However, there’s a greater consensus on protecting plants as opposed to securing human lives, but that’s another layer of stories.
I have recruited help from experienced folks to teach me about growing own food – but it’s a tough new thing for an urban type. Hopefully, though, the project will get going soon. CPLC, btw, let a group (ActiveCitizens) know that they have community gardens available to be taken charge of, but not enough people interested in taking that up. So farming vegetables/ food is one recommendation I am looking at – starting with experiments at home.
No it’s in Montreal; these Frenchies are really into these sorts of projects. We also have a very good fresh vegetable and fruit market in town called Marche Jean Talon (it is very close to the Desi ghetto) where local producers bring their products. The lady in question is some body I met in the local park that runs the neighbourhood project. Apparently besides the fresh vegetable and fruit the other main goal behind the concept is to leave least carbon foot prints behind as most of our vegetables and fruits are trucked in from Florida, California, Mexico and beyond.
Here most of the vegetable we get in the super market is GM. The tomatoes are bright and red but for the rest they are horrible and taste nothing. God only knows how much hormones are pumped in the meats we eat here. There are some farmers in Quebec who have started strictly biological farming for meat, milk etc. but industry has a great deal of pull on the government (cousin of the guy in the big house!) and they are often shut down on flimsiest of excuses or are facing constant regulatory obstacles in getting there products into the market.
People bitch, mostly they don’t know what about, but never do any thing. Legislations pass without much scrutiny; once in a while they will publicly hang some body. A big show and then every body go about their business satisfied that the system works. Sorry, once again got myself in a rant, any ways all to say that food quality generally is very bad here.
This, of course, isn’t the full story. Amartya Sen’s argument for a political condition is fair in its own right.
I take the position that an issue has multiple dimensions and various levels (individual > family > society > nation > global). Under all conditions in general, and critical conditions in particular, citizens should consider what individual actions can they take – and then take them. Whether we approach issue ethically, legally, morally, religiously, there will be a pretty much similar course of action on civic issues.
Are we starting a new round here?
LOL no, this comment was elaborating my own last – but published later. I was just endorsing your view that politics have an effect. But we have little effect on politics! Since politics is technically about and around resources, the other way to approach a political situation is to change the resource end… through technology, and social action. Which is where the citizens can see quick, direct results. The political landscape is too huge for the everyday person. Dividing the large picture into smaller, micro, manageable pieces will accelerate civic action.
There! I said it! Whew!
Thanks for inspiring, Karim! You live up to your name.
In other words, we take a wikinomic approach. Ranting is the right way to get started because we need to see our contemporary issues, and know the many angles from which the issue can be seen.
It is simply poor planing nothing else.
When one views the issue at hand, i have to agree with your finishes. You clearly show cognition about this theme and i have much to discover after reading your post.Many salutations and i will come back for any further updates.