Organic News 3

AID AGENCY WARNS
EXTREME WEATHER
MEANS
EXTREME FOOD PRICES WORLDWIDE
Reducing greenhouse gases and saving the polar
bears tend to dominate discussions on climate
change. But to the booming world population, one climate
change issue may be even more pressing – hunger.
new report by a leading international relief agency
warns that climate change will increase the
A
risk of large spikes in global food prices in the future, and
lead to more hungry people in the world. That’s because extreme
weather like droughts, floods and heat waves are predicted
to become much more frequent as the planet heats up.
ur planet is boiling and if we don’t act now,
“O hunger will increase for millions of people on
our planet,” says Heather Coleman, climate change policy
adviser for Oxfam America, which released the report today.
The combination of the severe drought in the U.S.
this summer and droughts in Eastern Europe
led to a sharp increase in world food prices in July, according
to the World Bank. And the world’s poorest are particularly
vulnerable to spiking food prices, because they use most of
their income on food.
Some of the sting may be yet to come. The drought
in the U.S. is particularly hard on animal feed,
and increases in meat prices may be on the way as a result,
although they are not predicted to be as high here as you
might expect.
Still, any price increases can make it difficult for
poor families to get enough food, even in rich
countries. For example, before the recession in 2008, one in
10 U.S. households couldn’t find enough food. (The government
calls them “food insecure.”) For 2010 and 2011, as Pam
Fessler reports, that number has increased to one in seven
households.
But poor countries in Africa and the Middle East
stand to suffer most. That’s due in part to the
fact that different countries handle price spikes differently.
For example, price swings between 2007 and 2008
resulted in an 8 percent increase in the number
of malnourished people in African nations, according to a
report by the Food and Agriculture Organization.
Meanwhile, large, stable countries like China
were able to stabilize grain prices for their
people, but smaller countries were vulnerable to high global
prices.
I
n 2010, when an extreme drought in Russia shriveled
its crops, food prices there increased, so Russia
banned wheat exports, which sent global grain prices soaring.
As climate change makes extreme weather events
even more common, the Oxfam report warns
that spikes in global food prices may “become the new normal.”
The relationship between climate and hunger is a complex
one.
But there are ways people are trying to protect
the most vulnerable from the effects of climate
change, says Siwa Msangi, a fellow at the International Food
Policy Research Institute.
Investments in water storage and irrigation systems
can help countries get through droughts. Paving
roads and improving ports can help prevent floods from
disrupting food supplies. Better feeding programs can also
help poor people keep their families fed despite price spikes,
Msangi says.
Source
ISSUE III 17