— because land represents fertility. Could you notice higher food price two or three years ago? Does it mean inadequate food production? Therefore, I search for the term food crisis on reliable websites. Then I found that this term was mention, at least, a decade ago and there have been articles discussed this topic interestingly up to now.
"Are We Having Another Food Crisis?", the article written by MacKenzie in New Scientist, indicated that natural disasters causing lower food production, — a flood in Pakistan and a drought and a fire in Russia — support of using maize as fuel instead of food in US, and uncontrollable market system worldwide were the causes of food crisis. However, Schiller, the writer of "What Food Crisis? We just need to make use of what we have", gave another interesting cause which was not owing to insufficient food production, but because of its wastage in harvest, transportation and consumption which is 30% to 50% of all food production. We can keep 60-100% more food by avoiding such losses.
When I think of food crisis, the first thing that comes to my mind is the drought in Ethiopia and thin unhealthy boys. But, within a couple of years, I concern that food around me changes. Price of a bowl of noodle grows up form 25 to 30 and to 35. Even if its price does not change, the quality and quantity change — worse taste and reduce its amount. I know that disaster can increase food price. I doubt why the price never goes down after recovering from that disaster. Perhaps a market system — demands and supplies — raise the price automatically, I think. Moreover, I know that bio-fuel crop is a controversial topic. Most government, including Thai government, support their farmers to grow such crop to reduce gas price. Although it seems to be good in cheaper transportation, it reduces land for food crop which means lower food production. I think that food crisis is a severe problem with which we have to cope immediately. In my opinion, the best solution is to increase crop yield dramatically without spreading an agricultural area to a forest because it can lead natural hazard to us.
After reading these articles, I agree with MacKenzie's idea since his is very similar to my old idea that the food crisis we are facing is lack of food due to natural disaster and a market system. This is quite far from me and too difficult for me to handle it. Nevertheless, Schiller's idea is very touching and more practical. He draw my attention to the way to solve this problem by clarify what food crisis we are confronting. He shows us that all food production nowadays can serve world hungers if we decrease food wastage. Therefore, our crisis is losses of food product in every process. Farmers, retailers and consumers can alleviate this trouble. Despite my agreement with MacKenzie, as a consumer, I will try not to waste food and even better water and energy.
What do you think about food crisis we are facing? Although you disagree with me, is it better to consume wisely — minimize losses — than still use it unconciously?
__________
References
Rudolf, J. C. (2010, November 24). World ‘dangerously close’ to food crisis, U.N. says. The New York Times. Retrieved January 16, 2013 from http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/24/world-dangerously-close-to-food-crisis-u-n-says/
Schiller, B. (2013, January 11). What food crisis? We just need to make use of what we have. Science American. Retrieved January 16, 2013 from http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=what-food-crisis-we-just-need-to-ma-2013-01
I'm guessing that Ob does not approve of the trendy organic food movement. Is that right?
ReplyDeleteI also like his question as to "why the price [of food] never goes down after recovering from that disaster". But I'm not sure that I agree with his hypothesis that it's a result of supply and demand.
Lots of interesting issues to discuss here.
When I thought of Ob's suggestion that resources be used wisely, Thailand's rice industry came to mind. It seems that at the moment far too much rice is being produced in Thailand - the warehouses are bulging still with last year's crop, and this years has to go somewhere.
ReplyDeletePerhaps Thai farmers should not be so foolishly growing rice that is not actually wanted enough anywhere in the world to make it valuable enough to sell at a decent price. There seems something seriously wrong when farmers are making what look like obviously irrational decisions about what to grow on their land. Actually, I think it's entirely the fault of grossly irresponsible government policy, and that farmers have simply bought into it for sensible, if purely selfish, reasons. And unlike Sup, who thinks, according to his comment on Jennifer's "Just entertainment?" (January 18, 2013 at 3:27 PM), I don't think we are "as white papers", but that some traits are deeply programmed in our genetic make-up and are elements of a human nature common to every human society.
Peter, I totally agree with you in the failure of government policy. In the exam last semester, I had to analyse the consequence of this rice pledging policy. From my perspective, it is unreasonable for storing a massive amount of rice in the warehouses. Demand for Thai rice these days has been much lower than in the past due to a higher price, which is a result of the rice pledging. Thai farmers have sold their products to the government because they might think that it’s no use keeping rice stocks with them. However, if this policy was really good for them, why Thai farmers are still poor? This is because people who directly gain benefits from this illusive policy are the middlemen, the millers and the government, receiving too many votes. It’s a pity that our taxes are used to push unrealistic higher price for crops. Thailand has been losing a great deal of share in rice market while other competitors, such as Vietnam and India, are gaining more and more market share. When I went to an event launched by ministry of commerce, there was a seminar about Thai products. I asked the government officer on the stage what is a plan or policy to cope with a lower market share of Thai products, especially rice. He then answered that Thailand always holds the largest market share in ASEAN and we don’t need to concern about this problem because it will never happen in the future. I was extremely disappointed with his very optimistic answer. We have to keep our eyes open and prepare for the negative outcomes of the policy. Most of the policies yield only short-term benefits. It is indisputably true that the rice pledging policy and the first-car policy are examples of its failure.
Delete"Optimistic answer"? Soi is much to kind.
DeleteWhen I hear about the food crisis or famine, I always think of overweighting problem. One part of the earth suffers from shortage of food; another part suffers from overeating disease. It looks like totally be balanced. The problem is not just governments or farmers' fault. We have to see who has the power of control of the food tread. Some trainers have their stocks until the price up.
ReplyDeleteAs a food consumer, I have learned we have to spare our food. Actually, in Korea, after adding money to our wasting food, the quantity of wasting food was decreased. However, I'm not sure it is helpful for food saving or food crisis. I think it's more helpful for the saving price of process of wastes.
Food, Cloth, House, and Medicine are the basic needs of human. In addition, I have had many chances to travel to many countries, and I have learned a lot lessons including a situation of food supply. I always feel lucky that I am a Thai citizen and live in Thailand - the country that is plentiful supply of food. However, according to receiving and studying more information about value chains of food industry in Thailand, I have concerned and not been confident about food security and sustainability in Thailand. Only gigantic three companies control the whole food industry and capture the whole value in this chain; that is, farmers and fisherpeople have no enough oxygen(economic margin) to live. I hope not only me who know and concern about this situation but also people who have authority in Thai government will concern and implement some measures to manage this industry and help farmers.
ReplyDeleteFrom Thailand to the world, as I mentioned in an initial section, I experienced difficulties to find quality food in many countries, and that quality food is very expensive. Therefore, I think many people in those countries also face difficulties as me. In my opinion, this is one sign of food scarcity, and might be a factor for food crisis.
I had never concerned about food crisis until I read this article. This problem seems to be more serious than I thought. One reason that made me underestimate it is that I, myself, have never faced the food crisis seeing that there are abundant choices of food in Thailand, as an old saying goes “Nai nam mee pla. Nai na mee khao. -- There are fish in the water and rice in the field”. However, considering some rural areas in Thailand, I believe that people who live there still lack good quality food and face serious malnourishment. Poverty leads to unhealthy and insufficient diet. For example, I did a university project in a school located in Don-faek, Nakorn Prathom, last year and found out that there were only few small pieces of pork in young students’ lunch. The school did not have enough money to buy decent food for poor students. It would be beneficial for the students’ well-being if the school had provided high nutritious food for them since nutrients take part in their growth and health quality.
ReplyDeleteI've also heard that old saying: "There are fish in the water and rice in the field". But I wonder if it was ever true, or if it's just a nice sounding myth. And Soi's own following observations seem to contradict this pleasant sounding notion about the past - if there are people in some areas today who "still lack good quality food and face serious malnourishment", isn't that likely to have been even more common in more areas in the past?
DeleteAgain, there seems to me a useful research project here, although this one might be a bit more ambitious than we are aiming for this term. But we focussing on issues of modern life, so can probably side-step this interesting historical study that might involve a lot of less readily accessible research.
The old Thai saying reminds me of people in my culture who look back to "the good old days" when life was safer, crime lower, rape unheard of, families were stronger, and so on. The trouble is that even a little solid research quickly proves all those quaint notions to be completely false. I guess they are not lies, but they aren't much better if people go around believing such things for no good reason except that ... Except that what? Why do such false opinions become so very popular? (This does sound like a more modern issue.)
I must say that Soi's recent set of comments have been very stimulating.