Next few years may be tough

We may have not seen such headlines in many decades.

Food prices are soaring, and in the poorest nations of the world — in parts of the Caribbean, South East Asia and Africa — the cost of basic foodstuffs means that the line of subsistence is being eradicated. The next stop for these people is starvation.


The estimate is that 100 million people will see their current means to buy food siginificantly curtailed, if not eradicated.

This is not about a lack of food. We’ve seen famines before, and they are never about a shortage of food for all. Those who starve in famines are generally those who can no longer afford to pay rising food prices.

As with prior famines, the one upcoming is not so much about food as money. Poor harvests happen, and no one is saying there is a lack of wheat or rice. What is happening is that the effect of poor crops, whether in rice or wheat, is being exacerbated by the global energy crisis.

Nanaimo Daily News (Canada)