Do you remember when your mother told you to clean your plate because "there are starving children in" fill-in-the-blank-country? The reason I say that is now you practically could fill-in-the blank with any country. Some are even killing each other in riots ... over food. Imagine that.
In many countries there are people who are hungry. This crisis seems to have crept up on us over the last few months. The United Nations food envoy has called this crisis a "silent tsunami." She said, "Global food price rises are leading to "silent mass murder,' and commodities have brought 'horror' to the world."
Some nations have witnessed first hand the "horror" she speaks of. The rise in food prices have sparked protests and riots in Mexico, Haiti, Argentina, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Cameroon, Sierra Leone, Senegal and Peru. Food protests even disrupted India's parliament. It is an even deadlier situation in countries that have faced civil unrest or war such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, Congo and Syria (who has had to take on the burden of the Iraqi refugees).
Millions of people over the last six months have been added to the urgent hunger category. This crisis threatens to place "100 million people on every continent into hunger," states the executive director of the U.N. World Food Program. The U.N. has already cut the provisions of school meals to some of the world's poorest children. The World Food Bank was recently begging for donations as it is running out of food and money.
What happened? Of course one factor is weather. Some nations have experienced flooding and droughts, which limit production. We here have had the issue of drought and flood.
Another cause is bio-fuel. Most of us know that it was definitely not the best idea to make fuel from the food supply. That just makes the prices go higher while taking food from someone's belly to put in their car.
Of course that has nothing to do with intelligence but everything to do with arrogance. And this fact isn't hidden from us as the iFuel Corporate Advisory stated that "food prices would persist for some years." This is asinine, especially when we had the electric car just years ago.
Then there are the speculators and hedge funds that are making a killing, literally, on driving up the prices of basic commodities. While increases in population and bio-fuels have something to do with this crisis, it is also a result of the credit crisis. Since the collapse of the financial derivative markets, speculation in commodity futures seems to be profitable. The "commodities super-cycle" as it is called on Wall Street, is causing global famine. These people are making money off of starving people!
While we here in the United States may not have seen rioting and protests yet, we have seen the price of food rise around 17 percent. We see that every time we go to the grocery store. One statistic states that now more people are on the food stamp program than at any other time. We have also had rationing of rice as recently as April.
Some people are beginning to hoard. So the fear is there. Fear breeds hatred. This, of course, added to the already suffering population due to the job market, the economy as a whole and higher gas prices. Unfortunately, this is bound to spark violence right here at home.
There isn't anything one can do to stop a tsunami, not even this one. People will steal and kill to fill their bellies or the bellies of their children. This is not only a threat to the national security of every nation but a threat to humanity itself.
SHARRYN JOHNSON WAS RAISED IN ORANGE COUNTY AND NOW LIVES IN WILSON COUNTY.