In the last year, the average price of corn has increased by some 60 percent, soybeans by 76 percent, wheat by 54 percent, and rice by 104 percent. These raging prices have pushed common agricultural goods out of reach of many of the world’s poor – the Food and Agriculture Organization estimates an additional 50 million people have gone hungry over the last year. This week, the G8 will discuss how the elite club can contribute to alleviating the global food crisis.
Dr. Jennifer Clapp, the CIGI Chair in International Governance at the University of Waterloo, has been quite clear that the G8 must respond to the food crisis. In a recent Globe and Mail commentary, she said that “it is vital that rich-country governments recognize their part in creating the food vulnerability now faced by many developing countries. They must step up to the plate and provide the necessary assistance in both the short and the long term.”
Already, there are early indications of what the G8 leaders are planning to agree to. The Asahi Shimbun reports that summit sherpas agreed to a food stockpile system where each G8 country would amass specific amounts of food stuffs, particularly grains, and store them in climate controlled warehouses. At times of grain market destabilization, the G8 would then release its stockpiles into the market, in an effort to calm prices. This system would follow in a similar model to the oil stockpiles encouraged by the International Energy Agency.
This proposed action, can be seen as a response to pressure from the World Bank president Robert Zoellick who has urged the major industrialized nations to take responsibility for the ongoing food crisis. Some activity has been seen. In response to the UN food summit in June, many G8 countries have made significant pledges to increase food aid, while deployment of these funds have been criticized as slow. The idea of stockpile could likely spark a debate on the need for more effective food trade that could halt food crises before they start. If G8 countries have enough food to stockpile, why should the world’s poor go hungry now?
As final pre-Summit planning closed on Friday, Japan’s Foreign Minister announced an additional $50- million of food aid funding. Speaking to the proposed action, he said that “there remain the issues such as whether to actually keep stockpiles in warehouses or to keep account on the books, and of course, we will also discuss how to ensure swift delivery in emergencies.’’ Also on the leaders’ agenda will be collective solutions to address the slowing global economy, trade restrictions on agriculture, and introduction of non-fuel biofuels.
For detailed examination of the sources and effects of the food crisis, view Dr Clapp’s CIGI lecture (13 May): The Global Food Crisis: Causes, Consequences, Solutions?
Tags: food, Food Security, G8, Grains, Jennifer Clapp, Stockpile, World Bank
