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| Source: businessinsider.com |
With
prices of corn, wheat, soybean and other staples steadily rising, all three
United Nations food agencies have this week issued a joint appeal calling for prompt action to avert a
major global food crisis.
The
heads of the World Food Program (WFP), Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and
International Fund for Agriculture Development warned in a statement that the
sharp rise in food prices in recent months threatens to make life even more
difficult for tens of millions of people in both less developed and Western
countries.
They
called for less developed countries to “expand assistance for small-scale
farmers and food aid to mothers and children, promote sustainable food production
through better investment and adjust biofuel production requirements”.
Going
above and beyond the UN’s call for “adjusting biofuel production requirements”,
Nestlé, the world's largest food company, chimed in by calling on the US and EU to scrap
their biofuel targets altogether because of the price rises and food shortages
to follow. Speaking at World
Water Week
conference in Sweden, Paul Bulcke, Nestlé chief executive, was pretty frank in
his assessment. “We say no food for fuel.
Agricultural food-based biofuel is an aberration,” he said.
The
food vs fuel debate looks set to continue as this crisis unfolds, but the
greater aberration is arguably the commodities bubble that threatens to drive
food prices even higher as financial speculators cash in on the crisis. With crop failures and drought taking their
toll on supermarket prices, can we really afford to allow Glencore and friends
to “make a killing” (in more ways than one)?
Blog by Neil Bradley
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