Global food crisis looms
Empty shelves in Caracas. Food riots in West Bengal and Mexico.
Warnings of hunger in Jamaica, Nepal, the Philippines and sub-Saharan Africa.
Soaring prices for basic foods are beginning to lead to political instability, with governments being forced to step in to artificially control the cost of bread, maize, rice and dairy products.
Record world prices for most staple foods have led to 18% food price inflation in China, 13% in Indonesia and Pakistan, and 10% or more in Latin America, Russia and India, according to the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO).
Wheat has doubled in price, maize is nearly 50% higher than a year ago and rice is 20% more expensive, says the UN.
These are caused by climate change and peak oil. Read more at the Guardian .
unreadable complexity?
The global situation is very difficult to predict.
“There is no one cause but a lot of things are coming together to lead to this. It’s hard to separate out the factors,” said Ali Gurkan, head of the FAO’s Food Outlook programme.
Changes are rarely linear. That is to say, it is not a 2+2 situation. It follows a curve. Research is telling us it is an accelerating curve.
But beyond that, it seems to have switch points.
Researchers have already identified nine tipping points in the factors building this curve. There may be more.
And the most important tipping point is the point of no return.
James Lovelock, one of the original environmentalists, feels we’ve already passed it.
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