I suggest you read the following:
nass.usda.gov/Newsroom/2012/03_30_2012.asp
"In the poorest developing countries, most farming resembles the primitive rural economy of 19th century Europe. 500 million smallholders labour on plots of less than two hectares, attempting to feed about two billion people, almost a third of humanity.
"This model struggles against the elements and creates one of the ironies of the modern world - that three-quarters of global hunger is located amongst farmers and their workers. Most of the remaining quarter is found amongst the urban poor.
"International Drivers of Food Insecurity
"Each of the dominant drivers of food insecurity has its origins in the developed economies, beyond the control of poorer countries. To this extent, world hunger is a consequence of the unequal political and economic relations of globalisation.
"World Food Prices
"World food prices are determined by traders active on international commodity markets. They are influenced by a range of factors, real and imagined, of which the most important is the price of oil. The (name removed by moderator)uts and operations of modern farming are highly dependent on oil products.
"The outcome of this pricing process impinges on over 75 developing countries which are net importers of food. Almost all those classified as Least Developed Countries fall into this category.
"Food prices are critical to social stability in poor countries because the world’s poorest two billion people spend 50%-70% of their incomes on food. They have no mechanism to cope with rising prices other than to reduce the volume or nutritional quality of their consumption.
"When the FAO Cereal Price Index doubled in the year to April 2008, food riots in 23 countries prompted a global crisis. Another round of increases, of similar extent, was triggered in mid-2010 in the aftermath of poor harvests and export bans in Russia and Ukraine. The transmission of these international prices to local markets varies in degree and the consequences remain uncertain.
"World Trade Rules
"This succession of unstable price hikes in global food markets offers strong evidence that the world’s trade regime for agriculture is unfit for purpose. It certainly fails by any measure of justice between rich and poor countries.
"Determined to support the dominant profile of small family farms in the aftermath of the Second World War, the European Common Agricultural Policy and the US Farm Bill both provided generous subsidies and protective tariffs. These policies proved successful, generating colossal internal food surpluses.
"Ambitions of the poorer countries of the modern world to copy this approach remain unfulfilled. This is largely because they are bound by the system of open market rules adopted by the World Trade Organization in 1995. At the same time, the richer countries refused to unravel their own protectionist model.
"This hypocrisy remains a fundamental barrier to development and food security. Developing countries find their domestic markets undercut by cheap food imports dumped by rich countries. Exporters encounter trade barriers erected in Europe and US.
“According to a report by the group of richer OECD countries, the total support paid to their agriculture producers in 2009 totalled $253 billion. This is more than six times the UN’s estimate of the annual cost of eradicating hunger by 2025.”
Peace,
Ed
