Many Australians are irritated by ever rising food prices at the supermarket. It will throw more strain on welfare agencies but it is unlikely that any Australian citizen will actually starve to death as a result.
Few have bothered to think through the effect of rising world food prices on countries such as India, China, Bangladesh - all of Africa - where millions of people exist on as little as two dollars a day.
The rising food prices phenomenon can point the finger at our love of the automobile. The food producing and exporting countries are those of the developed world - and that devloped world is reducing farmland from grain crops for food to grain crops for ethanol production. This invokes the first rule of commerce. Shortage of supply equates to a rise in that products price.
The developing world is hit with a double whammy. Not only are food prices rising rapidly, but the price of the other essential - cooking fuel - is a victim of price increases as the cost of crude exceeds a hundred dollars a barrel.
Already there have been riots and the burning of market stalls in places like Haiti and parts of India as the poor react in the only way they know.
But the worst is yet to come. Just as it takes little to spook a herd of cattle to produce a stampede, the spectre of famine causes vast populations to vote with their feet. International borders mean nothing to hungry people and we are about to see the balance of this new century produce turmoil as a billion people seek to rearrange the planet as they head for where they hope food will be available.
There will be resistence to that migration from those whose lands are being invaded - and for much of the world that means conflict.
The automobile has a lot to answer for. This is not a case of a huge food shortage. The quantity being produced has only dropped fractionally, but that drop has induced entrepeneurs who control supply to raise prices - and once the price cycle starts moving is seems impossible to stop.
We are arriving at the stage where there is a plentiful supply of food on the shelves of the world's shops - but the price asked is beyond the meagre wages of individuals. The multitude starves in sight of plenty !
Those reports of food riots at present occupying small paragraphs in the centre pages of newspapers will shortly become front page banner headlines. Food shortages are about to invoke a mass movement of people not seen since the middle ages - and Australia will not be exempt.
No comments:
Post a Comment