Too many chasing scarce resources

Growing For A Better Future is the title of a recently-published report commissioned by British charity Oxfam. The study reveals the growing apprehensions around the world related to an escalating world population chasing the planet’s scarce resources.

The vertiginous rise in all types of commodities, be they oil, gold, steel, cement or simple but extremely vital products such as wheat, sugar and rice, is leaving indelible marks on the standard of living of many around the globe. Clearly, the poorer nations have already been affected significantly but now even citizens in developed and supposedly wealthy nations are starting to feel the pinch. The unyielding prices fuelling supply and demand, coupled with projected population growths in the not-too-distant future, do not bode well and may become catalysts for more global economic and social shocks.

The author of the report, Robert Bailey, cuttingly describes today’s crisis as “the product of a grotesque global injustice”. Mr Bailey speaks of unsustainable consumption and production patterns that are clearly affecting our planet’s ecological limits. It is a scathing attack on the slovenly almost “paralytic” way governments have refused to step in and regulate. He is especially critical of multinationals and special interest groups that have, in the last 50 years, grossly monopolised industrial production to the exclusion of small producers. Oxfam has estimated that, at present, 925 million people around the world are suffering from real hunger. The steady increase in food prices has, so far this year, forced 44 million individuals into poverty with its attendant repercussions on health and other social issues.

Some of the facts that emerge from the report almost beggar belief. For example, it is estimated that just three agribusiness firms – Cargill, Bunge and ADM – control an overwhelming 90 per cent of grain trading in the world. The amount of arable land per head has almost halved since 1960. Oxfam’s projected nine billion people by 2050 will significantly reduce this further as, increasing, demand for food will rise by 70 per cent.

Consumers in rich countries may waste as much as a quarter of the food they buy. While millions suffer hunger, in more than half the industrialised countries, 50 per cent or more of the population is overweight! Ironically, while grain prices rise worldwide (affecting the prices of many products such as bread, cereals and pasta), support for biofuels (where grain ends up in cars rather than bellies) is costing $20 billion a year. This has led to 40 per cent of US crops transformed into biofuels. And the list goes on!

But Growing For A Better Future is not simply a doom and gloom report with strong left-wing sentiments. Oxfam is clearly ready to speak of solutions and alternatives to this unsustainable direction. First and foremost is the need to address the huge inequalities that exist between the haves and the have-nots. Mr Bailey believes that, while most hunger and poverty is concentrated in rural areas, the potential of smallholder agriculture has remained untapped. There is a need for aid in the form of technology and credit that may unlock this impasse. Evidently, food aid should be a solution of last resort. Empowering small land owners could break the deadlock of dependency and lead to more sustainable patterns of production.

The report identifies a number of causes for the present unsustainable rise in food and commodity prices. The chief suspects are the oil price hikes that have filtered through almost all economic activity. Secondly, there is little doubt that speculative capital is creating a potential financial bubble and, last but not least, increasingly freakish weather patterns creating droughts and floods destroying entire crops and disrupting supply. As regards speculation, it is essential that these excesses are curbed through regulation and more transparent trading systems. Clearly, stronger world institutions are needed.

Institutions must come together not only to manage risk but also to have concrete contingency plans that would protect the weakest and the most vulnerable in the event of natural calamity. Mr Bailey speaks of “global governance”. By this he means a concerted effort to reduce skewed regulation that permits illogical subsidies, trade distortion and nationalistic export restrictions that continue to muddle an already complex situation and slows down the movement of resources where they are most needed.

Mr Bailey believes we are on the way to this much-needed transformation. He speaks of individuals, organisations and movements who slowly but surely have undertaken to change the current impasse. He mentions Brazil as a typical example. In the last 20 years, through its civil society and social movements, Brazil has challenged the power of restricted elites that have dominated the country for centuries. Effective politicians with appropriate policies and legislation have managed to reduce hunger in Brazil by a staggering third between 2000 and 2007.

Another typical example is Vietnam, which has had comparable results, especially through land reform and subsidies to small landowners.

Political will is essential to address the social and environmental costs although, admittedly, the economic climate does little to encourage politicians to be proactive in this regard. Concerted efforts by all stakeholders should strive to ensure that a new path is laid to ensure that the world has equitable food reserves, which are, as far as possible, evenly distributed to avoid famine and decrease greed.

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