FOOD CRISIS

Causes for food crisis

 Increase in population and due to economic ,social and
political constraints many countries are unable to be self
sufficient in food and agricultural production
 Sharply rising food prices
 Severe droughts and floods, soil erosion and climatic
changes
 Loss of cultivated land
 Loss of soil fertility
 The increase in the price of the oil which doubled in 2008
and 2009 has caused a big rise in the price of fertilizers
and the transport related to the food system
 Food crisis has left after another 925
million hungry people according to United
Nations Food And Agriculture
Organization (FAO)
 FAO estimates says that food prices will
remain high in the coming years and as a
result poor countries will suffer the effects
of food crisis
 According to the FAO in food price index
there was an increase of 12% from the
year of 2005 to 2006
 24% in 2007 and nearly 50% in the year
2008
 And prices have increased 83% in the last
three years
 Increase in the food prices has made it
impossible to gain access to it
 In the recent years price of milk increased by
26%
 Onions by 20%
 Sunflower oil by 34%
 Chicken by 16%
 This has been the trend for most of the food
products according to the data provided by the
ministry of Industry, Tourism and Commerce at
the end of 2007
 Fall in grain reserves-----unavailability of
food grains for next season ,contamination
of crop seeds
 The number of people who are hungry can
be reduced only by redistributing
purchasing power ,and resources among
those who are malnourished
 If the poor have no money to buy food,
increased production will solve nothing
 Increasing monocultures for export and reducing
agriculture for local consumption creates a
negative impact on food security and
dependence on international markets
 The massive privatization of public enterprises
mostly to the benefit of northern multinationals.
Such policies had a direct impact on local
agricultural food production and food security,
leaving these countries at the mercy of market
and the international firm supporting these
policies
 Consequences Of Food Crisis
 Financial crisis due to increase in food prices in
many countries
 Food system no longer responds to the
nutritional needs of the people nor to the
sustainable production with respect to
environment
 Its based on a model rooted in seeking the
maximum profit, optimization of costs, and
exploitation of labour force in it productive
sectors
 Common goods such as water, land seeds have
been privatized ,robbed from the people and
converted into exchange currency at the mercy
of highest bidder
 The current model of agriculture production and
industrial ranching contributes to deepening the
ecological crisis with a direct impact on the
generation of climatic change
 Agro industry is one of the main sources of the
generation of green house gases
 14% of the GHG’ s are from current agro
industry
 Over exploitation of soil and natural resources
leads to the release of green house gases from
forests, crops and pasture and intensive farming
ends up generating CO2
 Seriously affects biodiversity
 Mechanized production model with the use of
agro chemicals, monoculture, giant tractors to till
soil releases significant amount of NO2 and CO2
 Food we eat travels thousands of miles to get to
our table with consequent environmental effect
in terms of fossil fuels used for transport
 Commercial and productive approach has
predominated over what is ecological and
sustainable (greater demand in terms of
color, size etc.)
 So oil, food and energy crisis are
intimately linked and the causes for the
first are also responsible for the second
 Solutions
 Talk of extracting more food from the land we
have
 Concentration of fertile agriculture land for
increased food production
 The situation of food insecurity has led certain
govts like Saudi Arabia, Japan, Korea, Libya,
Egypt and other countries
reliant on food imports to acquire farmlands in
different parts of the world with the objective of
producing food themselves for domestic
consumption
 Land, seeds and water have to be returned to
the farmers so that they can feed themselves
and can sell their products to local communities,
the surplus being assigned to fair international
trade
 This method of agriculture have guaranteed food
security for broad sections of the population
through diversification of crops, care of land and
water, the creation of local markets and
community food systems
 For this sustainable production and distribution
of food supplies we need the political will to
implement them
 Govts should support small –scale and
sustainable production ,it allow us to regenerate
soil, save fuels ,reduce global warming and to
achieve food sovereignty
 Govts should give absolute priority to domestic
food production to reduce dependence on
international trade
 Small farmers would have to be supported with
best prices for their products and more stable
markets to produce food for themselves and
their communities
 Public policies must promote indigenous farming
which is sustainable, organic, free of
pesticides ,and chemicals
 It is necessary to generate mechanisms to
stabilize market prices ,control imports, set
quotas ,prohibit dumping and at the time of over
production create specific reserves for times of
food shortage
 Benefits
 Agro ecological production provides income,
money and food to the poor while generating
surplus for the product
 The restoration of agriculture in to the hands of
peasantry will allow us to ensure universal
access to food
 More productive capacity of land
 Investment in the household peasant production
is the best guarantee for eradicating poverty and
hunger because 3/4th of the world’s poorest
people are small farmers
 Who gains?
 The global food crisis benefits the
multinationals that monopolize each one of
the links in the chain of production,
processing and distribution of food
 It’s a global agro industrial complex that
has been growing for half a century
,supported by public funds, international
cooperation and international agricultural
development policies
 In 2007 the main seed companies ,Monsanto
and Du Pont declared the increased profits of
44% and 19% resp. for the previous year
 The largest fertilizer companies Potash corp,
Yara and Sinochem declared increased profits
by 72% ,44% and 95% resp.
 The same happened with the food processors
like Nestle with profits up by 7% in the same
period
 The great supermarket chain in Britan ,Tesco
declared an increased profit of 12.3%
 Cases of Haiti and Mexico
 Until 30 years ago this country produced all the
rice needed to feed its population ,but in the
middle of 1980’s faced with a situation of acute
economic crisis (Haitian dictator Jean Claude left
the country emptying its coffers) ,it began
lending from the international monetary fund
 A spiral of "domination" began that took the
country deeper into political and economic
dependency on the international financial
institutions and, in particular in relation to the
United States.
 For these loans, Haiti is was forced to apply a
series of structural adjustment policies and trade
liberalization with the reduction of tariffs
protecting the production of crops, including rice
 This opening allowed the indiscriminate entry of
subsidized US rice sold far below the price at
which local farmers could produce it
 They lost their jobs and fled to the cities
 After a few years of cheap imported rice, local
production dropped miserably".
 A fact which led to the most absolute misery for
Haitian peasants who, unable to compete with
this rice, abandoned their crops
 Today, Haiti has become one of the main
importers of US rice.
 Accordingly, when in April 2008, the price of rice,
beans, and fruit rose by more than 50% in Haiti;
this made access to them impossible for most of
the population
 Several days of riots in the poorest country
in Latin America, where the adult diet is
1,640 calories (640 less than the required
average according to the UN World Food
Programme), highlighted the extent of the
tragedy
 Faced with the impossibility of buying
food, they eat tortillas made of mud with
salt.
What interest could the US have in the Haitian rice market
?
when it is the poorest country in Latin America

 In Haiti, 78 per cent of the population lives

on less than two dollars a day, and life
expectancy is 59 years
 But, according to the US Agriculture
Department, in 2008, Haiti was the third
largest importer of US rice, highly
subsidized by the US Government by
billions of dollars per year
 And who are the beneficiaries?
 Between 1995 and 2006, for example, a
single producer, Riceland Foods Inc.,
received $500 million in grants
 According to the Washington Post in 2006,
the US government paid at least 1.3 billion
dollars in grants since 2000 to individuals
who had never grown anything
 Mexico
 Mexico, the cradle of maize, is another textbook example
of the wrenching away of food sovereignty
 The US government subsidies to the production of agro-
fuels meant that producing maize for ethanol was more
profitable than food production and consequently pushed
its price up.
 In August 1982, the Mexican government declared itself
bankrupt to repay its foreign debt, but the situation of
social and economic crisis forced the government to
indebt itself with commercial banks and international
institutions
 Resulted in a massive influx of highly subsidized US
maize, flooding markets, undercutting local maize prices
and plunging the sector into a deep crisis.
 This situation has generated the massive
abandonment of the Mexican countryside
by small producers of maize and rice and
stock breeders who cannot compete with
the subsidized US products and flee to the
"planet of slums"
 Organic Farming
Farming without synthetic pesticides and
fertilizers

An ecological production management

system that promotes and enhances
biodiversity, biogeochemical cycles and soil
biological activity

It is based on minimal use of off-farm inputs

and on management practices that restore ,
maintain and enhance ecological harmony
Advantages Of Organic farming
 Organically grown food is dramatically superior
in its mineral content to that grown by modern
conventional methods. Better nourished plant
will provide better nourishment to people and
animals alike
 Its free of contamination with health harming
chemicals such as pesticides, fungicides,
herbicides
 Organically grown food tastes better than the
conventionally grown
 Organically grown food can be stored longer and
do not subjected to rapid mold and rotting
 A healthy plant grown organically in properly
balanced soil resist most diseases and insect
pests
 Weed competiveness – able to compete with
weeds in fields
 Lower input costs – no need of expensive
agrochemicals---- fertilizers are created by green
manuring, crop rotation, farm composting and
worm farming or low cost microbial solution
sprayed on the crops
 Organically grown plants are more drought
tolerant
 Added value ---- There is a discerning
market of consumers who recognize the
greater food value of organic produce and
are willing to pay premium prices for it
Disadvantages of Organic Farming
 In the short term more yield in industrialized
agriculture (superior productivity) due to
massive inputs of chemicals, machinery and
working on monoculture. Industrialized
agriculture thrashes the land, and diminishes its
soil life to the point where it can no longer
function to convert available organic matter into
soil fertility
 Organic farming benefits food production without
destroying our environmental resources,
ensuring sustainability for not only the current
but also future generations.
 Cultivation --- Direct drilling of seed into
herbicide treated soils, organic farmers are
usually at least partly dependent on
cultivation to remove weeds prior to
sowing. In contrast to cultivation, direct
drilling does not mechanically disrupt soil
structure and removes the risk of exposed
soil being lost to wind or water erosion
 GM Crops --- Organic growers do not use
genetically modified or engineered food crops,
some of which are engineered to tolerate
herbicides (e.g. “Roundup Ready Canola”) or
resist pests (e.g. Bollworm resistant cotton).
Conventional growers, on the other hand, are
free to “take advantage” of GM crops. GM crops
may be associated with harm to both human
health and the environment. The main concern
is that once they are released it is highly
impossible to “un-release” them.
 Time --- Organic farming requires greater
interaction between a farmer and his crop for
observation, timely intervention and weed
control . It is inherently more labor intensive than
chemical/mechanical agriculture so that,
naturally a single farmer can produce more crop
using industrial methods than he or she could by
solely organic methods. It takes time to build a
healthy farm ecosystem that copes well without
synthetic crutches
 Skill ---- It requires considerably more skill
to farm organically . They have to engage
careful observation and greater
understanding in order to know how to
tweak their farming system to correct the
cause of the problem in their field. Their
most valuable remedies and advice come
from other organic farmers.
 Environmental effects of Organic
Farming
 Climate Friendly --- Organic agriculture with its
low input needs of naturally derived substances
produces less greenhouse gas emissions and is
considerably more climate friendly. The synthetic
inputs upon which conventional agriculture is so
dependent are energy expensive to mine and
manufacture. Today the embodied energy of
industrial agriculture uses up 9 calories for every
1 calorie of food that it produces!
 Ecologically Friendly --- It doesn't use soluble
fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides. Farmers
pour tons of phosphate and nitrogenous fertilizer
on their cropping lands every year. Because it is
soluble, much of this fertilizer is either washed
off the soil surface and into waterways
(especially phosphates) or leaches through the
soil profile beyond the reach of plants and finds
its way less directly into waterways (especially
nitrates). The soluble nutrient pollutants that
contaminate surface waters fuel the overgrowth
of algae.
 Adverse effects of modern
agriculture on water and soil
resources
 Damage to soil --- (wind and water erosion
of exposed top soil) Soil erosion from
farm lands threatens the productivity of
agricultural fields----it removes the surface
soils, containing most of the organic
matter, plant nutrients , fine soil particles,
which helps to retain water and nutrients in
the root zone of plants
 Decline in soil productivity is due to
 Wind and water erosion
 Soil compaction
 Loss of organic matter
 Loss of water holding capacity
 Reduction in biological activity
 Desertification due to overgrazing
 Salinization of soils in irrigated farming areas
 Contamination of water --- farming is one
of the potential source of water
contamination-------surface run off carries
manure, sediments, salts, fertilizers
(nitrates and phosphorous and pesticides
into streams ,rivers lakes and
reservoirs-----water percolating downward
------ eutrophication and dead zones-----
reduced water quality------drinking water
supply ---fishery production
 Water scarcity --- due to over use of
surface and ground water for irrigation with
little concern for natural water cycle
 Global climatic change – Destruction of
tropical forests , and natural vegetation for
agricultural production – elevated GHG
levels ------- soils may be the sources and
sinks for GHG’s
 Water logging ----- when the soils are over
irrigated ---- Water logging occurs in the areas of
clayey soils ---- soil root zone become saturated
with water and wont get enough amount of
oxygen
 Soil salinity------- over irrigated --- surplus water
evaporated ---- salts dissolved left behind
increasing the salinity------- fruit crops and
vegetables more sensitive to salinity ---
interferes the water uptake by plants
 Problems with fertilizers
 Contamination of water with nitrates, phosphates
and potassium
 Run off from agricultural fields---
eutrophication ,dead zones
 Three major nutrients I n fertilizers are nitrogen
phosphorous and potassium---- nitrogen more
soluble in nitrate form------ leaching of nitrogen
--------ground water contamination ----dangerous
to human health
 Phosphorous cannot be readily washed out but
bound with soil particles and then washed
off-----eutrophication ------- kills the aquatic life
 Potassium not highly hazardous in
drinking water ----- not a limiting nutrient
for the growth of aquatic plants
 Pesticides
 The following are the qualities of an ideal
pest killing chemical
 Kills only the target pest
 Has no short term or long term health effects on non target
organisms ,including people
 Can be broken down into harmless chemicals in a fairly short
time
 Prevents the development of genetic resistance in target
organisms

 Chlorinated hydro carbons, organo phosphates carbamates pyrethroids

 Benefits of pesticides
 Benefits of pesticides outweigh their harmful effects
 They increase food supplies and lower food costs
 Increase profits for farmers
 They work faster and better than the other alternatives-
control most pests quickly and at a reasonable cost
 Safer and more effective products are continually being
developed – cause less ecological damage --- effective at
very low dosage rates
 Pesticides save lives -- Since world war II DDT and other
chlorinated hydrocarbon and organo phosphate
insecticides have probably prevented the premature
deaths of at least 7 million people from insect transmitted
 diseases such as malaria (anopheles mosquito ,bubonic
plague (rat fleas) ,typhus , sleeping sickness

 Problem of Pesticides
 Development of genetic resistance—when an area is
sprayed with a pesticide most of the pest organisms are
killed .Few pests survive by chance ------can produce
large number of similarly resistant offspring in short time
 Weeds , rodents (mostly rats) ,pests, insects, flies ,fungi
have developed this genetic resistance
 Alternative methods of insect
control
 Crop rotation – types of crops planted are
changed from year to year so that population of
pest that attack a same crop has no time to
multiply to uncontrollable sizes
 Planting rows of trees in and around the crop
fields to act as barriers to invasions by insect
pests, providing habitat to their natural enemies
and to prevent soil erosion
 Adjusting the planting times to ensure that most
major insect pests starve to death before the
crop is available or are consumed by natural
predators
 Growing crops in areas where their major
pests do not exist
 Destroy diseased or infected plants
 Switching from monoculture to modernized
versions of inter cropping , agro forestry
and poly culture that use plant diversity to
help control pests
 Artificial selection ,cross breeding ,
genetical variation can also be practiced