Food riots underscore 'tsunami of need'

-- Newscom/Zuma Press: Workers in a rice market in Jakarta, Indonesia, March 29. Rice prices on world markets have jumped 50 percent since January and at least doubled since 2004.In Haiti, mud cakes are a traditional remedy for hunger pangs among the poorest of the poor. Made from dried dirt mixed with salt, shortening and sugar, some say the cakes have a buttery flavor. But now even that meager meal is proving too costly.

The cost of mud cakes has tripled over the last three years as prices for shortening continue to rise. Food riots have been so severe in Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, that hungry protesters stormed the presidential gates, sparking the ouster of Haiti’s prime minister, Jacques-Édouard Alexis. During a protest at U.N. headquarters in the southern Haitian town of Les Cayes in early April, Reuters reported, one demonstrator shouted into a reporter’s microphone: “This hunger is unbearable and the government has to act now, otherwise we will burn down and destroy everything.”

Hunger is particularly dire in the Caribbean, where island nations depend on imports and food prices are up 40 to 80 percent, in some places. But the demonstrator’s violent outcry finds echoes across the globe.

Worldwide food prices have spiked. The cost of oil, needed for fertilizer, irrigation and transportation, is at a record high. The increasing demand for biofuels also pressures food markets. And better living standards in countries such as China and India have resulted in more consumption of meat -- which means producing more grain to feed the animals that will be eaten. All this, along with failed crops, climate change effects and the lowest commodity stocks in decades in many countries, is causing a global crisis.

In the past few months, when most of the cost increase has taken place, food-related riots have broken out from Haiti to Uzbekistan, from Mexico to Indonesia to Yemen. At least two dozen deaths have been reported after the worldwide protests.

World Bank president Robert Zoellick has said his organization estimates that 33 countries are facing possible political and social unrest because of the climb in food and energy prices.

On April 14, in response to the global food crisis, President Bush ordered the release of $200 million in emergency aid. The money will come from the Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust, a reserve fund, and will be made available through the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Bush’s move came one day after Zoellick appealed to governments to provide the United Nations World Food Program, the largest international provider, which counts on the United States for 40 percent of its distribution, with $500 million in emergency aid that it needs by May 1.

“We are seeing a quiet tsunami of need,” said Josette Sheeran, director of the World Food Program. “The program’s ability to deliver has diminished just because of the soaring cost of food.

“We’re in a new dynamic when food and energy become intertwined. When corn or palm oil or any other kind of product goes to biofuels, it very much affects the global food supply,” Sheeran said.

Sheeran was speaking at an international conference on food aid held in Kansas City, Mo., April 14 to 16. “The world has been consuming more food than it produces for the last three years,” she said.

Wheat prices alone shot up 25 percent in one day during March, she noted. “This is really the first emergency we’ve faced without a drought, war or natural disaster.”

Over 800 million people in the world live on the edge, making less than a dollar a day. “Presently they face hard choices, having to cut purchases for medicine or education for their kids in order to eat at least once a day,” said Frank Orzechowski, an adviser for Catholic Relief Services.

Africa has been hit especially hard. In recent months, protests have erupted in Cameroon, Cote d’Ivorie, Mauritania and Morocco. People have died in clashes over bread in Egypt. In Senegal in March, “police in riot gear beat and used tear gas against people protesting high food prices and later raided a television station that broadcast images of the event,” The New York Times reported. Hundreds of people have been arrested after rioting over the cost of living in Burkina Faso, where riots broke out in February in several cities and protesters attacked government offices, burned shops and gas stations, and even, in the city of Bobo, stoned a government delegation that had been sent to make peace.

Higher prices are generally good for farmers, but in developing countries in Africa, many are unable to plant because of the high cost of fertilizers and other agricultural inputs. In countries such as Kenya, political unrest keeps farmers out of the fields. In Darfur, many live in refugee camps with no income at all to buy food and are completely dependent on food aid.

The United States is the world’s largest provider of aid, supplying more than $2.1 billion for 2.5 million metric tons of commodities to 78 developing countries in fiscal year 2007, according to Catholic Relief Services.

“The United States is not to blame for higher commodity prices, but we will have to decide to make a greater aid contribution anyway,” Orzechowski said.

The Bush administration has sought to use up to 25 percent of emergency and development assistance funds for the local purchase of food aid commodities. Local purchase authority can increase the timeliness and effectiveness of the U.S. response.

Some U.S. corporations now partner with farmers in the developing world to help improve the market climate and develop infrastructure.

“The ultimate anti-hunger policy framework is a favorable business climate,” said Henrietta Fore, administrator for the U.S. Agency for International Development, at the conference in Kansas City. Rajiv Shah, agriculture director for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, spent time describing how their foundation works toward those business goals.

“Developing countries rely on small-scale agriculture but many cannot produce enough food to eat, let alone generate a surplus,” he said. “Working with partners, the Gates Foundation is investing across the complete value chain, from improved seeds and crops to market access and related research. We focus on small farm households, mostly headed by women, and we seek to help protect their natural environment and to develop markets and easier access to those markets.”

At the conference, Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer urged lawmakers to reconsider a proposal in the current Farm Bill to set aside up to $600 million in food aid funds, almost half the budget for the biggest food aid program, for long-term development work.

Food aid is part of the 2007 Farm Bill, which is still stalled in Congress. The deadline for passage was recently extended for the third time.

Rich Heffern is an NCR writer. His e-mail address is rheffern@ncronline.org. Erin Ryan of the NCR staff contributed to this article.

National Catholic Reporter May 2, 2008