WASHINGTON, D.C.—In recent days, soaring food prices have made providing food assistance to the world's hungry people much more difficult than it already is.
A crisis is in the making: the world is consuming more now than it produces, and global grain stocks are at the lowest levels in 30 years, and food is being diverted to biofuels production.
Aggravating the situation in some areas, are intense, more frequent weather disasters—floods, droughts, hurricanes, like the devastating cyclone in Myanmar (Burma), and floods in Mozambique, according to Josette Sheeran, executive director, United Nations World Food Programme (WPF).
"Today, I can buy 40 percent less food for this cup than I could last June due to soaring prices," said Ms. Sheeran as she raised a cup that WPF uses in its school feed program in Rwanda.
Ms. Sheeran was the presenter at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a Washington think-tank, on May 6.
The large increases in food prices means millions more have become food vulnerable, and assistance organizations like the WPF find it harder to respond than a year ago, said Sheeran.
Food protests due to soaring prices have occurred in a number of countries, such as Haiti, Somali, Mexico, Mauritania, Egypt, India, Vietnam, and Malaysia.
Food riots brought down the government in Haiti last April, and violence has erupted in Indonesia, Egypt, Cameroon and in the capital of Somali, Mogadishu, over rising food prices and food shortages.
"The price of rice was $460 per metric ton on March 3. Five weeks later it had risen to $780 per metric ton, and then a few weeks later, $1,000. The same soaring prices are true for other commodities as well," said Sheeran. Maize prices in April have increased about 50 percent since Jan. 2007 and wheat prices nearly doubled during the same period.
The soaring prices are "a catastrophe for those living on 50˘ a day," said Sheeran.
"While we had seen the number of hungry increasing to about 4 million a year, this is rising even more with the higher food prices," said Sheeran, Mar. 6 in Brussels. "WHO [The World Health Organization] calls hunger and under nutrition the number one threat to human health, killing more people than AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis combined," she said at the Peterson Institute.
Mudcakes and 'Black Flour'
Soaring food prices threaten to undo the progress that had been made on ending hunger. Sheeran put the percent hungry at 37 percent in 1969. Last year the proportion was 17 percent. But now "100 million will be thrust into deepening hunger and poverty due to soaring food prices," said Sheeran.
The impact on the world's most vulnerable people is tragic. In Haiti, mudcakes are being sold as food. $1 buys eight, according to the WFP. In Burundi, the price of the staple food cassava has doubled in the last year. The poorest households are eating moldy cassava—"black flour"—because it is the cheapest.
Ms. Sheeran thanked President Bush for calling for an additional $770 million in food aid and development programs. Congress is "considering helping in a major way, she said on The Lehrer News Hour, May 5.
The WFP and the 80/80/80 Solution
The U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) is the world's largest humanitarian agency, which each year gives food to an average of 90 million people in at least 80 of the world's poorest counties, according to WFP's website. U.S. contributions account for about 40 percent of WFP's budget.
Ms. Sheeran was appointed Executive Director by Secretary General Kofi Annan near the end of 2006. When the WFP began operation in1962, it primarily gave food donations from commodity surpluses.
In recent years, the surpluses have all but vanished and now food assistance takes the form of purchasing crops and distributing the food or, where there is plenty of food on the store shelves but acute hunger prevails among those who cannot afford it, providing the cash or vouchers to enable purchase.
WFP buys most of the food from 69 developing nations and has in the last year been increasing local and regional purchases. This helps the local economies and ensures better market access for smallholder farmers, particularly in Africa, says Sheeran.
Now, 80 percent of the cash earmarked for food purchase is local. The same percentage is spent on the land transportation of the food. Finally, WFT is hiring staff where 80 percent come from the regions being served.
Food Used for Fuel Means Higher Prices, Less Food
The food situation has been made worse by events that foster the shortages. "World grain production declined for the first time in two decades," said Sheeran.The days of the vast surpluses are gone.
Many countries place grain export restrictions, including India, China, Russia, Vietnam, and Ethiopia. Such government policies reduce supply, thereby boosting food prices.
Another source for reducing the food supply is the use of food to feed automobiles and factories instead of people. With the rapid rise in oil prices, food has become economically more valuable. The fusing of the food and fuel markets has contributed to the soaring food prices.
In Africa, palm oil and cassava are diverted to biofuel production; in the U.S., corn is made into ethanol, and in Europe, wheat is the chosen commodity for alternative fuel source.
In China, more meat is being consumed and that means more grain is being fed to livestock, again contributing to grain shortages. China was a major food exporter just a little more than a year ago, but now is an importer of food, according to Sheeran.
Feeds