food prices: wake up to the problem and the cause

Food and gas prices have gone up astronomically in the last year or so. In the USA, Europe and other wealthy regions of the world, we deal with the blow by tightening our belts or shopping at Sam's Club instead of Whole Foods or using public transportation more often or modifying vacation plans. Sure, it affects us but not on any devastating level. It is, therefore, very difficult for us to understand the profound impact these high prices have had on developing nations all over the world.

We need to wake up to this crisis and we need to treat it like the priority it is.

Like or not, we are now a global community and when an Iowan farmer shifts production it isn't only his immediate community or market that feels the affects. Yesterday, Paul Krugman wrote in a NYT op-ed "You might put it this way: people are starving in Africa so that American politicians can court votes in farm states." His column lays out in glaring detail how interconnected our world is on every level now - finance, energy, agriculture, even weather. Its worth the read.

Here are the basic facts:

• trade policies set by leading economies directly affect prices of essential items in poor countries
• economic success and development in China and other rapidly growing economies drives up cost of grains and energy globally (see Krugman's piece)
• droughts and crop blights in Australia and other countries that are leading producers of the world's grain contribute to rising costs
• biofuels are a disastrous miscalculation, driving food prices up and promoting deforestation in regions that cannot afford more slash-burn stripping

Some of these things are in our power to change, some aren't. Acknowledging that maybe its better to use oil and continue searching for more, less expensive energy options might mean we have to stomach certain immediate realities we don't like (CO2 emissions, oil-dependency - take your pick) but isn't it a far greater crime for the Haitian poor to eat mud cakes because a bag of rice is far beyond their means? The recent civil unrest there speaks to the gravity of the situation. Something has to change.

The economy of the world is in flux and we have concerns about our portfolios, a Middle-East dominated oil production, the falling dollar, and global warming. But what is a global community without people? Shouldn't these concerns fall to the wayside in light of starving millions?

Our community, our neighbors and trade partners and friends and - for some of us - our families are suffering. We need to wake up to the food crisis. Something has to change.