Food Crises Increase Economic and Social Hardships

The things that we take for granted are often the very things that cause us the most difficulty when they go wrong. So when a food crises increases, economic and social hardships are bound to follow.

The things that we take for granted are often the very things that cause us the most difficulty when they go wrong. Food and water are two of life’s essentials ,that those of us who live in, what is known as the developed world, take for granted, well those of us to can still afford to buy food, that is. William Hammink, director of the Office of Food for Peace at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID recently stated that Food crises around the world are increasing in frequency and magnitude, causing significant numbers of people to face chronic economic and social hardships. Africa, for example, has experienced drought on a more frequent basis over the past ten years. Hammink was testifying before the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health. Drought has forced herders to sell their animals and farmers their tools so that they can purchase food. What happens when they have nothing left to sell and if they have no money how to they buy the tools and animals they need to produce their own food again? In previous years the communities that were impacted by the periodic droughts were able to come back, reclaim their livelihoods and then begin to produce food. This pattern has been disrupted and therein lies the core of the problem. The community’s means of food production are being worn away and the means to reestablish that means of production are vanishing as well. Thus hardship grows and spreads. Hammink recommends that food aid programs

"must be more effectively aimed at halting the loss of livelihoods," resulting from a series of even small shocks. To meet emergency food needs better, the Bush administration is recommending that the new Farm Bill Congress is considering authorize up to 25 percent of emergency food funds for purchases of food in countries or regions affected by a food crisis".

We have become distanced from our food supply. For many getting supper ready is popping something into a microwave or dialing a number. We do not think about how food arrives at our table or what it costs to get it there. The next few years will see issues around food and water take a more prominent place on the global and local agenda. If this does not happen we may all be facing hardships.