http://www.foodfirst.org/en/node/2294

The Food Crisis Comes Home: Empty food banks, rising costs--symptoms of a hungrier nation

Fall 2008

By Heidi Conner, Juliana Mandell, Meera Velu and Annie Shattuck

The food crisis is worsening. The UN World Food Program predicts a jump in the number of hungry people in the world from 860 million to more than one billion people—one of every six people in the world. Retail prices of food in the U.S. increased four percent last year, driven by a combination of speculation, high oil prices, agrofuel consumption, a weak dollar, climatic events, and historically low grain reserves. The USDA projects that price increases will total another three to four percent in 2008; the steepest increase in 17 years.1 The 35 million food-insecure people in the U.S. who are most affected by the food price crisis may be joined by 50 million others living at or near the poverty level.

The double whammy of a declining economy and escalating food and energy prices is squeezing the poor and the middle class alike, and is not being addressed in a meaningful way by politicians or the presidential candidates. Over 28 million people—a national record—have been driven into the food stamp program.2 Nationally, food banks are seeing more demand while donations have dropped precipitously. Farmers are being pinched by increased input costs, while poor consumers are left to scramble for their next meal. Solving this food crisis at home will require a fundamental restructuring of our food system.

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http://www.foodfirst.org/en/node/2295

TWIN TSUNAMIS?

The World Food Program described the global food crisis as a “silent tsunami” surging over an unaware populace, helpless in the face of massive destruction. The financial crisis—rapidly going global—now threatens to increase everyone’s vulnerability to hunger. The compound effect of the twin crises seems overwhelming.

But though hunger and financial shock may come in waves, not everyone will “drown” in famine or financial ruin. In fact, both crises are making a handful of investors and multinational corporations very rich—even as they devastate the poor and put the rest of the planet at severe environmental and economic risk. Thus far there has been little leadership on the food crisis, and the sketchy $700 billion U.S. bailout for a few giant financial houses is a desperate attempt to keep credit flowing through a stumbling economy. There are, unfortunately, no guarantees. Already, when we need them the most, farmers are running into problems finding production credit. Though massive and destructive, the food and financial crises are anything but silent, or natural, and—as long as we are aware of their true causes—we are not helpless.

The food crisis ushered in the financial crisis. Now the financial crisis is exacerbating the food crisis. No one knows how deeply, broadly, or for how long the financial crisis will affect economies around the world. All we know is that the storm is coming, and we will need to lay up reserves and reach out to our family, friends and neighbors to ride it out. How do we do that?

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