Opinion | Editorials
Find a solution to increasing food prices
There are few topics as emotional as food, or to be more exact, the price of food. Any cursory look at the headlines over the past three months shows that the price of what we eat has been a major news story.
- Gulf News
- Published: 00:21 May 20, 2008
There are few topics as emotional as food, or to be more exact, the price of food. Any cursory look at the headlines over the past three months shows that the price of what we eat has been a major news story.
This has been partly due to the rising cost of fuel, partly due to the credit crunch and also partly due to greater demand from more nations becoming more cash-rich. But lack of planning has also been a factor.
Nothing, obviously, is more urgent to people than what they will eat; all else is of secondary importance. And it may well be that as some time the international community, probably under the United Nations, will step in and demand that enough affordable food is grown and distributed to feed the planet's population.
This will not happen tomorrow or next week but if food prices continue to soar it is quite feasible that the source of food and its quality and quantity will be at the very top of the global political agenda.
Asking companies to put a price cap on the food they sell is a short-term measure to ease the burden on people's pockets but offers within itself no long term solution. This can only be done by increasing the supply of food and possibly temporarily banning some types of food, such as marine life that are over-fished, to ensure their survival.
None of the options that are being considered are necessarily pleasant, but they are a lot better than the alternative.
If the price the world pays to stave off hunger is the management of food to ensure that we are free from rampant starvation, then it is a price worth paying. There is enough food to feed the planet's population, but are there enough people in the world who will ensure food is available?
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