Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Welcome To The 21st-Century Food Wars

The New Geopolitics Of Food -- Foreign Policy

From the Middle East to Madagascar, high prices are spawning land grabs and ousting dictators. Welcome to the 21st-century food wars.

In the United States, when world wheat prices rise by 75 percent, as they have over the last year, it means the difference between a $2 loaf of bread and a loaf costing maybe $2.10. If, however, you live in New Delhi, those skyrocketing costs really matter: A doubling in the world price of wheat actually means that the wheat you carry home from the market to hand-grind into flour for chapatis costs twice as much. And the same is true with rice. If the world price of rice doubles, so does the price of rice in your neighborhood market in Jakarta. And so does the cost of the bowl of boiled rice on an Indonesian family's dinner table.

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My Comment: Everyone is eager and hungry to eat a Western diet .... and who blames them. Unfortunately .... our agricultural and food industries are not established yet to accommodate this demand. Coupled with a water crisis that is now hitting many regions in the world, unrest and turmoil is what is now popping up on our menus.

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