Food as an endangered species.

• Author: Brown, Lester R.
• Position: EYE ON ECOLOGY

A FAST-UNFOLDING FOOD SHORTAGE is engulfing the entire world, driving food prices to record highs. Over the past half-century, grain prices have spiked from time to time because of weather-related events, such as the 1972 Soviet crop failure that led to a doubling of wheat, rice, and corn prices. The situation today is entirely different, however. The current doubling of grain prices is the cumulative effect of some trends that are accelerating growth in demand and others that are slowing growth in supply. The world has not experienced anything quite like this before. In the face of rising food prices and spreading hunger, the social order is beginning to break down in some countries. In several provinces in Thailand, for instance, rustlers steal rice by harvesting fields during the night. In response, Thai villagers with distant fields have taken to guarding ripe rice fields at night with loaded shotguns.

In Sudan, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), which is responsible for supplying grain to 2,000,000 people in Darfur refugee camps, is facing a difficult mission, to say the least. Moreover, 56 grain-laden tracks were hijacked recently. Only 20 have been recovered and some 24 drivers still are unaccounted for. This threat has reduced the flow of food into the region by half, raising the specter of starvation if supply lines cannot be secured. In Pakistan, where flour prices have doubled, food insecurity is a national concern. Thousands of armed Pakistani troops have been assigned to guard grain elevators and to accompany the tracks that transport grain.

Food riots are becoming commonplace. In Egypt, the bread lines at bakeries that distribute state-subsidized bread often are the scene of fights. In Morocco, 34 rioters were jailed. In Yemen, food riots turned deadly, taking at least a dozen lives. In Cameroon, dozens of people have died in food riots and hundreds have been arrested. Other countries with similar situations include Ethiopia, Haiti, Indonesia, Mexico, the Philippines, and Senegal.

The doubling of world wheat, rice, and corn prices has reduced the availability of food aid sharply, putting the 37 countries that depend on the WFP's emergency food assistance at risk; the organization has issued an urgent appeal for $500,000,000 of additional funds.

Around the world, a politics of food scarcity is emerging. Most fundamentally, it involves the restriction of grain exports by countries that want to check the rise in their...