Janese Johnson

Food shortages and food riots are becoming a growing problem with each new day.

World food prices rose by 39 percent in the last year. Many who were already struggling to live are now finding it impossible with the hike in food costs. And as a result of the anger and despair that many are feeling, food riots are erupting all over the world.

Egypt, Guinea, Haiti, Indonesia, Mauritania, Mexico, Senegal, Uzbekistan and Yemen are some of the countries that have experienced serious food riots.

Recently, world leaders met at a G8 summit in Japan. One of the topics of discussion was the problem with rising food costs and world hunger. They discussed these serious issues over an 18-course meal. They did not seem to notice the hypocrisy in their behavior. It seems shocking to think that they are really that disconnected from the 854 million, or 12 percent, of the world’s people who are undernourished, and that they actually believe that they can solve the problems when they have such a disconnect.

In 1980, the United Nations General Assembly set a target date of 2000 to end world hunger — then, in 2000, it created a new target date of 2015. Many experts agree that there is enough food to feed the world. Some of the food-shortage problems, analysts say, stem from climate change, more demand from China and India, rising fuel and fertilizer costs, and increased use of bio-fuels. But another important factor that often goes unnoticed has just as destructive an effect on our food supply. The United States, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have used their leverage to impose devastating policies on developing countries.

They are requiring countries to open up their agriculture markets to giant multinational companies. They are insisting that countries dismantle their marketing boards and persuading them to specialize in crops that they recommend.

These countries at one time were self-sufficient and grew the crops that would feed their community. This is no longer the case.

This can also been seen in the United States, where government subsidies are only being given to the farmers who are willing to grow genetically engineered soy and corn. Jim Goodman is a farmer and also is a policy fellow with food and society fellows program. He has seen, and is opposed to how “Government works in partnership with industry to establish an agricultural system that places more value on commodity crops than food crops.”

With corn and soy going to animal products and agrofuels, there are not enough of the other grains to feed the humans. USDA predicts wheat surpluses to be the smallest in 60 years.

Food expert Raj Patel also agrees that it is not food shortages that are the problem, but poor policy. He charges that multinational agribusiness conglomerates’ “drive for profit at any cost has left the developing world starving while wealthy countries like the United States are experiencing epidemic obesity rates and related health problems.”

Albert Einstein believed that “The problems that exist in the world today cannot be solved by the level of thinking that created them.” So when our world leaders are sitting down with an 18-course meal while trying to solve the problem of hunger — when in fact they are responsible for this food crisis — can we really take their solutions seriously?

Sustainability is one of the main solutions to which many of the experts are pointing. It is important that countries grow the crops that are necessary to feed their community, and rely less on growing cash crops for the Western market.
Another solution that is recommended is for a more balanced distribution of food by offering to aid the countries whose populations are having difficulties getting even one meal a day. Some of the help can be focusing on helping them to grow the necessary crops so that they may enjoy a greater abundance.

Most importantly, we need to get the corporations that are only concerned about making a buck out of control of our food sources.

Corporations and government should not have control over what crops farmers are growing. Corporate control is only causing more problems. If our world leaders really want to do something about this expanding crisis, then getting rid of the policies that support corporate greed would be a good place to start.

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Janese Johnson has been doing intuitive counseling nationally for more than 20 years. She may be contacted at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it