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Asia In Focus - 27 World Food Crisis
September 22, 2009 | Editor Al Santoli

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The mounting impact of global food shortages poses a growing human and international security threat to the lives of millions of vulnerable families across the world. This natural and man-made crisis could jeopardize political stability and increase the threat of armed conflict for entire regions. United Nations agencies warn that international contributions for food security have declined dramatically due to climate change and the worldwide financial crisis, while government safety nets for the poor are insufficient or non-existent in 80 percent of all nations.

There are more people in the world suffering from hunger with less food aid available than ever before, reports the United Nations' World Food Program (WFP). "For the world's most vulnerable, the perfect storm [caused by climate, poverty, environmental degradation and political instability] is hitting with a vengeance," WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran stated in a September 16 U.N. News Service press release. In an August 9 report in the New York Times, U.S. military analysts stated that the potential impact of vast numbers of refugees affected by droughts and floods who desperately seek food across neighboring borders could create small or wide-scale wars, topple governments, and throw regions into chaos.

Causes of Food and Water Crises

Although tens of billions of dollars are spent monthly in war zones such as Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan, the WFP is citing a shortfall of some $4 billion that would support urgently needed food assistance to feed 108 million vulnerable people in 74 countries. In comparison, $67 billion per month is spent on the Afghan and Iraq wars. According to a September 15 report on the BBC website, 77 million persons in Pakistan - nearly half the country's total population -- face hunger and malnutrition. In 2008, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) reported that half of all child deaths in Pakistan can be attributed to poor nutrition. In Afghanistan, government health officials warn that millions of persons will face life-threatening hunger in the coming winter months. Countries across Africa are suffering widespread hunger due to drought, political instability and high food prices. Kenya has 3.8 million persons in urgent need of food. In Latin America, the Guatemalan government has declared a "state of national calamity" with almost half of the children malnourished due to food shortages.

In addition, scientists report that many of the world's major river deltas are sinking, increasing the flood risk affecting hundreds of millions of people. The BBC, citing a report from the University of Colorado, calculates that 85 percent of major river deltas have experienced severe flooding recently, and the vital urban and rural areas vulnerable to flooding will increase by 50 percent in the next 40 years. The Colorado University reports emphasizes that the causes are not only natural, but man-made as well. Taking water from underground aquifers for drinking, industry and agriculture is causing land to sink. Also, redirecting the water for irrigation, and dams through only a few channels is creating a major negative impact. For example, in addition to massive water pollution of lakes and rivers, the three major river systems in China - the Pearl, the Yellow and the Yangtze Rivers are in the world's "High Risk" list of deltas susceptible to sinking. In addition, scientists identify the Mekong River Delta, one of Asia's largest food producing regions, as being in serious risk.

What can be done?

U.N. food experts call for a combination of policy reform to include increased food aid, improved agricultural production and stabilization for international food markets, which could face further disruption due to climate change. In countries with adequate or abundant natural resources such as Zimbabwe and North Korea, tyrannical governance is a greater impediment to food security than nature. Small farmers across the world need access to land, credit, seeds, irrigation, storage sites and infrastructure support to transform neglected lands into productive bread baskets. Offshore fish and seaweed farms with production, storage and transportation support could also create large sources of nutrition to compensate for inadequate supplies of grain.

Around the world, in both developed and underdeveloped communities, innovative programs are being created and developed by entrepreneurial and enterprising private business, as well as humanitarian and social organizations. Detroit, one of the hardest hit areas of the world from the global financial crisis and the impacts of both de-industrialization and rampant unemployment, has been a pioneer in urban agriculture in abandoned housing lots and city parks. Detroit Agricultural Network includes more than 700 community gardens cultivated by people of all ages, walks of life and ethnicities as a means of self-reliant nutritional support and economic development.

In an article entitled "Detroit's Quiet Revolution" in the September 2009 issue of The Nation magazine, Dr. Grace Lee Boggs, a 94 year-old civil rights activist, writes: "Our revolution began with Africa-American elders. Raised in the [rural] South, these 'Gardening Angels' could see Detroit's vacant lots not as blight but as opportunities to grow our own food and also help urban youths understand the importance of self-reliance... Slowly but surely, this revolution is transforming Detroit. It reduces neighborhood blight, reconnects children and adults, and provides a community base for economic development."

Gardens of Peace

The Philippines was once the grain basket of Asia. However, due to dysfunctional governance, lack of emphasis on agricultural exports and ongoing civil and cultural conflicts, the nation of 100 million is now the largest rice importer in Asia and must import much of its seafood from foreign companies. To help address these issues the European Union, in 2008 and 2009, issued the Philippines a total of 39 million euros in agricultural infrastructure grants to include paddy seeds, irrigation support, post harvest and marketing assistance and education. This year the Philippine-based San Miguel Corporation and the Robert Kuok Group of Malaysia have offered investment in increased agricultural production for more than one million hectares (two and a half million acres) of farmland throughout the archipelago. The initial assessment program is scheduled to begin in non-conflict areas later this year. The question will be to what benefit such multinational corporate enterprises will offer to local populations.

Some the most potentially productive farming lands are located in war zones where investors are reluctant to invest. The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, a highly impoverished and war-torn area in the Philippines, is incredibly rich in soil and water resources. This region, where malnutrition is rampant, could rapidly become food self-sufficient and could export food support for neighboring communities. In May 2008, Asia America Initiative inaugurated the Gardens of Peace program in the Muslim Mindanao province of Lanao del Sur. Similar to the Detroit food self-reliance program, Gardens of Peace has been successfully implemented in community and school-based gardens, and is growing into a wide-scale agricultural development program. In partnership with the International Relief and Development firm, and supported in the Philippines by national and provincial government officials, the Philippine Marine Corps and community leaders, a full 40-foot container of 1.5 million packets of seeds was donated by a major U.S. gardening company. The seeds have been fully distributed in four Mindanao provinces and in areas of the northern Luzon region with inspiring results.

Threat to Global Security

Military analysts told the New York Times on August 9 that "over the next 20 to 30 years, vulnerable regions, particularly sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and South and Southeast Asia, will face the prospects of food shortages, water crises and catastrophic flooding driven by climate change that could demand... a military response." What military analysts are reluctant or fear to mention is that growing drought and polluted water systems in giant emerging military and economic powers such as China could spark armed conflicts on an unthinkable scale.

Recommendations

The current food crisis and its potential consequences underscore the increasing reality that the respect for basic human needs and the prevention of natural calamities and armed conflict are inseparable. Cooperative measures can be conducted to reduce the impact in some, if not many, of the affected regions.

• Proactive solutions can be achieved through the combination of government reform, community solidarity and private support for non-governmental organizations.
• Large-scale systematic approaches for production and distribution of vital food and water resources must be organized at a national or multi-national level.
• The framework for a strong human security infrastructure must be built through a well-coordinated network of agricultural communities and - as in sinking delta cities such as New Orleans and Bangkok - urban development planning and re-engineering.