The Perfect Drought: The Global Food Crisis is Now

Over the past week, we have witnessed food riots in a half-dozen developing countries (thanks for the tip, Ravi). Rising prices have made it almost impossible for the lower-income groups in Haiti, the Philippines, Indonesia and Cameroon to feed themselves. Why have prices risen and what can we do about it?

A combination of many factors has resulted in the perfect drought. While the most visible reason is the continued usage of corn to produce bio-fuels such as ethanol, it cannot explain the shortage of rice, the staple grain of half the world's population. There are other reasons at play:

1. Rising affluence in China and India: More affluence = more meat = less efficient usage of grain
2. Climate change: Vagaries of climate change = falling food production
3. Construction boom: More buildings = more water required
4. Water shortage: Rice production is critically dependent on water
5. Reduction of Arable Land: More malls = less arable land

More importantly, what can we do about this? In the short-term, the G-7, the group of the seven most industrialized nations, urgently needs to send food supplies and funds to the countries most affected.

In the longer term, the following things need to happen, in no particular order:

1. Tackling the water shortage: A huge problem with no easy solutions
2. Ensuring proper urban planning: More due diligence needs to happen before committing agricultural land for urban usage, such as malls and highways
3. Using efficient agricultural methods: Countries that have advanced agricultural techniques need to share these techniques with less developed ones, even the ones that don't have a food crisis yet
4. Studying the climate crisis: Commonly-accepted scientific standards need to be defined to resolve cause and effect of the global climactic change
5. Using more fuel-efficient transport: Smaller, fuel-efficient cars, more public transport

While the global food crisis will probably not escalate to a full-fledged war, it will most definitely cause mini-wars such as the ones we witnessed over the past few days unless we act now.