Food prices to double by 2030: Oxfam
Dhaka, May 31 (bdnews24.com) —The prices of staple foods will be more
than double in 20 years unless world leaders take action to reform the
global food system, Oxfam has warned.
By 2030, the average cost of key crops will increase by between
120percent and 180percent, the charity forecasts, reports BBC.
Half of that increase will be caused by climate change, Oxfam
predicts, in its report Growing a Better Future.
It calls on world leaders to improve regulation of food markets and
invest in a global climate fund.
"The food system must be overhauled if we are to overcome the
increasingly pressing challenges of climate change, spiralling food
prices and the scarcity of land, water and energy," said Barbara
Stocking, Oxfam's chief executive.
WOMEN AND CHILDREN
In its report, Oxfam highlights four "food insecurity hotspots", areas
which are already struggling to feed their citizens.
* in Guatemala, 865,000 people are at risk of food insecurity, due to
a lack of state investment in smallholder farmers, who are highly
dependent on imported food, the charity says.
* in India, people spend more than twice the proportion of their
income on food than UK residents - paying the equivalent of £10 for a
litre of milk and £6 for a kilo of rice.
* in Azerbaijan, wheat production fell 33percent last year due to poor
weather, forcing the country to import grains from Russia and
Kazakhstan. Food prices were 20percent higher in December 2010 than
the same month in 2009.
* in East Africa, eight million people currently face chronic food
shortages due to drought, with women and children among the hardest
hit.
The World Bank has also warned that rising food prices are pushing
millions of people into extreme poverty.
In April, it said food prices were 36percent above levels of a year
ago, driven by problems in the Middle East and North Africa.
Oxfam wants nations to agree new rules to govern food markets, to
ensure the poor do not go hungry.
IT SAID WORLD LEADERS MUST
* increase transparency in commodities markets and regulate futures markets
* scale up food reserves
* end policies promoting biofuels
* invest in smallholder farmers, especially women
"We are sleepwalking towards an avoidable age of crisis," said Stocking.
"One in seven people on the planet go hungry every day despite the
fact that the world is capable of feeding everyone."
Among the many factors driving rising food prices in the coming
decades, Oxfam predicts that climate change will have the most serious
impact.
Ahead of the UN climate summit in South Africa in December, it calls
on world leaders to launch a global climate fund, "so that people can
protect themselves from the impacts of climate change and are better
equipped to grow the food they need".
http://www.oxfam.org/sites/www.oxfam.org/files/rr-living-on-a-spike-food-210611-en.pdf
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