Climate change and fuel
shortages begin to bite
In this column John Vidal stresses the point that food
shortages and food price hike leaves millions spread across the globe to go in for riots against the government policies.Prices of basic food items like maize,wheat,dairy products are going up and the govt. is
resorting to the method of artificial control of the prices.It has led to record food price inflation in china,pakistan,indonesia etc.Added to this fact,the dwindling of global food reserves makes the situation even more worse.Many countries including Russia are freezing the prices of essential commodities fearing a public backlash.People in many countries are resorting to the boycotting of food items protesting against the govt.move to remain idle.It also mentioned a warning from FAO head Jacques Diouf who said that a serious crisis is awaiting us when a rise in oil prices and food items combine to play the centrestage of eventualities.The basic reason why food prices remain high is the US farmers switching out of cereal crops to biofuel crops farming,extreme weather,growing demand from India and china for fuels.