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Mauritius: Food price Increases Make for Hand-to-Mouth Existence
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L'Express (Port Louis)
ANALYSIS
14 April 2008
Posted to the web 14 April 2008
Nicholas Rainer
Port Louis
All over the world, the alarm is being rung concerning growing shortages in basic food commodities. This crisis is reaching our shores sooner than we may expect.
The price of a tonne of basmati rice has more than doubled in the past year from 600 USD to 1,300 USD.
What goes up must come down it is often said. Sadly, this old chestnut does not apply to price increases. These seem to rise and keep on rising as if endowed with the powerful wings of the roc, the mythical bird encountered by Sinbad during his adventures. This is all the more true for food prices. Take rice, for example. The price of this all-important staple seems set to augment by 30% next month. Are we entering an era where even the most basic foodstuffs are considered a luxury?
Price increases hit the poor the hardest. High food prices have spawned riots in developing countries all over the world. From Uzbekistan to Haiti, Bolivia to Indonesia, people have taken to the streets to demonstrate their profound apprehension and anger at not being able to afford the most basic foodstuffs. This trend is set to worsen in the coming years as climate change wreaks havoc with weather patterns.
The issue of food security is a conundrum that is here to stay. The UK's chief food expert, Professor John Beddington, recently told the Guardian that "Climate change is a real issue and is rightly being dealt with by major global investment. However, I am concerned there is another major issue along a similar timescale, an elephant in the room - that of food and energy security".
The director-general of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Jacques Diouf, expressed his concern at the situation at the Global Agro-Industries Forum in New Delhi on Tuesday. "World food prices have risen 45% in the last nine months and there are serious shortages of rice, wheat and maize."
The price increases are due to a wide-range of factors - some of them systemic, others exogenous - making them all the more perplexing. Governments may have some stopgap solutions at their disposal, such as slashing taxes on food imports, but their hands are tied when it comes to changing eating habits in highly populated emerging countries like China and India or droughts brought about by climate change.
According to the FAO, "a combination of factors, including reduced production due to climate change, historically low levels of stocks, higher consumption of meat and dairy products in emerging economies, increased demand for biofuels production and the higher cost of energy and transport have led to surges in food prices".
Vulnerable and desperate
As a Small Island Developing State (SIDS), Mauritius is more vulnerable to external shocks than most. Its dependence on food imports and the fact that these have to be shipped long distances mean that it is at the mercy of not only the price of food on world markets but also of the price of petroleum. A Stygian predicament, if ever there was one.
Though the repercussions of food price increases have yet to spill over into the streets, it is clear that those at the bottom of the social ladder are in an increasingly precarious position. The scenes of chaos caused recently by the rush for the government's hardship allowance of Rs 5,000 is but one indication of how desperate many are to get their hands on a bit of extra cash. It's one thing for the government to harp on about the need for everyone to make sacrifices during these difficult times, it's another proposition altogether to try to placate people who are finding it more and more problematic to feed their families on a day-to-day basis.
So what can be done to increase food security? "With greater investment in agriculture and rural development, the world's 400 million smallholders could mobilize their under-utilised potential, not only to improve their own nutrition and incomes but to enhance national food security and overall economic growth", the president of the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD), Lennart Bage, suggested in New Delhi.
Like everything in a world system defined by its interdependence, efforts have to be holistic and coherent. Moreover, the benefits of altering our habits may only begin to bear fruit a few decades from now. Tackling climate change by weaning ourselves off fossil fuels, for example, will only be felt by future generations (although the adoption of renewable energies will shelter economies from petrol price increases).
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For the moment, though, people will have to scale down their consumption of meat and dairy products so as to free arable land and perhaps begin growing their own fruits and vegetables, either individually or as cooperatives. Whatever you may choose to do, bear in mind that the age of expensive food is here to stay.
On Mauritius, and every where else in Africa, there are large supplies of available food and fuel going to waste. Typha of various species clog African waters and cause numerous troubles ranging from flooding to malaria. If grown in clean water and soil, Typha is food. If the water or soil is polluted, Typha will collect and hoard those pollutants like a miser. It will not be fit for human consumptiom. If it is contaminated with something as nasty as arsenic (as is likely in Bangladesh), it is unlikely to be useful for anything. Otherwise, it... [Read Full Text]
Interesting comment, but may not be applicable here. For example, malaria was wiped out in Mauritius in the 1950s.
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