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Upside of the food crisis?

June 18, 2008

According to the Wall Street Journal, the rising cost of food is getting the governments of developing countries more interested in supporting agricultural production by small farmers. This will be a tough row to hoe, as it were, but surely worth it. Can anything good come out of the food crisis? Maybe this?

Today’s WSJ coverage of the world food crisis provides a nifty interactive map. Click on the country and the map tells you how its farmers are doing and how its government is reacting to rising food prices.

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4 Comments

[…] Jonathan wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptAccording to the Wall Street Journal, the rising cost of food is getting the governments of developing countries more interested in supporting agricultural production by small farmers. This will be a tough row to hoe, as it were, … […]

Pingback by Upside of the food crisis? | 30 Minute Meal Ideas — June 18, 2008 @ 8:09 pm
I don’t know what the article means by “…supporting agricultural production by small farmers. ” I’m from a poor country and I understand the challenges that poor farmers meet. First they’ve no access to quality seeds. They have no access to markets. They have no proper storage facilities. They can’t afford fertilizers. So many stumbling blocks to agriculture in these countries.

First of all, governments need to come out and support these farmers. The first step should be to ensure they have access to quality seeds. Quality seeds can either be organic or genetically modified. Let’s stop deluding ourselves that organic agriculture will solve the current food crisis. Or agricultural biotechnology is the panacea to the food problems facing the world. This is not true at all. No silver bullet in the current food crisis. This has been position. And I commented on it recently. Visit this link for more on this: http://www.gmoafrica.org/2008/05/gmos-and-organics-can-alleviate-food-crises.html

Secondly, help them to improve soil fertility. Thirdly, provide them with markets for their farm produce. When this is done, there will no longer be any need to ship food aid to poor countries.

Comment by James — June 20, 2008 @ 11:12 am
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