THE COMING FOOD CRISIS

THE world’s top leaders have been using the F word. 

Famine! 

The heads of the Group of 7 – the largest economies in the world – this week warned that famine, extreme starvation and hunger are looming in several parts of the world, including possibly the Caribbean. 

The official definition of famine is when 20 per cent of households face extreme food shortages, 30 per cent of children suffer from acute malnutrition and two people in every 100,000 die from starvation. 

The World Food Programme (WFP) issued a dire warning to G7 leaders: “Act now or a record hunger will continue to rise and millions more will face starvation”. 

The WFP said that “the world is facing a global hunger crisis of unprecedented proportions” and “up to 50 million people in 45 countries are on the brink of famine”.  

The bosses of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund cautioned about major food shortages, soaring prices, and acute hunger. 

IMF’s head Kristalina Georgieva pleaded with governments to subsidise food to the poor and needy. 

The United Nations said that 270 million people are “food insecure” and that number is climbing. 

UN boss Antonio Guterres used the word “catastrophe”, adding: “There is a real risk that multiple famines would be declared in 2022”. 

The respected Economist magazine predicts “mass hunger”. 

Fertiliser prices have skyrocketed by 44 per cent this year alone. 

Russia has destroyed wheat mills in Ukraine, which produce more than a quarter of the world’s grain supplies. 

Both countries account for most of the world’s wheat, barley, cooking oil and other food essentials. 

In addition, food production around the world has not recovered from the Covid-19 shut down and there are still supply chain logjams. 

Brazil’s soya-bean production was hit by a drought, and China’s wheat crop has been described as disastrous. 

Climate change is affecting yields everywhere. 

Animal feed rates are rising, along with the costs of producing poultry, beef, pork and eggs. 

Major food producers – from India to Argentina – are pulling back on exports in order to feed their people. 

There is no truth to the empty promise fed by National Flour Mills to the media – and accepted without investigation – that the 33 per cent flour price hike is temporary. 

The World Bank said prices of the product would rise by as much as 40 per cent. 

Virtually all food items – from fish to cereal to butter to vegetables to fruits to cheese to milk and more – are heading sky-high. 

The US Department of Agriculture has warned Americans to prepare for the double whammy of major shortages and steep prices. 

Britain says food inflation is at a 40-year high. 

An agency set up jointly by the UN and the European Union reeled out a number of vulnerable countries where food security is particularly urgent. 

So, what is Trinidad and Tobago doing to keep the wolf from the door? 

Last week, Trade and Industry Minister Paula Gopee-Scoon turned supermarkets into scapegoats, accusing them of price-gouging. 

The minister may have forgotten that she has a Consumer Affairs Division, to monitor such offences. 

We have not heard from the Minister of Agriculture – assuming we have one! – about improving food production during this period of crisis. 

The annual food import bill remains a staggering $6 billion, which means we bring in most of what we eat. 

Shopping malls, fast-food outlets and restaurants are sprouting up on arable lands. 

World experts are urging governments to mobilise resources to grow food, using modern technology to minimise land use and to boost harvests. 

They are promoting synergies among neighbouring countries to produce alternate items and to trade with each other. 

Barbados and Guyana have announced such a plan, but there is no word about T&T’s involvement. 

This country is not likely to slip into acute starvation, but already almost a quarter of households are seeing trouble in putting food on the table, with many of them jobless, elderly, or single parents. 

The wash of Venezuelan refugees, especially in southern districts, is deepening the emergency. 

Some are joining Trinis at street corners pleading for a dollar to buy food for their hungry children. 

Guterres says that “no country would be immune from the social and economic repercussions of such a catastrophe”. 

There is a fairly new word – hangry – defined as someone who is angry at being hungry. 

The term may well come into popular vogue unless Trinidad and Tobago quickly finds answers to the deepening food disaster. 

Or, as a regular caller used to say on the radio: “We will eat grass!”