Green Options

El Nino is blamed for changing rainfall patterns, and that, combined with inadequate harvests and increasing conflict has led to a drop in cereal production already affecting Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia. This could increase the number of people relying on food aid.

China has lost nearly 90% of the wheat varieties that were grown across the country sixty years ago and India grows only 10% of the rice varieties that appeared in its fields a hundred years ago.

Uganda’s Agriculture Minister said that she regretted the fact that Ugandan citizens are still dying of hunger in a country that has enough crops to export to other parts of Africa. New national laws may be imposed that require every household to grow its own root crops such as cassava and sweet potatoes.

While global grain reserves had been replenished in the last couple of years, this was simply a short-term achievement. Global food security remains a goal, not a reality.

We’ve got used to roller-coaster oil prices, although it doesn’t stop panic buying at the pumps when gas prices are projected to rise, but roller-coaster food prices are something that hasn’t been seen in most of the developed world for many decades.