one less plague

The scourge of smallpox was made history. Now for the first time an animal disease has been eliminated from its natural setting because of human efforts – achieved under an international programme coordinated by FAO since 1994.

The highly infectious viral disease, rinderpest, does not directly affect humans, but it takes just a few days for a sick animal to die and it can wipe out whole herds. The last known outbreak occurred in Kenya in 2001. The lessons learned from the elimination of rinderpest, a deadly cattle plague that has threatened the livelihoods of herders and rural families for millennia, can be applied to tackling other major challenges.

Jacques Diouf, the Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization described the eradication as a major success for humanity.
“Over the years I have frequently said that the world has the means necessary to eliminate hunger, malnutrition and extreme poverty,” said Mr. Diouf. “The total eradication of rinderpest – a disease that decimated cattle, buffalo and many other animal species, both domestic and wild – is proof of this today.”

SOYMB would agree that this achievment indicates the possiblities and benefits when we decide to tackle social problems but unfortunately we do not share the optimism that capitalism is a system capable of such co-operation and co-ordination (except on very rare occasions.) Nor are we the only ones.

Beyond their control
We read here of the well-meaning G20 plan, known as the Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS) . The G-20 believes volatility in agricultural commodities results from irresponsible speculation and a lack of information on global food stocks and the supply and demand of crops. The G20 is betting that collecting that information from nations as well as private companies - and making it public - will help foil speculators and calm markets. It requires the full cooperation of nations and corporations. Yet French Agriculture Minister Bruno Le Maire admitted that China and India have resisted disclosing details about their food supplies, citing national security. The private corporations present an even bigger challenge. The G20 can't force them to disclose their data, and they may resist revealing sensitive information to competitors. This isn't the first time the G20 has tried to exert some control over an erratic and troublesome commodity market. Back in 2002 the G20 launched the Joint Oil Data Initiative (JODI), an attempt to arrest volatility in the oil markets. Participants in the oil markets have been slow to cooperate, and a glance at any recent oil price chart will tell you that the oil markets are as volatile as ever. Similarly, the many pressures on agricultural commodities, most of which are beyond the G20's control, will keep the market volatile while pushing prices upward.

"Fixing the global food system and ending the food price crisis requires major surgery yet the G20 produced little more than a sticking plaster "Jean-CyrilDagorn, policy advisor for Oxfam's GROW campaign, said in a statement. "Crossing our fingers and hoping the crisis will go away is simply not good enough when millions of people are going hungry..."

The former UN secretary- general, Kofi Annan says "...If countries cannot come together successfully to deliver food security – this most basic of human needs – our hopes for wider international cooperation are doomed," He explained that "Africa is the continent which has perhaps the greatest opportunities to help find solutions to global food insecurity. Even within existing cultivated land, a doubling of cereal yields would turn Africa into a major food surplus region." He warned that the already shameful global record of the number of people living in hunger and poverty is likely to get worse instead of better.