The world is a strange place of paradoxes. On the one hand, there are an estimated one billion people - representing 14 per cent of the global population of seven billion – undernourished, while on the other, millions suffer from chronic diseases due to excess food consumption. On the one hand, is the issue of affordability and accessibility to food for the poor and on the other, huge surpluses and wastages.
Climate change threatens more frequent drought, flooding and pest outbreaks. It is estimated that the world loses about 12 million hectares of agricultural land each year to land degradation. Experts point out that land clearing and inefficient practices make agriculture the largest source of greenhouse gas pollution on the planet, contributing to further climate change. Experts are unanimous in their view that the multiple emergent challenges – food security, climate change, increased competition for energy, water, degradation of land and biodiversity – are connected in complex ways and demand an integrated management approach. They recognise that the efforts to alleviate the worst effects of climate change cannot succeed without simultaneously addressing the crises in global agriculture and food system, and empowering the world's most vulnerable populations. A number of researchers point out that countries continue to rely on market-based solutions to food and resource shortage, rather than the need-based reallocation of resources.
Food price speculation has drawn the ire of many researchers. Investors can bet or speculate on what the price of a food commodity will be in the coming weeks or months. It has been shown that food commodity prices are directly correlated with the number of futures contracts, or the contracts that investors sign when they bet on prices; and both spiked in 2007-2008. To address the issue of commodity speculation, in July 2010, the US passed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act which has called for maximum limits on the investment of a single speculator as well as improved transparency in all speculation. However, implementation of the law has been slow and uneven, with many legal challenges delaying its having any real effect on speculation.
SOYMB holds very little hope for solutions via the G8, G20 or via Rio+20
Climate change threatens more frequent drought, flooding and pest outbreaks. It is estimated that the world loses about 12 million hectares of agricultural land each year to land degradation. Experts point out that land clearing and inefficient practices make agriculture the largest source of greenhouse gas pollution on the planet, contributing to further climate change. Experts are unanimous in their view that the multiple emergent challenges – food security, climate change, increased competition for energy, water, degradation of land and biodiversity – are connected in complex ways and demand an integrated management approach. They recognise that the efforts to alleviate the worst effects of climate change cannot succeed without simultaneously addressing the crises in global agriculture and food system, and empowering the world's most vulnerable populations. A number of researchers point out that countries continue to rely on market-based solutions to food and resource shortage, rather than the need-based reallocation of resources.
Food price speculation has drawn the ire of many researchers. Investors can bet or speculate on what the price of a food commodity will be in the coming weeks or months. It has been shown that food commodity prices are directly correlated with the number of futures contracts, or the contracts that investors sign when they bet on prices; and both spiked in 2007-2008. To address the issue of commodity speculation, in July 2010, the US passed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act which has called for maximum limits on the investment of a single speculator as well as improved transparency in all speculation. However, implementation of the law has been slow and uneven, with many legal challenges delaying its having any real effect on speculation.
SOYMB holds very little hope for solutions via the G8, G20 or via Rio+20
No comments:
Post a Comment