The global food crisis

The BBC reports today that the UN may ration food aid to the world's poor "because of rising prices and a shortage of funds." Last year alone, prices rose 40%.

One of the countries most in need is Afghanistan (where of course money continues to pour in for guns and bombs to fight the Taleban.)

This year Africa's bill to import cereals is expected to rise by 49%.

The UN is calling for "urgent action to provide farmers in poor countries with improved access to seeds and fertiliser to increase crop production."

The director of the UN's World Food Program says the people "hardest hit so far were people in developing countries who were living on 50 US cents a day, 80-90% of which was already being spent on food." She added that in "some of these developing countries, prices have gone up 80% for staple food. When you see those kinds of increases, they are simply priced out of the food markets."

The WFP director warns that even middle-class, urban people in countries such as Indonesia, Yemen and Mexico are increasingly being priced out of the food market or forced to sacrifice education and healthcare. She reports that Egypt has just widened food rationing after two decades and Pakistan has reintroduced ration cards after many years.

The BBC points out that the US remains the world's largest donor of food aid, Obviously that has not stopped a global crisis. But imagine what we could do if we spent a further $275 million a day on food and farm aid instead of on Bush's Iraq war and occupation. (As I type these words, the total is $497,397,551,681.)

And imagine how that would change world politics.