Home pagePress CenterIn the Media Arnaud de Borchgrave, a CSIS senior advisor, published a commentary in the United Press International, "Not by bread alone."
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Arnaud de Borchgrave, a CSIS senior advisor, published a commentary in the United Press International, "Not by bread alone."
WASHINGTON, April 21 (UPI) -- With the world consuming more food than it produces and global grain stocks at their lowest in 30 years, food prices are soaring from Indonesia to Indiana. Some experts called it the perfect storm and others a tsunami. More intense and more frequent weather disasters put an increasing number of people at risk of hunger. Food riots broke out in widely scattered parts of the world, even hounding the Haitian prime minister out of office.
The global food crisis has a common denominator with the still unfolding subprime mortgage debacle whose losses the International Monetary Fund now estimates at $1.1 trillion: greed. Predatory lending coupled with criminal profiteering was behind the subprime mess. It is the largest loss of wealth in modern U.S. history. And greed also played a big part in the pell-mell rush to move land out of food production and into ethanol biofuels. Corn at $6 a bushel is up 30 percent in four months. Wheat prices jumped 130 percent in a year, and wheat stocks are at their lowest in 60 years. Globally, rice hit historical levels, partly driven by Australia's six years of drought.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is a private, tax-exempt institution focusing on international public policy issues. Its research is nonpartisan and nonproprietary. CSIS does not take specific policy positions; accordingly, all views, positions, and conclusions expressed in these publications should be understood to be solely those of the authors.
