US POLICIES CONTRIBUTING TO LOOMING FOOD CRISIS

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Food Crisis Set to Get Worse - Experts
By Haider Rizvi

NEW YORK - The current food crisis causing hunger and starvation for millions of people across the world is not going to end as long as those who dominate the international grain markets remain unwilling to change their behavior, according to experts specializing in international trade and environmental economics.”


Business as usual is no longer a viable option,” said Lester Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute, a Washington, DC-based independent think tank. “Food security will deteriorate further unless leading countries can collectively mobilize to stabilize population and restrict the use of grain to produce automotive fuel.”

In his latest research, Brown, an award-winning environmental analyst, points out that the unsustainable use of land and water, as well as trade imbalances among nations, are among the major factors contributing to the present crisis of food shortages coupled with a phenomenal soaring of prices.

“The chronically tight food supply the world is now facing is driven by the cumulative effects of several well established trends that are affecting both global demand and supply, ” he told reporters at a recently held tele-press conference.

On the demand side, according to Brown, the trends include the addition of 70 million people every year, while some some 4 billion people are already struggling to move up the food chain and consume more grain-intensive livestock products. At the same time, the amount of grain used for car fuels is also rising immensely.

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http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/04/22/8423/