BBC news is reporting that India is to import basic food stuffs due to the effects of the latest drought. The Indian government is not saying exactly what will be imported for fears of triggering price rises on the World markets.
With droughts and unpredictable weather affecting many parts of the world other countries are likely to to follow India. The net effect of increased demand will be increased prices of basic commodities.
This is yet further evidence that the World is facing at best an uncertain food supply and at worst food shortages and famine on an unprecedented scale. This it the wake up call! Get the food supply sorted quickly or face the consequences.
That is easy to say but we just cannot continue as we are. It is plainly stupid to say that the ‘supply chain’ will fill the need but when shortages occur countries naturally hang on to what they produce. This happened last year when some stopped exporting rice. It will happen again.
The answer is not a quick technological fix to solve the problem at a stroke. What is needed is a concerted effort on many fronts to increase the efficiency of agriculture, look for news places to grow food and abandon the stupidity of countries growing crops for export at the expense of growing their own food. The idea that the money earned from exporting non-food crops can then be used to import food that could have been grown in the first place is just sheer lunacy.
It really is time to get away from the madness of the GM ‘silver bullet’ and help all countries to switch to self-sufficient, sustainable agriculture. That could be done now and does not need a gift £100 million from the UK government to biotech companies. What it does need is common sense and an a switch to local solutions for local problems.
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