Lhe meteoric rise in wheat and maize prices over the past year on international markets is causing a new food crisis. The first victims: the poor households of the countries where these cereals are the basis of their diet and which import them massively from the international market. They are already weakened by the consequences of the Covid-19 crisis and by the rise in energy prices.
The rise in prices in 2008 and 2011 had already revealed the fragility of food systems. But these alarm bells have not triggered the taking of measures to avoid new crises. Will the G7, which met from June 26 to 28, take on its responsibilities this time? Because, as shown a recent report by IPES-Foodthe origin of this crisis is not the war in Ukraine, but the fragility of an industrialized food system launched and promoted by companies and G7 countries.
For decades, agricultural policies have aimed to feed the population at the lowest cost, using monocultures and animal husbandry on an industrial scale. Wheat, maize and rice were particularly chosen to ensure this production, and they now provide more than 40% of calories consumed in the world. The seeds are selected to respond well to chemical fertilizers, which are highly dependent on gas and phosphate mining resources. Crops and their irrigation systems are ultra-mechanized, and therefore highly dependent on oil. A handful of powerful companies today have their hands on this technical package. Productive performance has encouraged some countries with “comparative advantages” to specialize in these products for the international market – notably Ukraine and Russia. World agricultural production has grown faster than population and, since the end of the 20the century, the planet produces far more than its caloric needs.
And yet, over the past five years, the curve showing the slow reduction in the number of food insecure people in the world, which has been observed since the 1960s, reversed. And it is rural people and farmers in particular who remain the first victims of hunger.
This observation is known, harped on for years in all political institutions. The challenge is not so much to produce more and more, but to reduce inequalities. However, certain actors and certain countries which have drawn their wealth and their power from this agricultural and food model are proposing to further accelerate this headlong rush. On the pretext that prices are rising, we should produce more, that seems like common sense. Except that we can lower prices in other ways, that we can make vulnerable countries more resilient, and that we can build new agricultural and food models that are less fragile. And the crisis can be an opportunity to change course. Concretely, what to do?
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