On Friday, May 6, 2011 Secretary of State Hilary Clinton spoke in Rome about the pending global food shortage and rising prices of food which could spark an international crisis and riots in developing nations that would be most affected by both scenarios.
Matthew Lee, AP
She urged the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) that steps must be taken immediately to hold down prices and increase production.
Clinton also warned that emergency aid is only a band-aid solution and that real steps towards stable prices and production must be taken to prevent riots similar to what happened in 2007-2008. During the 2008 crisis, Thailand, Vietnam and India, countries that happens to be the world's biggest rice producers placed a cap on rice exports to protect domestic rice supply. This action increased global prices on rice to a record high. Last year Russia banned export of wheat due to domestic drought in order to protect domestic wheat supply.
This is a case in which the global trade presents a serious problem overall. The actions of a few countries in which they justifiably take actions to ensure their own people are able to eat affects other nations in whether or not they get to eat. Again as in another previous blog I do not want to say global trade is bad but in the case of food it has too much influence and we should decrease our reliance on this system and push domestic trade and production of goods that can easily be produced w/in home country to the forefront to stabilize prices and reliability of food availability.
For the original article please go to http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/06/food-prices-hillary-clinton_n_858446.html
Matthew Lee, AP
She urged the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) that steps must be taken immediately to hold down prices and increase production.
Clinton also warned that emergency aid is only a band-aid solution and that real steps towards stable prices and production must be taken to prevent riots similar to what happened in 2007-2008. During the 2008 crisis, Thailand, Vietnam and India, countries that happens to be the world's biggest rice producers placed a cap on rice exports to protect domestic rice supply. This action increased global prices on rice to a record high. Last year Russia banned export of wheat due to domestic drought in order to protect domestic wheat supply.
This is a case in which the global trade presents a serious problem overall. The actions of a few countries in which they justifiably take actions to ensure their own people are able to eat affects other nations in whether or not they get to eat. Again as in another previous blog I do not want to say global trade is bad but in the case of food it has too much influence and we should decrease our reliance on this system and push domestic trade and production of goods that can easily be produced w/in home country to the forefront to stabilize prices and reliability of food availability.
For the original article please go to http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/06/food-prices-hillary-clinton_n_858446.html
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