11) G-7 FIDDLES AS GLOBAL HUNGER CRISIS MOUNTS

(The following article is from the May 16-31, 2008, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

By Darrell Rankin

Acting like a bright spotlight on the utter inhumanity of the capitalist system, the ever-growing global food crisis can be added officially to the list of the world's economic and environmental woes, plunging hundreds of millions of people into misery, unemployment or death.

     Yet after meeting on April 11, the G7 countries which account for two-thirds of the world economy - the U.S., Japan, Germany, Italy, France, UK and Canada - issued a four page statement that fails to mention the food crisis, saying only that "high oil and commodity prices" pose a risk to the world economy.

     George Bush and his imperialist associates are more willing and prepared to launch a new war than to resolve a single crisis. The G7 countries are engaging in a huge cover-up, while simultaneously imposing the full cost of the crises on the working class at home and abroad. They can still afford to "buy off" their working class with a food supply that costs roughly 20 per cent of wages. But for how long?

     Food price hikes are a far more serious matter for the vast majority who live in the neo-colonial countries. Close to half the world's population lives on $2 a day or less, and 60 to 80 per cent of their income is spent on food.

     Food riots are being reported across the globe, according to Sir John Holmes, the United Nation's emergency relief coordinator and top humanitarian official. The list includes Haiti, Egypt, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, and Bangladesh.

     Holmes says that skyrocketing food prices and shortages over the last year are threatening the "political stability" of many countries, especially in Africa's immense urban areas. The World Bank says that 33 countries face "social unrest" because of the growing catastrophe.

     Global food prices increased 83 per cent in the last three years. The price of wheat has increased 108 per cent in the last year; corn has increased 66 per cent. Rice more than doubled in price since the end of 2007, based on the "Thai medium quality" benchmark variety.

     The United Nations is calling for an immediate $500 billion (US) in extra food aid, but only half has been committed. To quell the panic caused by rising prices, hoarding is also being practised. Some big grain exporters such as Kazakhstan and Indonesia have banned global trading.

     Ministers representing 185 countries also considered the crisis at meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in early April. Saying that soaring food prices threaten global calamity, they promised to co-operate to save the world's poorest people from starvation.

     Unable to influence the actual economic levers of the WB and the IMF, the ministers issued no specific plan. But a broad outline of what must be done is emerging in scientific and political statements.

     One of the most important measures is to stop converting edible grains into "biofuels." This practice - driven by the large oil companies with lavish government subsidies - is a "crime against humanity," according to some of the ministers attending the IMF and WB meetings.

     On April 15, a report endorsed by sixty countries says that the world has ample resources to feed everyone. But it called for radical changes in world farming to avert food shortages, escalating prices and growing environmental problems.

     Backed also by the World Bank and most UN agencies, the report noted that continuing current trends would mean deeper divisions between the haves and have-nots, and leaving a world no one would want to inhabit.

     The 2,500-page International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology of Development is the result of three years of work by 400 experts. The report urges investment in agricultural science, ending biofuels from crops, managing climate change, and ending the massive subsidies for farmers, especially in the wealthy countries.

     The report exposes the failures of large-scale industrial farming and the devastating effects of dismantled marketing boards and neo-liberal trade agreements on small farmers.

     The report points to the need to promote farming that reduces fossil fuel consumption and that favours local production and sustainable, natural practices such as crop rotation, low-tillage and organic fertilizers. The report does not endorse genetically modified crops.