Global Food Crisis Getting Attention

As the price of gas climbs to $4 a gallon here in the United States, the rest of the world is transfixed with high food prices. While we are seeing higher food prices, it’s not quite what people in developing countries are confronting. A BBC article profiles six families from around the world in the article, “Families’ Shopping List.” According to one family in Guatemala (where Coffee Kids has four partners working in various communities), they spend almost half of their income on food.

The BBC has a variety of articles on the food crisis in the section, “Food Price Crisis.” The food crisis is creating problems for billions around the world.

Coffee Kids’ partners in various communities in Mexico (such as ICSUR in Chiapas and FomCafé and CAMPO near Oaxaca) are working to help diversify local crops and encourage family gardens bringing diversity to local markets and improving food security so that communities aren’t as dependent on outside sources for food.

Many are blaming the food crisis on efforts to encourage and subsidize the production of biofuels. While this is partially true, it merits more investigation. Land diverted to crops for fuel production takes available land out of food production. This is especially evident in the US where millions of acres of corn have been dedicated to producing the fuel inefficient corn-based ethanol that was touted as a savior for our energy woes. But producing corn-based ethanol still requires more energy than it produces. Coffee Kids’ partner STIAP, in the community of Nueva Alianza, has been working on their own biofuel reactor that uses waste oil to produce diesel to power the community. They have also been planting fallow land with rapeseed, an oil-dense seed that provides a favorable energy ratio. For more information on STIAP’s efforts, check out the cover story in our 2007 Summer Newsletter.