The Silent Tsunami Campaign

A Human Crisis

Over the past year or so, a host of factors has caused the price of food to rise sharply. 

 

No doubt, you have seen your grocery bills going up.  You may be cutting back on certain purchases.  If you are a working person in the Washington area, the price increases are making it even harder to make ends meet.  If you are among the two-and-a-half billion around the world who live on two dollars a day or less, it could be a matter of life and death.

 

Unlike the cyclone that hit Myanmar in early May, or the earthquake that rocked China recently, the food crisis is not the result of a sudden, deadly strike by nature.   Rather, it is an evolving market-driven storm that is pushing tens of millions of people deeper into poverty and desperation - what the Executive Director of the UN World Food Programme, Josette Sheeran, called a “silent tsunami.”

 

Among the factors creating the widening gap between the price of food and income are rising consumer demands for meat in Asia, shifts to biofuels amid concerns about climate change, and higher energy, transportation, and fertilizer costs.  In addition, changing weather patterns have caused droughts in some important food producing regions such as Australia.  As governments restrict food exports to maintain supplies and head off price hikes at home, prices for many staples have gone up even more.   Together, these factors have created a perfect storm and a tidal wave of misery. 

 

Even if prices stabilize and governments and international organizations mobilize to better coordinate policies that affect food pricing, many millions of people will continue to struggle for a daily meal for the foreseeable future.