Reports and Analyses

The Silent Tsunami Campaign

Reports and Analyses on the Crisis And Its Possible Solutions

Text Box: The current edition of World Commerce Review features an essay from Terence P. Stewart on the global food crisis and trade. In this essay, Stewart makes the case for addressing immediate human needs while crafting wise, long-term trade policies linked to food security. [World Commerce Review essay] With extensive coverage of the many dimensions of this global food crisis, public officials, leaders of international organizations, and policy analysts from many disciplines are devoting more and more time and energy to coming up with ways of tackling the problem. The Law Offices of Stewart and Stewart, which is spearheading this effort, produced a paper that summarizes some problems and solutions. The firm also worked with the Global Business Dialogue for what we hope will be the first of a series of panel discussions on the issue. To hear a recording of that discussion, visit the Global Business Dialogue website. Click here for testimony and other information from a May 14 Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing. A joint report by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development explains why this price spike would be more serious and long-lasting than previous spikes and what World Bank President Robert Zoellick recommended in a 10-point plan as the Rome food summit got under way in early June. During the Rome summit, countries quickly agreed on the seriousness of the crisis, agreed on the need for billions of dollars more for food aid, and looked ahead to the complexity of crafting lasting solutions. To learn more about what leaders discussed at the Rome summit and to see speeches, documents and the summit final declaration, please visit the official website. On July 2, the World Bank released a report which included a list of suggested action items for member nations to consider pursuing at the G8 Summit later this summer. The report refers to crisis as a “double jeopardy” of high food prices and high fuel prices for countries around the world The United Nations Secretary-General established a special Task Force on the Global Food Security Crisis on April 28, 2008. The Task Force is composed of representatives from organizations that run the gamut of multilateral agencies, including the FAO, the IMF, the UNCTAD, the WFP, and the WTO, to name only a very few. In July, the Task Force produced a Comprehensive Framework for Action, which was intended to address current threats to food security worldwide as well as future preventative measures against food crises. In July of 2008, Donald Mitchell of the World Bank produced A Note on Rising Food Prices. The paper examines the factors which are widely considered to have contributed to the food price crisis as we see it today. In doing so, Mitchell estimates the contribution of each individual factor to the problem overall since 2002, and concludes that the production of biofuels in the US and the EU was the most important factor in driving up the cost of food worldwide. Mitchell also examines such factors as export bans, weather-related production shortfalls, and rapid growth in domestic income in developing countries. Recently, various groups have suggested that a turnaround in the food crisis should begin with changes made nationally, regionally, or locally, in order to more efficiently target the causes and effects of the crisis felt by individuals. To this end, the Center for Strategic and International Studies published a report in late July, 2008, which made recommendations to the United States on strategic action to be taken in response to the Global Food Crisis. Among the recommendations made, the CSIS report suggests that the United States should double its emergency aid program and create an executive-led “standing interagency mechanism on global food security” which coordinate with UN organizations.