The Silent Tsunami Campaign

Reports and Analyses on the Crisis And Its Possible Solutions

 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.