(Resource News International) — High grain and energy prices are reported to be
creating difficulties for organizations providing food aid to
areas of the world in need.
“We certainly are seeing an impact, as almost everything we
are purchasing has gone up quite a bit,” said Heather Plett,
director of resources and communications with the Canadian
Foodgrains Bank, a non-profit organization which works to “reduce
hunger and its consequences” around the world.
“We’ve done some analysis and we figure that in the coming
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programming,” she said.
Over the past five years, the Canadian
Foodgrains Bank has seen average donations of 20,000 tonnes of grain and $4 million of cash each year, according to the
organization’s web site. Those donations are matched 4:1 by the
Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).
Plett said the organization was hopeful its targets
would continue to be met, and is now encouraging people to
help out with donations.
Frank Reimer, of Global Grain Canada, an edible bean export company at Plum Coulee, about 100 km southwest of Winnipeg, was working on putting together a
shipment of beans for the United Nations World Food Programme
earlier this week.
“It’s about twice as expensive to provide that
food now than it was a year ago,” he said. While he didn’t
have any firm figures, from his own experience Reimer thought
there was less food being given away now than when prices were
cheaper. “It’s very detrimental for those poor people in the
world.”
International food costs have increased by 55 per cent since June
2007, said Bettina Luescher, North American spokesperson for the
World Food Programme. The agency had initially planned on feeding
73 million people on a budget of US$2.9 billion this year.
However, as a result of increased food costs the agency
recently put out an emergency appeal to its top 20 donors for
an additional US$500 million. The need was now
closer to US$755 million, she said.
“Perfect storm”
Several factors are coming together at the same time to
exacerbate the situation. Luescher pointed to floods in Africa,
droughts in Australia, rising energy prices, the biofuels boom,
and worldwide food stocks at their lowest level in 30 years,
noting that “all of these factors come together in a perfect
storm.”
People living on less than US$1 a day in developing
countries are those hardest hit by the increased costs, as often
they spend 60 to 80 per cent of their income on food, said Luescher.
“For them it’s a matter of survival,” she said.
Countries in
Africa, Asia, the Mideast, Central America, and the Caribbean are
all experiencing difficulties as a result of higher food costs,
according to a World Food Programme media backgrounder.
Governments realize how serious the situation is, and the
World Food Programme is seeing donations come in, said Luescher.
The agency is also working with organizations, experts and other
individuals around the world to help alleviate the consequences
of higher food prices. However, the number of hungry people in
the world is estimated to grow by four million each year, and
Luescher said the agency was also concerned the current
crisis could put the development progress already made back by
years.
