Russian Droughts and America's Families: the Unhappy Connection
Posted by Michael McKenna on Thursday, September 2, 2010
Russia is thousands of miles away from the U.S. , so a stretch of bad weather there – including near-crippling droughts – shouldn’t really matter to most Americans. Or should it? To answer that question, it’s instructive to look back a few years.
In 2008, prices for major food commodities like corn and wheat skyrocketed around the world to unprecedented levels. Coupled with rising oil prices, the stage was set for a level of human hunger never before seen in the history of our species. Last summer, the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) declared that the total number of food insecure people had exceeded 1 billion for the first time. In dozens of countries, people suffering from the high prices rioted against their governments, leading to violence in places like Burkina Faso and a change of government in Haiti. But it wasn’t just people in the developing world that were badly affected by the price spikes. Americans faced higher prices for grains, milk, meat, and of course, higher prices at the pump. The global economy lurched towards a terrible recession and suddenly millions more Americans turned to federal programs like food stamps, WIC, and community service providers like food pantries and soup kitchens.
Reading the news coming from Russia a few weeks ago, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of déjà vu. A crippling drought across the country’s bread basket reduced yield to the point that the country banned exports. That decision sent the prices of wheat in the U.S. surging to new highs.
Thankfully, there is some good news. The decline in output in Russia should be made up for by bumper crops in the U.S. But there is an underlying vulnerability in the global food system that makes me worry. World Bank and United Nations economists predict that food prices are likely to remain high for many years to come. Agricultural goods are traded globally, so shortfalls in one country from droughts, floods, or poor policy decisions can cause significant changes in the prices faced by consumers in many countries.
That is one more reason why it is vital that the U.S. preserve the nutritional safety net in all its complementary parts. According to the USDA, 40.8 million people received SNAP benefits in May 2010, which is 6.3 million more than May 2009. Half of them are kids! Demand for benefits is increasing and right now the program is meeting that need. But the Senate version of the Child Nutrition Reauthorization Bill cut food stamp benefits in order to cover the new costs authorized in the bill. Given what we know about the unpredictability about food prices and the lingering impact of the recession, doesn’t that seem like a short-sighted idea?
If you think it is short-sighted, make sure you let your leaders in the House of Representatives know so that they can deliver a bill that doesn’t pay for child nutrition by cutting family benefits.
September 2, 2010 | 2 comment(s) | Tags: Child Nutrition Reauthorization, no kid hungry
Comments
2 reader comments so far.
interesting, thanks
Posted by eastlandgrl on October 18, 2010
nice read, keep up the good work
Posted by maquiavelo on October 18, 2010
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