NEW DELHI - US President George W Bush's comments early this month that India
was partly responsible for spiraling global food demand and rising prices
created more than just anger across the country - they helped to stir a
searching debate on the real causes for the present crisis afflicting the poor
in India and far beyond.
"There are 350 million people in India," said Bush, "who are classified as
middle class. That's bigger than America ... and when you start getting wealth,
you start demanding better nutrition and better food. And so demand is high and
that causes
the price to go up."
India's largest opposition party, the Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP),
responded by threatening to force a parliamentary debate on his remarks.
Defense Minister A K Antony called Bush's comments "a cruel joke". The US
president's policies were also responsible for the food grain shortage, said
Antony, with "official encouragement of bio-fuels responsible for converting
millions of hectares of agricultural land in the US for bio-fuel production".
Another minister thundered: "Don't Indians have the right to eat better? Why
should the US talk about this when India is producing most of the food needed
by its people and when it is well known that the US is diverting farm produce
like corn to make bio-fuel? To say that the demand for food in India is causing
an increase in global food prices is completely wrong."
Bush made his remarks when spiraling food prices in India - along with a recent
record 8% inflation - have become an explosive political issue, especially for
the ruling UPA government as it prepares for elections due next year. The
Congress-led coalition is worried that food prices may ruin its electoral
chances, as Hindu nationalist and leftist opposition parties have made
inflation one of their main electoral planks.
Pragmatists pointed out that India would do well not to read too much into
Bush's statements, as they lack the rigor of facts. For instance, while the US
is the world's largest per capita consumer of grain, more than half of India's
billion-plus populace - which subsists on half a dollar day - is barely able to
manage two square meals daily.
Even according to the US Department of Agriculture, the per capita consumption
of grain in the US is 1,046 kg compared with 178 kg in India. Similarly, the
per capita consumption of poultry in the US is 45.4 kg against 1.9 kg in India.
Of the 854 million people estimated by the Food and Agricultural Organization
to be undernourished people in the world in 2001-03, 830 million were living in
developing countries including India.
Helping to shore up the bitter response, Bush's comments come at a time when
Indian farmers are committing suicide in horrific numbers. As many as 136,324
have killed themselves between 1998 and 2008 due to plummeting grain production
and crushing personal debts.
As agriculturists emphasize, it is not India's increased consumption that is
driving up food costs but a worldwide slide in food grain production. One
factor is prolonged drought across vast swathes of Australia (a major global
wheat producer), which has whittled down the availability of food produce in
world markets. Growing urbanization in most developing countries has meanwhile
reduced land available for growing crops.
The trend in Western countries to divert corn and other crops to ethanol and
similar production has hurt agricultural productivity, while farmers
increasingly are turning to grow cash crops that accrue higher profits per unit
of land than conventional and less lucrative food grains such as rice, wheat
and corn.
In other words, dwindling global stocks of staples like wheat and rice, Asian
demand and government mandates to produce crops for fuel have stretched too
thin the world's ability to feed itself.
Even so, K S Subramanian, a senior official at India's Ministry of Agriculture,
points out to another reason for depleting global food stocks - food waste.
"Food waste is a major reason for fast depleting world stocks," says
Subramanian. "In India, for instance, grain wastage happens largely because of
a poor supply chain due to inadequate warehouse facilities. Also, in
energy-deficient societies like ours, there's a lot of food spoilage due to
lack of refrigeration. The US, on the contrary, suffers from the problem of
plenty, resulting in a fair amount of waste in restaurants and people's homes."
Subramanian's observation is corroborated by a recent Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) study that estimates Americans generate 30 million tones of food
waste each year, accounting for 12% of the total global food waste.
A British report similarly highlights that Britons toss away a third of the
food they purchase, including more than four million whole apples, 1.2 million
sausages and 2.8 million tomatoes. In Sweden, families with small children
discard a quarter of the food they buy, according to one study. Collectively,
the rotting, wasted food fuels another problem with global proportions - that
of emission of methane, a major source of greenhouse gases.
The United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development report last week
meanwhile highlighted another reason for developing countries' food shortages -
"a lack of technology and infrastructure as well as insect infestations,
microbial growth, damage and humidity".
In addition, Asia has aggravated food price inflation and uncertainty by its
very response to tightening global grain supplies, according to the Asian
Development Bank (ADB). Export bans and price floors imposed by grain exporters
including China, Pakistan and Vietnam, "have increased price volatility and
uncertainty in the international rice markets," reducing supplies, the ADB
said. India has banned non-basmati rice exports to ensure local availability.
The ADB report, Soaring Food Prices: Response to the Crisis, reiterates that
"strong political and economic factors " were at play in the food policies of
most developing Asian countries, "so that the effect of sharply higher
international prices has not been fully transmitted to domestic prices." The
bank said crackdowns as seen in the Bangladesh and the Philippines on private
traders accused of hoarding food grains were "difficult to implement" and have
in fact "increased prices in the domestic market of many countries".
Similarly, strong economic growth and higher wages, powered by nearly two
decades of liberal reforms, have fueled demand for farm products at a time when
output has stagnated. India has imported wheat in the past two years and
imports of edible oils have spiraled to cope with rising consumer demand and
changing food habits.
So, to answer Bush, is India responsible for skyrocketing food prices? Yes and
no. While some experts contend that India is not a big enough player in global
trade to impact prices hugely, others opine that the huge prosperity ushered in
by the country's economic liberalization has the potential to change global
power equations.
And while the debate rages, the world continues to grapple with glaring
inequity on the food front - not enough for the poor to eat in the developing
countries and too much for Westerners.
New Delhi-based independent journalist Neeta Lal has had her work
published in over 70 publications across 20 countries .
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