Regarding biofuels and food competing with fuel, > 14 countries have been involved in food-related violence and amongst them, Malaysia was the first on he list. A few interesting ones are outlined below:
In Malaysia, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is struggling for his political survival because of voters furious over food prices.
In India, food markets stand empty and the number of milk offerings to Hindu deities that take place daily across the country has plummeted.
Egypt’s President ordered the army to start baking bread.
The Philippines has made hoarding rice punishable by life imprisonment.
Japan, despite a long-standing cultural aversion to GM rice, has been importing it for the first time.
Well, food is a necessity and once this is threatened, politicians are forced to face this problem before they can focus on development or other issues. Hence, watchdogs/government institutions need to play an increasingly strong role in making sure that biofuels do not compete with food(although it might seem more lucrative).
On the other hand, this article also mentioned that farmers can benefit from the higher prices tha they obtain for their crops now – which in turn reduces the need for subsidies for them to be sustainable.
2 responses so far ↓
Wata // 25 July 2008 at 1:52 pm |
Out of curiosity, how do ‘voters furious’ get translated to violence? Biased reporting, or am I missing some subtext?
sohas // 25 July 2008 at 1:58 pm |
Well, that is what was reported – I found it weird that they quoted Malaysia. I guess they wanted to mention that food prices are soaring in Malaysia. However, we did not have violence. Unless they mistook the political demonstrations that we had in the past to be related to this…
Should I write to him to enquire?