They say that hunger is what separates order and anarchy. Social peace is only possible when citizens get their basic needs. Failure to provide food may spark a revolution. Food shortage is largely due not on the failure of the land to produce food but on the fact that the cost of food (cost of food production, really) has skyrocketed, making it inaccessible, thus creating hungry and angry people.

According to the FAO, “Under the current gloomy prospects for agricultural prices, high input costs and more difficult access to credit, farmers may cut their plantings, which might again result in a tightening of world food supplies.” Still from the FAO, ‘further price increases could happen again during the 2009-10 harvesting season , unleashing even more severe food crises than those experienced recently.

Severe food crises cause food riots that have grown prevalent in some places. The high cost of food production, and thus the high cost of food, causes violent reactions as we have seen in Haiti, Kenya, Egypt, India, Vietnam, and other places.

The fear of food riots, however, is a different thing. Apparently, this one breeds paranoia.

Proponents of climate hysteria such as Al Gore and his supporters would, of course, be quick to blame the drought and hurricanes presumably caused by climate change that result in severe imbalances in food production, but this argument may be construed as self-serving. There is also the rising cost of oil, coal, or steel which has nothing to do with the weather.

What, then, could have been causing shortages in food? Apparently, this thing called ‘demand’ has a lot to do with it, tipping the balance too askew. Emerging economies such as China, India and some other parts of the world that began enjoying more freedom and capacity to consume did just that – consume. That means billions of people who want to eat more and better, as well as use up more resources. Eating better perceivably means to eat meat. To produce one kilo of meat, an estimated 6 kg of cereals are required. What used to be for human consumption now becomes food for cows, pigs, or chickens. The increase in demand translates to increase in price of agricultural inputs and raw materials. And the increase in cost of food production translates to increase in the end price of food. The growth of these countries also means an increase in the demand and price of steel, oil, natural gas, coal, energy, or wood. This leads to higher production costs which are passed on to the final prices of food. Vietnam

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