Bush triggers food debate

Neeta Lal

Whatever the context, President George Bush has triggered a food debate in the country. While politicians are busy slamming the American, the fact remains that more food is criminally wasted in the developed west. Equally true is the fact that because of climatic conditions and inadequate storage, precious food gets wasted in India too while large number of people remain undernourished. 

US President George W Bush's comments early last 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 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.