Out of Africa
News and views from around the continent and beyond
Bread and Circuses, Minus the Bread
While we still wait to see about Zimbabwe, a few things this
week have reminded me about the rising costs of food - not just in
Africa but all around the world. While places like Zim (formerly a
breadbasket) have little or none at all, countries like Zambia are
going gangbusters with agriculture.
Indeed, this has benefitted commercial farmers and export earnings, but it's made everyday life much harder for ordinary people all over the continent, especially in places that are already net importers of food. For others that experience a high degree of food insecurity, even a slight increase in food prices can mean the difference between life and death.
According to the UN Economic Commission for Africa, even a one percent increase in real food prices means that 16 million more people could become food insecure. The same organization attributes rising staple costs to all sorts of other ills, with social instability the foremost amongst them. It's hard to imagine a stable Zimbabwe without a population that's able to feed itself. With the number of food insecure people set to rise to over a billion by 2050, it doesn't augur well for countries having trouble keeping their people well-fed.
Closer to home, over the weekend I had the chance to catch up with an old friend who's risen to the rank of head chef at a local restaurant. Even for him, the rising price of food is a destabilizing factor. The cost whole wheat flour has almost doubled in the past month, affecting the ability of the establishment to continue baking their own bread - a much more healthy and tastier option than ordering it in from elsewhere.
Of course, in the developing world the reality of expensive food is much more stark. People will have to eat less nutritious food (which is almost always cheaper), or just less food period.
Indeed, this has benefitted commercial farmers and export earnings, but it's made everyday life much harder for ordinary people all over the continent, especially in places that are already net importers of food. For others that experience a high degree of food insecurity, even a slight increase in food prices can mean the difference between life and death.
According to the UN Economic Commission for Africa, even a one percent increase in real food prices means that 16 million more people could become food insecure. The same organization attributes rising staple costs to all sorts of other ills, with social instability the foremost amongst them. It's hard to imagine a stable Zimbabwe without a population that's able to feed itself. With the number of food insecure people set to rise to over a billion by 2050, it doesn't augur well for countries having trouble keeping their people well-fed.
Closer to home, over the weekend I had the chance to catch up with an old friend who's risen to the rank of head chef at a local restaurant. Even for him, the rising price of food is a destabilizing factor. The cost whole wheat flour has almost doubled in the past month, affecting the ability of the establishment to continue baking their own bread - a much more healthy and tastier option than ordering it in from elsewhere.
Of course, in the developing world the reality of expensive food is much more stark. People will have to eat less nutritious food (which is almost always cheaper), or just less food period.
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