The Canadian Foodgrains Bank has never seen the like of it.
“We are in an unprecedented situation of having a bare cupboard,” senior policy adviser Stuart Clark said in a Dec. 20 interview.
“Our partners in Africa are contacting us looking for help and we have nothing to offer.”
It is a reflection of the confluence of a number of world events this year.
World cereal stocks are taking a serious hit because of drought in several major producing regions including Africa, North America and Australia, even as the number of people facing food shortages soars and worries of famine haunt many African countries.
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Developing world activists say structural adjustments in many poor countries also are part of the problem. Under orders from such groups as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, many countries have cut subsidies and services to farmers, which has made rural areas less able to cope with the need for more food production.
A United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization report in late December predicted that world wheat stocks will fall by 23 percent and coarse grain stocks by almost 18 percent during the year.
Meanwhile, despite a late-year softening of prices, the FAO predicted wheat prices will be 39 percent higher at the end of 2002-03 than they were at the start of the year.
International aid agencies have argued that this is a double whammy for their cause. Smaller grain harvests and shrinking stocks mean there will be less excess grain available for food aid programs. As well, the sharp increase in prices means it will cost more to buy food for aid, and existing aid budgets will not stretch as far.
“That has affected all of us,” said Clark, whose church-supported organization receives donated grain and money in Canada, which is matched several times over by the Canadian International Development Agency.
This past year, 65 percent of the group’s donations went to Africa, mainly southern Africa, leaving little to help other emerging food-crisis areas.
The FAO says 39 countries faced food emergencies as 2002 drew to a close including 14.4 million in drought-ravaged southern Africa and an estimated 11 million in the Horn of Africa region where rain did not come and traditional food-short countries like Ethiopia and Eritrea are facing the spectre once again of mass starvation and death.
Clark said Canadian aid agencies are considering an appeal to CIDA to increase resources available to buy scarce food.
“With enough money, you can buy lion’s milk,” he said, to illustrate the point that the real issue is not a lack of food.
“There is always food available at some price. We should be doing what we can. This really is a crisis.”
