Soaring prices spurs need for food security conference in Rome
Economic issues and the political realities that either feed or starve the crisis came to the forefront. United States Agricultural Secretary Ed Schafer led a discussion on how the demand for alternative fuels—biofuels—have taken millions of acres of corn crops in the Midwest out of the food chain and moved them into production for cleaner fuels, according to reports released June 5 in the New York Times.
Against a backdrop of weather-related problems worldwide, Bob Gronski, policy analyst for Des Moines’ National Catholic Rural Life Center (NCRLC), said in a conference call June 14 at the DuPage Glocal AIDS Action Network (DGAAN) that corn growers are facing a perplexing problem. The price of corn is indeed rising, as much as $7 a bushel—$2 to $3 above the norm—but massive flooding blamed largely on climate change is ruining the very crops needed to sustain a steady food supply or a source for biofuel creation.
So far, it has been a tall order trying to determine exactly which set of priorities should take precedence, said Gronski. At the moment, farmers and the rest of the rural community along with thousands of volunteers from churches, assistance organizations, the Red Cross and more are rushing to at-risk spots along flooded rivers in Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois and Missouri to join sandbag assembly lines. The hope is to keep the mighty rivers and their tributaries from invading businesses and homes. President Bush, in a statement June 18, said the Federal Emergency Management Association (FEMA) is on top of the situation. He said there is enough funding for immediate problems, but he intends to go to Congress to seek authorization for additional funds to assist the victims of future emergencies.
At the Rome conference, the Vatican came out in favor of feeding the hungry as a priority over the development of the biofuel industry, according to a June 6 Catholic News Service (CNS) story. The pope blamed the food crisis on the lack of “solidarity” as it concerns a commitment to feed the hungry.
At the same time, CNS reported that the pope called for “reconsideration of the rush to biofuel development,” citing the current food crisis situation.
David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World, kicked off the Rome conference. He addressed the issue of the slow-moving farm bill in the United States, for which major reforms were proposed and largely rejected. The $290 million proposal that cleared Congress in May was vetoed for the second time June 18 by Bush. The administration criticized the bill, according to a Reuters report, for failure to remove the status quo in regard to subsidies for multimillionaire farmers (corporate farms) “at a time of rising food prices.” The bill is expected to come up for an override vote in Congress.