Oxfam Predicts Food Prices Will Double, Places Blame on US Energy Policy

Oxfam, an international aid organization with roots to 1942 Britain, has issued a report ("Growing a Better Future") that discusses the symptoms of today’s broken food system.  The report warns that the world has "entered a new age of crisis where depletion of the earth’s natural resources and increasingly severe climate change impacts will create millions more hungry people."  The Oxfam report cites research predicting that the price of staple foods (like corn) will more than double in the next 20 years.  While the report blames half of the increase on climate change, US energy policy is also cited as a factor: "US policy ensures 15 percent of the world’s maize [corn] is diverted to engines, even at times of severe food crisis. The grain required to fill the petrol tank of an SUV with biofuels is sufficient to feed one person for a year."  India is also cited for economic development policies that have doubled the size of its economy between 1990 and 2005 -- yet one in four of the world's hungry people live in India.  Oxfam Executive Director Jeremy Hobbs warns that "Millions more men, women and children will go hungry unless we transform our broken food system."  Oxfam states that it is calling on powerful governments to "lead the transformation to a fairer more sustainable food system by investing in agriculture, valuing the world’s natural resources, managing the food system better and delivering equality for women who produce much of the world's food."  Read the entire report by clicking on the link above.