No 379
2 May 2008
The present world food
situation is being compared to the food crisis of the 1970s. At that time the
UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) declared that “every man, woman and
child has the inalienable right to be free from hunger and malnutrition”. Now
the world’s poorest, those who spend more than half their income on food, are
facing disaster with the current shortages and steeply rising prices of
supplies: this could amount to a total of more than one billion people.
Various
reasons are quoted for the present situation. One is to do with the effects of
climate change. One is the increase in the world's population. Another is the
diversion of agricultural land to the production of biofuel. Another is the
steep increase in the price of oil. And another is people’s change to
meat-based diets in rapidly developing countries such as China. In rich
countries, such as the US, the price of wheat is rising sharply, since farmers
are giving preference to maize and soya beans, both of which are easier to
grow, more profitable – and required for ethanol production.
The recurrence
of a food crisis seems to show that the global community has not solved its
food problems in the last 30 years, so commentators suggest, though there are
other factors now which did not exist to the same extent then. One is the
acceleration of climate change, which has seriously affected the capacity of
certain areas of the world to produce food. The other is the increased
internationalisation of the food market. Large firms control much of the
world’s production of staples. Global food exporters benefit from overall short
supplies, while poor people bear the brunt of price increases. At the same
time, governments of rich countries subsidise their farmers and
food-processors, so as to keep prices artificially low, and place tariffs on
goods imported from other countries. This distorts the market to the benefit of
the rich countries.
The Nobel
Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen was the first to point out that hunger and
food deprivation are not always to do with an absence of sufficient food in the
world. Often there is enough food, but it is not getting to those who need it.
What he calls “endemic deprivation” is often caused by political decisions
elsewhere and the workings of the market. He also believes that it is partly
caused by lack of education and information amongst those affected. No famine
should ever be allowed to happen. Famine is, he says, a “failure of
entitlement”. Better informed, better supported and better organised, the
public can play a greater part in influencing government to act for greater
equality of entitlement.
After the food
crisis of the 1970s, the FAO made three principal recommendations: to create a
world food reserve ‘bank’ to be called on in times of emergency; to create an
International Fund for Agricultural Development to support farmers with new
knowledge and techniques, and to develop a food forecasting system to provide
an early warning of impending shortages. What do you think can still be done to prevent a food
crisis from turning into a disaster for many people in the world?
More and more
British people are buying ‘alternative’ medicines in chemists’ and health
shops. Sales have risen rapidly and are estimated to be worth £200m per year.
One reason for this is said to be the government’s push towards self-medication
and the availability of an increased number of prescription drugs over the
counter. It also reflects growing public information on a wide variety of
medical matters, through books, magazines, television and especially the
internet.
Many of today’s mental
health issues, problems of stress, depression, insomnia and the like, have
caused people to seek ‘complementary’ remedies of various kinds, sometimes
perhaps through nervousness at admitting these conditions to their GPs, or
sometimes because of fear of addiction or side effects from pharmaceutical
drugs. There is also a widespread and growing concern for the ‘natural’, which
applies to food as well as medicine, and the broad areas where they overlap.
The Prince’s
Foundation for Integrated
Health, founded by the Prince of Wales in 1993, states that “responsibility for our health isn't something
we can simply delegate to doctors and medicine. Most aspects of
health are a reflection of the way we live our whole lives”. It focuses on
fulfilling work, strong communities, the buildings we live in, our relationship
with the natural world and the food we eat. And it suggests that, “when we are
ill, treating [our] problem with an integrated approach means bringing
together mainstream
medical science with the best of other traditions”. An approach which believes
that patients should take more initiatives and doctors should help them find
“creative solutions” is becoming more popular. But the sale of complementary
remedies has also become a highly lucrative business for their manufacturers. Do
you think these complementary treatments should become part of the NHS?
[Sources: The
Prince’s Foundation for Integrated Health – The
Guardian]
It has often
been reported that people who live in poorer areas of Britain have less
favourable access to services such as hospitals and schools, as well as to
other local amenities. Evidence shows that they also have a greater range of
social problems which affect their life expectancy, their health and their
prospects of employment. So the question arises as to why such areas exist,
what causes ‘income segregation’, and whether government action can help to
avoid it.
Present day
housing policy aims to create mixed communities as far as possible, since it is
believed that this will create greater equality and improve conditions overall.
Indeed, an investigation by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR)
concludes that housing lies at the heart of this kind of segregation. Higher
house prices attract people with higher incomes, better educational outcomes
and lower unemployment. Patterns of social housing investment also determine
where people live, especially those with low or uncertain incomes. And if
people in social housing estates decide to buy their houses, it is then quite
common for them to leave the area subsequently and look for housing in a
different kind of area, so consolidating the social character of the place
where they lived before.
Understandably,
social housing tends to be concentrated in economically deprived areas, and a
‘mixed’ housing policy will only be effective in areas where there is also a
mixture of incomes and employment opportunities. The regeneration of deprived
areas has to be concerned with a variety of elements such as jobs, services and
the quality of the environment, as well as housing. And even then the balance
is delicate: it can easily happen that a slight change in circumstances can
cause a mixed community to ‘tip’ into a segregated community again.
The main
recommendations of the investigation are that new social housing should not be
built in deprived areas or areas which already have a high degree of social
housing, and that more resources should be directed at the overall renewal of
deprived areas, with the aim of reducing inequalities of opportunity between
one geographical area and another, as for instance in the so-called
‘north-south divide’. What
do you think are the chief causes of income segregation?
[Source: IPPR]
The government has published a National Play Strategy for England which includes proposals to build 3500 new play areas and give money to local authorities to develop youth centres and adventure playgrounds. The organisation Living Streets welcomes the proposal, but suggests that it does not go far enough. Children, they believe “should have the freedom to play in public spaces right across their community, and need action now to make sure our streets are safe places to do that”.
The Play Strategy will encourage councils to lower speed limits in residential areas, and expand the provision of ‘Home Zones’. These are projects inspired by an initiative in the Netherlands, to calm traffic and make streets more friendly to pedestrians, especially the elderly and disabled, children, shoppers and the like. They include the construction of items such as benches, tree and flower beds, or lamp-posts in places which force traffic to slow down. Many such projects have been welcomed, though criticisms include the fact that they cause congestion and make it hard for emergency services to reach houses. The most successful Home Zones are situated in communities where all affected parties have been involved in planning and decision-making.
Living Streets states that the Play Strategy “is a
welcome step towards putting children first and starting to reclaim our streets
as public places to play and live in”. The strategy also responds to concerns
that parents are becoming over-protective towards their children, while child
psychologists are concerned that children need challenge and opportunities to
learn how to take risks. What leisure facilities do children and young
people want (and need) in their early years of life?
The first march to the
Atomic Weapons Research Establishment in Aldermaston, to protest against the
use of nuclear weapons, took place fifty years ago this April, and in some
places this week’s annual Mayday rally will also be celebrating the
half-centenary.
As well as being an ancient folk festival, May 1st has been an
annual commemoration of popular protest since a landmark working people’s rally
in Chicago in 1886 in support of an 8-hour working day. For this reason, May 1st
is also known as Labour Day or International Workers’ Day. In many countries of
the world, the Mayday holiday has been used by a wide range of campaigning
groups as an opportunity to celebrate, protest and publicise their cause. In
Britain there have been several attempts in the past to abolish the Mayday
holiday as such, because of its political links, and, so it was suggested to
replace it with ‘Trafalgar Day’ or ‘Churchill Day’. But, so far, the
commemoration of the history of protest has survived. Why do you think that
International Workers’ Day still holds so much significance for so many people?
[Sources: CND – The Guardian – Wikipedia]