Ethiopia in the News

This article on the food crisis in Ethiopia is in today’s Wall Street Journal. A very interesting look at how increased consumption in one part of the world impacts others.  An excerpt:

Far away in Ethiopia, one-year-old Teshome squirmed on his mother’s lap while they waited in a food-aid line. Baltu Tumebo already had reduced her family to two meals a day and was stretching her dwindling supply of corn with ever-thinner porridge. Rising food prices triggered by growing global demand had compromised a government safety net designed to help Ethiopians escape hunger and improve their farms.

“Meat?” Ms. Tumebo sighed. They hadn’t eaten any for months, she said.

Although the world is producing more food than ever before, a tug on one link of the food chain still can rattle others far away. One prime example: the remarkable economic migration of millions of once-hungry people in places like China into the better-fed middle class inadvertently made it harder for the presently hungry in places like Ethiopia to also join the ranks of the well fed.

Growing demand in one corner of the world has complicated consequences elsewhere. To feed its voracious appetite for pork and other meats, China bought a record 490 million bushels of U.S. soybeans — mostly to feed livestock — during the year ended Aug. 31, or about 18% of the harvest. The squeeze on soybean supply forced prices higher.

That had a impact in Ethiopia, where soybeans are a crucial ingredient, along with corn, in a special mixture fortified with micronutrients for malnourished children. While global commodity prices have declined in recent months, easing the worst of the food crisis, the prices consumers pay for food have barely budged in many places; in the U.S., retail food prices have continued to rise. Relief agencies in Ethiopia are still struggling to meet demand; instead of providing fortified mix for all the children in a family, often there has been just enough for the most malnourished.

 And when I went to the WSJ website to find the link, there was this video .  And this slide show.  (Once again the WordPress/flash issue is getting in my way – anyone know of a fix to this?)