The rising cost of food all over the world has taken households, governments and the media by storm. The price of wheat has gone up by 130 per cent in the last year. Rice doubled in price in Asia in the first three months of 2008 alone, hitting record highs on the Chicago futures market. For most of 2007 the spiralling cost of cooking oil, fruit and vegetables, as well as dairy and meat, led to a fall in their consumption.
From Haiti to Cameroon to Bangladesh, people have been taking to the streets in anger at being unable to afford the food they need. In fear of political turmoil, world leaders have been calling for more food aid, as well as for more funds and technology to boost agricultural production. Cereal exporting countries are closing their borders to protect their domestic markets, while other nations panic-buy. Is this a price blip? No. A food shortage? Not that either. We are in a structural meltdown, the direct result of three decades of neoliberal globalization.
