2011 - Year of the Pricey Rabbit

Chinese cuisine involves a great deal of meat, despite the myriad of vegetarian options, you're going to find a bit of zhu/niu/ji rou in almost everything. Praise has to be given to the exemplary standard set with regards reducing waste by using almost all parts of the animal. From congealed blood cubes to add flavour to soup, to dried chicken intestine from the local Buddies corner shop there seems to be a taste out there for everyone.  

However, China's increasing affluence, coupled with increasingly western culinary inclinations (e.g. delightfully flavoursome McDonalds, KFC and Papa Johns), is in part helping drive up staple food prices. This year began with the impact of rising food prices in some of the most susceptible regions on earth contributing to unrest that has even been linked to the pro-democracy movements in Egypt and Tunisia. As I write this there are protests and riots in Algeria and wheat prices have hit an all time high in the UK. The difference between this potential crisis (especially for the poor) is the pressure from both the supply side and the rapidly expanding demand.


http://dearkitty.blogsome.com/2009/04/25/

Biofuels, population growth and higher standards of living are driving the demand side of the equation and soil erosion, water shortages, plateauing yields and less then perfect weather conditions (to put it lightly) are some of the factors limiting supply. With regards population growth, thankfully it seems to have peaked but that does not change the fact that 80 million people are added to this planet every year. However what is more pressing in the near term is the 3 billion people (mainly in China and India) that are working their way up the socio-economic ladder. This is increasing substantially the demand for grain to feed livestock not only to consume but to produce eggs, milk etc. The experiment in biofuels has proved to be fairly futile and in fact harmful as it not only reduces the amount of land dedicated to food production but has stimulated further deforestation in tropical regions to provide palm oil as a replacement for diesel.

Of course, the impact of this is further soil erosion, misguided relocation of water etc. which in turn add to the causes of the lack of food supply. As usual the people most affected by these circumstances are the poorest and the ones that suffer at the local level. However in an increasingly integrated world, some effect takes place everywhere. To wait for the 'invisible' hand to cause prices to reach such a point that producers switch back to producing food is inhumane.

Of course it is not all doom and gloom, most of what I have read has not taken into account the potential of the much debated genetically modified foods and other technologies yet to be developed. These could very well be not only an option in the future but perhaps a necessity as climate induced difficulties are here to stay, especially whilst those in positions of great influence continue to believe that climate change is a vast leftist conspiracy to serve nothing but the radical purpose of....hmmmmm not quite sure.