What is the next great global problem we have to fear? The answer is not climate change and global warming, but food shortage and starvation. Suddenly, and in ways largely unforeseen by experts, a serious shortage of food supplies, especially corn and rice, has crept up on the world. The result has been soaring food prices and spreading social unrest, leading to outright riots and violence in many countries.
Disturbances and protests have occurred in Egypt, Pakistan, Burkino Faso, Eritrea, Ethiopia, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Botswana, Haiti — to name a few on a much longer list. The price of corn has tripled in two years and the price of rice by two and a half times. Grain and rice importers have simply been unable to fulfill their contracts.
There should be no doubt about the urgency of the situation. Throughout history it is food riots that have brought down governments and fomented revolutions — as former U.S. Vice President Al Gore reminds us in one of his more balanced books on the world environment, "Earth in the Balance."