Another Reminder of the Food Crisis….
Sharon November 8th, 2010
In this fascinating series by The Guardian on food casualties of our ecological crisis. Well worth a read for everyone! Consider tomatoes, which are causing riots in Egypt, quite literally.
They are as much part of the Middle Eastern diet as hummus and olive oil, but the rocketing price of tomatoes has led many families to treat them as an expensive delicacy.
The cost of a kilogram of the usually ubiquitous red fruit has risen seven- or eightfold in Israel and Palestine in the past month as a result of the scorching summer, with some retailers charging up to 14 or 15 shekels (around £2.50).
“People are still buying tomatoes but they are buying fewer of them,” said one Jerusalem retailer. “I am hoping the price will drop soon.”
The Israeli government has waived taxes on imported tomatoes for the rest of the year to help counter shortages resulting from the unusual heat.
The exemption applies to 4,000 tonnes of the fruit, mainly from the Netherlands.
The crisis is easing as a new crop of tomatoes, grown after the intense heat of the summer, are coming on to the market, said an Israeli ministry of agriculture spokeswoman. “One of the problems has been that tomatoes don’t last long once ripe,” she said.
According to Gidon Bromberg of Friends of the Earth Middle East, “We’re seeing the impact of global warming. We can see real changes having to take place on how we grow food for our basic dietary needs.”
One of the things that I think is important to remember is that foods are not automatically interchangeable - consider how you’d feel if your bread or potatoes or rice were replaced with Cassava tomorrow and someone said “well, they are all nice, filling starches…” People are passionate about their major foods, and it is worth noting the way that those disruptions undermine a sense of stability, even if there is enough overall food.
Sharon
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Margaret Mead famously said “It is easier to change a man’s religion than to change his diet.” While there are certainly situations in which diet has to be changed for survival, in general, these are really difficult changes for people, and certainly frustrating when the food is still there, but unavailable for reasons like suddenly increased cost. You’re absolutely right to point out the difficulties and while, yes, cassava would certainly be of benefit if nothing else were available, significant changes to diet - especially if considered to be a really important or fundamental form of culture - is hugely upsetting. I’m not looking forward to dealing with similar changes to our food supply, and the foods that we hold near and dear.
This reminds me of the recent cabbage shortage in Korea (don’t know if it has finally eased). The price of the preferred variety of cabbage for kim chee had risen more than threefold, and families were really feeling the hurt. Kim chee is the national food of Korea, a basic, a staple, and people truly feel deprived if they can’t eat it. If I remember right, the president of south korea went on TV eating a bowl of kim chee made with a different, cheaper variety of cabbage.
When basic vegetables like tomatoes and cabbage are in shortage… well, I guess it’s better than a shortage of wheat or rice…. but not much. Save seeds!
It’s sort of dumb, but I feel this way about pasta.
In my mind, the ‘normal’ price of a pound of pasta is a bit under a dollar, perhaps as low as $0.80. It was that way . . . well, for a very long time! And then suddenly, it seemed, about four years ago it spiked up.
I can’t bring myself to pay $1.20 or $1.60 for something I should be able to make at home for pennies . . . and so I don’t. I eat rice, or tortillas, or bread - something that goes further for my food dollar. But I was raised by Italian matriarchs, and I miss eating it as much as I did.
I know it’s dumb beyond all reason, but there it is.
The cover of my local paper: food banks hit hard by mounting food insecurity of the entire middle section of my state (and thanks Sharon for introducing me to this term). Front page photo of people digging deep in a bin to stock shelves for food pantry. I turned around, bought $28 worth of peanut butter and canned chicken and beef and pears, and dropped it in the store’s collection bin (not located near or associated with the local paper), but will spent tonight buying seeds. Thankfully my aging mother was raised in the depression and has enough canned goods to last her (and the Australian army) through at least a decade. She has promised to bring it with her if the grid goes down and she comes to live with me. I may jest but there’s something to be said for having one’s food security, well, secure.