“While nations debate what to do about long-term problems such as climate change and dwindling water supplies, two words send immediate shivers down the spines of government officials across the world: Food security.
A series of environmental disasters fueling a wave of food price volatility has given governments, ‘a much needed wakeup call,’ said Abdolreza Abbassian, an economist for the United Nation’s Security of Intergovernmental Group on Grains.
The UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization will be holding a special meeting to discuss the issue and the recent volatility in Rome on September 24.
The meeting was called after Russia decided to ban wheat exports after a punishing drought wiped out 25 percent of its crop. Moscow’s decision pushed food prices up about 5 percent worldwide. Bread prices surged in some countries and triggered the deadly riots in Mozambique.
Massive floods in Pakistan also caused huge losses to the country’s crops, adding to the uncertainty in the markets.”
