[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Pages 6847-6850]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           WORLD FOOD CRISIS

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, the world is facing a global food crisis, 
and it is growing worse by the day. Each morning, we see a new front-
page headline reminding us of the urgency of the situation. It 
threatens not only the health and survival of millions of poor people 
around the globe, many of them children, but it also threatens the 
stability of governments in some parts of the world where hunger and 
food shortages are most acute. It threatens global security and even 
our own national security.
  The world food crisis is a human catastrophe. Families are suffering. 
Mothers and fathers are struggling to feed their children. A recent New 
York Times story described a father in Haiti's capital city, Port-au-
Prince, whose children had recently eaten only two spoonfuls of rice 
apiece one day and nothing the next day. The father said in this 
interview:

       They look at me and say, ``Papa, I'm hungry,'' and I have 
     to look away. It is humiliating. It makes you angry.

  Three-quarters of the people in Haiti live on less than $2 a day, and 
one in five children is chronically malnourished. People are desperate 
for nourishment of any kind.
  The New York Times story went on to say that one booming business 
amid all the gloom is the selling of patties made of mud, oil, and 
sugar, typically eaten by the most destitute.
  One Haitian man said:

       It's salty and it has butter, and you don't know you are 
     eating dirt. It makes your stomach quiet down.

  Mr. President, I said last week that we were on the brink of a 
humanitarian crisis, and I am afraid we have crossed that threshold. We 
are now witnessing that humanitarian crisis. World Bank data shows 
global food prices have jumped 83 percent in the last 3 years. These 
are the average commodity prices paid by the nongovernmental 
organization CARE.
  CARE is known around the world. CARE packages, after World War II, 
became a symbol of American caring and a symbol of international 
compassion. CARE is paying more and more for the food they buy. In just 
a brief period of time--from December 2007 to April 2008--the costs 
have gone up dramatically in sorghum, in wheat, rice, peas, lentils, 
and vegetable oil. This chart really tells the story of what has 
happened in just 4 months. Other data shows wheat prices have tripled 
in the last 3 years. Poor families in Yemen are spending more than a 
quarter of their income just to buy bread for their children.
  The price of rice has tripled in just the last 18 months. There is 
even rationing of the sale of rice in the United States. You may have 
seen the papers this morning. Some major warehouse-type operations are 
limiting the amount of rice Americans can buy. In Bangladesh, a 2-
kilogram bag of rice--a little over 4 pounds--which might feed a small 
family for a couple of days now consumes about half the daily income of 
a poor family. In the Philippines, hoarding rice is now punishable by 
life in prison. In rural El Salvador, the World Food Program estimates 
that rising food prices have cut

[[Page 6848]]

the caloric intake of the average meal 40 percent from 2 years ago.
  The World Food Program is the food aid branch of the United Nations 
and the world's largest humanitarian agency. It operates in about 80 
nations, providing food to about 90 million poor people a year. Two-
thirds of them are kids. Because of rising food prices, the World Food 
Program can afford to buy only 50 percent of the food for 
schoolchildren that it could purchase a year ago.
  This is the worst global food crisis in more than 30 years, since the 
Arab oil embargo in the early 1970s caused sharp spikes in world food 
prices. The blue shaded areas on this map show 36 nations on four 
continents now facing a growing risk of hunger and the social unrest 
that comes with it. The flames indicate places where riots or protests 
are already taking place. It may not be easy for those following this 
to see, but if you can imagine, almost one-fifth of the world's 
countries are facing a food crisis, and many more are facing protests 
and demonstrations. In Africa, 21 countries are unable, for a variety 
of reasons, to meet their own food needs. In Asia, nine countries are 
facing food shortages; four Latin American nations; and in Europe, food 
shortages in Moldova and Chechnya. The list of these countries is here, 
and it is a long list. It shows you how this is stretching across the 
world, particularly in the poorer sections.
  Aid organizations are seeing these effects on the ground. CARE staff 
with 20 years' experience in the field say they have never seen a 
situation this bad, and there are no immediate prospects for relief.
  Last week, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon described the world 
food situation as having reached emergency proportions. He and World 
Bank President Robert Zoellick have warned that the food crisis ``could 
mean 7 lost years in the fight against worldwide poverty.''
  We spend a lot of time on the Senate floor talking about security, 
especially in the context of Iraq. But security is not won or lost only 
on the streets of Baghdad or on the battlefields of Afghanistan. 
Security is at stake in the bread lines of Egypt, the rice markets in 
Thailand, and the withering cornfields in Zimbabwe. The global food 
crisis is also a looming security crisis, one that threatens the 
stability of many already fragile governments. Pockets of fierce 
protest could trigger outbreaks of sustained violence, even war.
  Referring to the same chart, the flames on this map show what has 
been experienced over the last 16 months in terms of riots and 
demonstrations.
  Haiti and Egypt, two nations where food prices have doubled in the 
last 2 years, have already seen violent unrest linked to these soaring 
food prices. Here are photographs of recent food riots, one in Haiti, 
another in Egypt.
  Just a word. I went to Haiti a few years ago with former Senator Mike 
DeWine of Ohio--my first visit. I had been prodded into going there 
because I traveled to Asia and Africa, and someone finally said: Why do 
you travel so far looking for the worst poverty in the world when it is 
in your backyard, on the island of Haiti? So I went there, to the 
island of Hispaniola, which has Haiti and the Dominican Republic, and 
they were right. I had never seen worse poverty anywhere in the world, 
and it is in our backyard. And now these people are digging through a 
dump trying to find something to eat in Haiti.
  Here, in Egypt, they have two lines of troops holding back a food 
riot that occurred there.
  Haiti recently ousted its Prime Minister after days of violent 
protest over soaring food prices. Nine thousand U.N. peacekeepers were 
ordered recently not to fire on civilians as widespread looting and 
shooting continued.
  In Egypt, the Government has had to dispatch riot police to break up 
food protests. The military has even been put to work baking bread in 
an effort to prevent even more anger over soaring food prices.
  Senegal is regarded as one of Africa's most stable democracies, but 
even there, rising anger over food prices is directed at the 
Government. Recent demonstrations in Senegal turned violent as police 
in riot gear struck and used tear gas against protestors who were 
protesting for food.
  Parts of India were enduring riots over the high cost of rice as far 
back as 6 months ago.
  Recent history reminds us how closely our security is linked to the 
security of these farflung places. Sending help in the form of food aid 
to these countries whose people are starving is clearly the right thing 
to do, but it is also the smart thing to do. If we stand by and watch 
these violent uprisings cause governments to fall, this growing crisis 
will pose a threat to the security of the United States of America.
  Surveys by Pew Research show favorable opinions of America suffered 
steep declines since 2000, and not just among old enemies but among 
recent allies: in Great Britain, from 83 percent favorable toward the 
United States down to 56 percent in 2006; in Germany, from 67 percent 
to 37 percent; in Indonesia, from 75 percent to 30 percent; in Turkey, 
from 52 percent to 12 percent; and in Jordan, which we consider to be 
an ally and friend, only 15 percent of the people have a favorable 
opinion of our Nation. Yet amid these troubling numbers, the study also 
showed moments of improved attitudes toward America, generated by U.S. 
aid for tsunami victims in Indonesia and elsewhere.
  We need to take heed that some countries in the world that share our 
values and have common goals in life think little of our country. They 
are wrong. They don't understand our values. They don't understand who 
we are. We have a chance to help them understand by coming to the aid 
of those living in poverty and those facing starvation and depravation 
around the world.
  The causes of today's soaring global food prices and food shortages 
are many, they are complicated, and they are interrelated. For the sake 
of world security, more work is needed to understand these causes and 
develop long-term solutions to feed a hungry world. But we cannot wait 
for comprehensive solutions to start dealing with today's crises. We 
need to focus on what we can do at this moment. We need to put an end 
to this emergency.
  The Department of Agriculture announced last week that it will 
release $200 million in commodities from the Bill Emerson Humanitarian 
Trust. Bill was a friend of mine. He always had a soft spot in his 
heart for these programs, and I am glad this one is named after him. 
Mr. President, $200 million is an important step that will help, but it 
is not enough.
  Last week, I met with Josette Sheeran. She runs the World Food 
Program. What a tough assignment at this moment in history. She says 
they are at least $755 million short of what is needed to respond to 
this global crisis. Beginning next month, for lack of money, the World 
Food Program may be forced to suspend its school feeding programs in 
Cambodia. This last chart shows women in a small village in India 
reaching out desperately for rice sold by Government officials. ``The 
world's misery index is rising'' as a result of the food crisis, 
Josette Sheeran of the World Food Program said last week.
  Senators Biden and Kerry have joined me in asking the White House for 
$550 million for this global food crisis. I have joined Senator Bob 
Casey and others in asking the Appropriations Committee in the Senate 
to provide this help in the supplemental funding bill which we will be 
considering very soon.
  Other countries are rising to the challenge. Last week, France 
announced an additional $100 million; the UK pledged $60 million; and 
Norway, $20 million. Such contributions are important.
  Another important step would be for the United States and donor 
nations to allow a percentage of food aid to be purchased in local food 
products. It may be that the food is there and if purchased can be 
given to the people rather than delaying the delivery by shipping 
things from faraway destinations. I urge my colleagues to support this 
request.
  For those who say $550 million is just too much to spend to avoid 
global shortages and unrest, I remind them

[[Page 6849]]

that is just about what we spend in 1 day in the war in Iraq--1 day. We 
are talking about the amount of money needed to try to avert a global 
food crisis.
  A little over a week ago, the world's economic ministers met here in 
Washington to discuss the state of the world economy. They declared 
that food shortages and skyrocketing prices posed potentially greater 
threats to economic stability than the turmoil in capital markets. They 
called on wealthier nations to help prevent starvation and disorder.
  We have a choice. We can stand back and watch this disaster unfold or 
we can demonstrate to the world what we stand for. We can show the 
world that we understand hunger and violent unrest are also forms of 
tyranny and terrorism and we are committed, the United States, to doing 
our part to help end them.
  This is not charity. International food assistance in the face of the 
global food crisis is the right thing to do, the smart thing to do, and 
the American thing to do.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that following my remarks, the 
April 18, 2008, article from the New York Times as well as the April 
22, 2008, article from the Irish Times be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                [From the New York Times, Apr. 18, 2008]

             Across Globe, Empty Bellies Bring Rising Anger

                            (By Marc Lacey)

       Port-au-Prince, Haiti.--Hunger bashed in the front gate of 
     Haiti's presidential palace. Hunger poured onto the streets, 
     burning tires and taking on soldiers and the police. Hunger 
     sent the country's prime minister packing.
       Haiti's hunger, that burn in the belly that so many here 
     feel, has become fiercer than ever in recent days as global 
     food prices spiral out of reach, spiking as much as 45 
     percent since the end of 2006 and turning Haitian staples 
     like beans, corn and rice into closely guarded treasures.
       Saint Louis Meriska's children ate two spoonfuls of rice 
     apiece as their only meal recently and then went without any 
     food the following day. His eyes downcast, his own stomach 
     empty, the unemployed father said forlornly, ``They look at 
     me and say, `Papa, I'm hungry,' and I have to look away. It's 
     humiliating and it makes you angry.''
       That anger is palpable across the globe. The food crisis is 
     not only being felt among the poor but is also eroding the 
     gains of the working and middle classes, sowing volatile 
     levels of discontent and putting new pressures on fragile 
     governments.
       In Cairo, the military is being put to work baking bread as 
     rising food prices threaten to become the spark that ignites 
     wider anger at a repressive government. In Burkina Faso and 
     other parts of sub-Saharan Africa, food riots are breaking 
     out as never before. In reasonably prosperous Malaysia, the 
     ruling coalition was nearly ousted by voters who cited food 
     and fuel price increases as their main concerns.
       ``It's the worst crisis of its kind in more than 30 
     years,'' said Jeffrey D. Sachs, the economist and special 
     adviser to the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon. 
     ``It's a big deal and it's obviously threatening a lot of 
     governments. There are a number of governments on the ropes, 
     and I think there's more political fallout to come.''
       Indeed, as it roils developing nations, the spike in 
     commodity prices--the biggest since the Nixon 
     administration--has pitted the globe's poorer south against 
     the relatively wealthy north, adding to demands for reform of 
     rich nations' farm and environmental policies. But experts 
     say there are few quick fixes to a crisis tied to so many 
     factors, from strong demand for food from emerging economies 
     like China's to rising oil prices to the diversion of food 
     resources to make biofuels.
       There are no scripts on how to handle the crisis, either. 
     In Asia, governments are putting in place measures to limit 
     hoarding of rice after some shoppers panicked at price 
     increases and bought up everything they could.
       Even in Thailand, which produces 10 million more tons of 
     rice than it consumes and is the world's largest rice 
     exporter, supermarkets have placed signs limiting the amount 
     of rice shoppers are allowed to purchase.
       But there is also plenty of nervousness and confusion about 
     how best to proceed and just how bad the impact may 
     ultimately be, particularly as already strapped governments 
     struggle to keep up their food subsidies.


                            Scandalous Storm

       ``This is a perfect storm,'' President Elias Antonio Saca 
     of El Salvador said Wednesday at the World Economic Forum on 
     Latin America in Cancun, Mexico. ``How long can we withstand 
     the situation? We have to feed our people, and commodities 
     are becoming scarce. This scandalous storm might become a 
     hurricane that could upset not only our economies but also 
     the stability of our countries.''
       In Asia, if Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi of 
     Malaysia steps down, which is looking increasingly likely 
     amid postelection turmoil within his party, he may be that 
     region's first high-profile political casualty of fuel and 
     food price inflation.
       In Indonesia, fearing protests, the government recently 
     revised its 2008 budget, increasing the amount it will spend 
     on food subsidies by about $280 million.
       ``The biggest concern is food riots,'' said H.S. Dillon, a 
     former adviser to Indonesia's Ministry of Agriculture. 
     Referring to small but widespread protests touched off by a 
     rise in soybean prices in January, he said, ``It has happened 
     in the past and can happen again.''
       Last month in Senegal, one of Africa's oldest and most 
     stable democracies, police in riot gear beat and used tear 
     gas against people protesting high food prices and later 
     raided a television station that broadcast images of the 
     event. Many Senegalese have expressed anger at President 
     Abdoulaye Wade for spending lavishly on roads and five-star 
     hotels for an Islamic summit meeting last month while many 
     people are unable to afford rice or fish.
       ``Why are these riots happening?'' asked Arif Husain, 
     senior food security analyst at the World Food Program, which 
     has issued urgent appeals for donations. ``The human instinct 
     is to survive, and people are going to do no matter what to 
     survive. And if you're hungry you get angry quicker.''
       Leaders who ignore the rage do so at their own risk. 
     President Rene Preval of Haiti appeared to taunt the populace 
     as the chorus of complaints about la vie chere--the expensive 
     life--grew. He said if Haitians could afford cellphones, 
     which many do carry, they should be able to feed their 
     families. ``If there is a protest against the rising 
     prices,'' he said, ``come get me at the palace and I will 
     demonstrate with you.''
       When they came, filled with rage and by the thousands, he 
     huddled inside and his presidential guards, with United 
     Nations peacekeeping troops, rebuffed them. Within days, 
     opposition lawmakers had voted out Mr. Preval's prime 
     minister, Jacques-Edouard Alexis, forcing him to reconstitute 
     his government. Fragile in even the best of times, Haiti's 
     population and politics are now both simmering.
       ``Why were we surprised?'' asked Patrick Elie, a Haitian 
     political activist who followed the food riots in Africa 
     earlier in the year and feared they might come to Haiti. 
     ``When something is coming your way all the way from Burkina 
     Faso you should see it coming. What we had was like a can of 
     gasoline that the government left for someone to light a 
     match to it.''


                            Dwindling Menus

       The rising prices are altering menus, and not for the 
     better. In India, people are scrimping on milk for their 
     children. Daily bowls of dal are getting thinner, as a bag of 
     lentils is stretched across a few more meals.
       Maninder Chand, an auto-rickshaw driver in New Delhi, said 
     his family had given up eating meat altogether for the last 
     several weeks.
       Another rickshaw driver, Ravinder Kumar Gupta, said his 
     wife had stopped seasoning their daily lentils, their chief 
     source of protein, with the usual onion and spices because 
     the price of cooking oil was now out of reach. These days, 
     they eat bowls of watery, tasteless dal, seasoned only with 
     salt.
       Down Cairo's Hafziyah Street, peddlers selling food from 
     behind wood carts bark out their prices. But few customers 
     can afford their fish or chicken, which bake in the hot sun. 
     Food prices have doubled in two months.
       Ahmed Abul Gheit, 25, sat on a cheap, stained wooden chair 
     by his own pile of rotting tomatoes. ``We can't even find 
     food,'' he said, looking over at his friend Sobhy Abdullah, 
     50. Then raising his hands toward the sky, as if in prayer, 
     he said, ``May God take the guy I have in mind.''
       Mr. Abdullah nodded, knowing full well that the ``guy'' was 
     President Hosni Mubarak.
       The government's ability to address the crisis is limited, 
     however. It already spends more on subsidies, including 
     gasoline and bread, than on education and health combined.
       ``If all the people rise, then the government will resolve 
     this,'' said Raisa Fikry, 50, whose husband receives a 
     pension equal to about $83 a month, as she shopped for 
     vegetables. ``But everyone has to rise together. People get 
     scared. But we will all have to rise together.''
       It is the kind of talk that has prompted the government to 
     treat its economic woes as a security threat, dispatching 
     riot forces with a strict warning that anyone who takes to 
     the streets will be dealt with harshly.
       Niger does not need to be reminded that hungry citizens 
     overthrow governments. The country's first postcolonial 
     president, Hamani Diori, was toppled amid allegations of 
     rampant corruption in 1974 as millions starved during a 
     drought.
       More recently, in 2005, it was mass protests in Niamey, the 
     Nigerien capital, that made

[[Page 6850]]

     the government sit up and take notice of that year's food 
     crisis, which was caused by a complex mix of poor rains, 
     locust infestation and market manipulation by traders.
       ``As a result of that experience the government created a 
     cabinet-level ministry to deal with the high cost of 
     living,'' said Moustapha Kadi, an activist who helped 
     organize marches in 2005. ``So when prices went up this year 
     the government acted quickly to remove tariffs on rice, which 
     everyone eats. That quick action has kept people from taking 
     to the streets.''


                            The Poor Eat Mud

       In Haiti, where three-quarters of the population earns less 
     than $2 a day and one in five children is chronically 
     malnourished, the one business booming amid all the gloom is 
     the selling of patties made of mud, oil and sugar, typically 
     consumed only by the most destitute.
       ``It's salty and it has butter and you don't know you're 
     eating dirt,'' said Olwich Louis Jeune, 24, who has taken to 
     eating them more often in recent months. ``It makes your 
     stomach quiet down.''
       But the grumbling in Haiti these days is no longer confined 
     to the stomach. It is now spray-painted on walls of the 
     capital and shouted by demonstrators.
       In recent days, Mr. Preval has patched together a response, 
     using international aid money and price reductions by 
     importers to cut the price of a sack of rice by about 15 
     percent. He has also trimmed the salaries of some top 
     officials. But those are considered temporary measures.
       Real solutions will take years. Haiti, its agriculture 
     industry in shambles, needs to better feed itself. Outside 
     investment is the key, although that requires stability, not 
     the sort of widespread looting and violence that the Haitian 
     food riots have fostered.
       Meanwhile, most of the poorest of the poor suffer silently, 
     too weak for activism or too busy raising the next generation 
     of hungry. In the sprawling slum of Haiti's Cite Soleil, 
     Placide Simone, 29, offered one of her five offspring to a 
     stranger. ``Take one,'' she said, cradling a listless baby 
     and motioning toward four rail-thin toddlers, none of whom 
     had eaten that day. ``You pick. Just feed them.''
                                  ____


                 [From the Irish Times, Apr. 22, 2008]

     Climate Change Devastation Gives Food for Thought on Earth Day

                         (By Fr. Sean McDonagh)

       Tuesday, April 22nd, is Earth Day. Unfortunately, there is 
     very little to celebrate this year, as the devastation of the 
     Earth is increasing at an extraordinary rate and, in many 
     countries, the poor are feeling the pain of hunger and 
     starvation.
       The major culprit this year is climate change. Droughts in 
     various parts of the world, especially Australia, have cut 
     food supplies and the rush to grow biofuels leaves less land 
     on which to grow food. As a result food prices have jumped 
     dramatically during the year. Maize is up 31 per cent, rice 
     has increased by 74 per cent, soya is up 87 per cent, and 
     wheat is now 130 per cent dearer than it was last year.
       In recent years, concerns about global warming and the end 
     of the oil era convinced many people that growing energy 
     crops might be a good idea. In the U.S. the production of 
     ethanol from plant matter increased by a factor of five in 
     the past decade. Policy decisions taken this year will lead 
     to a further five-fold increase. Europe is also boosting 
     biofuel production and attempting to source it from various 
     parts of the world.
       The speed at which these changes are taking place can be 
     seen from a glance at investment in biofuels. In 1995 it was 
     a mere $5 billion. A decade later it had jumped to $38 
     billion, and is expected to top $100 billion (=63 billion) by 
     2010.
       Sorry to say the biofuel boom is a classic example of the 
     paradox of conscious purpose. This means that we often 
     achieve the very opposite result to the one we intended. In 
     both southeast Asia and South America, growing biofuel crops 
     has led to massive destruction of the rainforest. In Brazil, 
     for example, more than 302,514 hectares were destroyed in the 
     second half of 2007. One of the main reasons for this is the 
     pressure to grow more soya.
       In Malaysia and Indonesia producing biofuels from palm oil 
     will increase the amount of carbon dioxide released into the 
     atmosphere, because the preferred way of clearing the forest 
     is by burning it. This final destruction of the forest will 
     lead to the extinction of countless species of plant, animal, 
     reptile and bird life.
       Global food supplies are also at a very low ebb. The last 
     time the U.S.'s grain silos were so empty was in the early 
     1970s when President Richard Nixon sold the wheat surplus to 
     the USSR because crop failures there were leading to 
     starvation. The U.S. recently told the World Food Programme 
     to expect a 40 per cent increase in the price of food in 
     2008.
       Less food and dearer food has led to riots around the 
     world. In Morocco, 34 people were arrested in January 2008 
     for taking part in riots over food prices. The situation in 
     Egypt is worse. In a 12-month period up to March 2008, the 
     price of cereals and bread had increased in Egypt by 48.1 per 
     cent, according to Egypt's Central Agency for Public 
     Mobilisation and Statistics. The price of cooking oil rose by 
     45.2 per cent. Because of these increases, the Egyptian 
     government has relaxed the rules on who is eligible for food 
     aid. This has led to tensions and, if the situation 
     continues, could destabilise the government.
       The same is true in Pakistan. Meanwhile, at least four 
     people were killed and 20 wounded when demonstrations against 
     rising food prices turned into riots in southern Haiti.
       My colleagues in the Philippines tell me that both the 
     price of rice and insecure supplies of the cereal could do 
     much more to destabilise the government of President Gloria 
     Macapagal Arroyo than coup plotters or even charges of gross 
     corruption. All in all there is little to celebrate on Earth 
     Day, 2008.

  Mr. DURBIN. I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.

                          ____________________