"Long era of cheap food is over" is the title of a republished article from the BBC today written by one David Loyn.  The "International development correspondent" for BBC News simply reports on what has happened to food prices in 2007 but fails to mention salient alternative facts about why food may no longer be "cheap".
 
A recent report was published by the BBC concerning "Food waste on 'staggering' scale" on May 8. This article covers a survey carried out in the UK - the first of its kind - indicating that US$18 billion of avoidable food waste was disposed of in England and Wales each year. Now, in the absence of statistics from the rest of Europe and more significantly the US, how much food is being wasted in a profligate way in these "first world" or "developed" countries?
 
Estimates have not been published but by extrapolating the data in the UK survey we can come up with the following estimates:

Conclusion � just over 12% of the world's wealthiest population is wasting an estimated US$265,000,000,000 worth of food per year. There is something very wrong here and BBC's David Loyn is probably not even aware of such profligacy taking place at the expense of the 800,000,000 people who are malnourished or starving in the world, most of whom will still be living on one dollar a day. There are currently 6.6& billion people in the world and 4 billion live in poverty or on the borderline.
 
If these US$265,000,000,000 were not wasted in such an unconscious and "I'm alright Jack and screw you" sort of way, each of the 800,000,000 malnourished could theoretically have another dollar a day to live on (math � 265,000,000,000 \ 800,000,000 = 331 per year or about one dollar a day extra). Most starving people would double their income!!!

Besides food wastage which is prejudicing the world's poor, biofuels will increasingly take up arable land used for growing food and force food prices even higher even though in the capitalist system, higher prices should mean more acreage planted.

Thus, the world's poor are in the middle of a terrible bind: food wastage and biofuels � all in the name of maintaining the developed countries (in this case Europe and the US) in their accustomed life style.

Now, "Mr. and Mrs. Jones" can drive down to the mall, using ethanol made from edible grain in their SUV, eat a Burger King with their 2.1 kids and throw half the food away since it is really junk, causing obesity and heart disease in the long run. Meanwhile, in Sub Saharan Africa and in places wracked by civil war over oil, such as Dafur, "Mr. and Mrs. Oblongi" and their 5 kids are looking at their dead livestock and eating mud pies spiced with grass since there is no food � not even wasted food from Burger King.

David Loyn's article is just as Axis of Logic's editor sums it up � glib. It's not just about rising food prices � it's about the system of growing and selling food for huge profits, profligate waste, biofuels, genetically engineered seeds which Monsanto has admitted yield less per acre than traditional seeds.  
 
The corporate press talks about "skyrocketing food prices" but only scratches the surface of the real problem. Today's widespread world hunger will be exacerbated in the next five years, with the continuing insanity of food waste, GM products or crop failures due to climactic and environmental changes to weather patterns.

Solutions to this looming problem as the world population continues to grow to 9 billion by 2050 are many, (and not in any particular order of priority):

• Reduce food wastage in the developed countries
  
  
• Minimize the use of arable land dedicated to biofuels.
  
  
• Educate malnourished populations to sow and harvest in small areas so as to be self-sustaining.
  
  
• Set up seed banks in the third world to offset crop failures.
  
  
• Tax the agro industry's profits � including huge supermarket chains � as a form of global social responsibility towards fellow human beings living in misery.
  
  
• International aid should be exactly that � not IMF or World Bank loans to paint over the cracks and then cause bigger problems with drastic repayment programs.
  
  
• Dedicate 2% or the world's military budget to education, planting and cropping in the most vulnerable areas. This could amount to over US$20,000,000,000 based on the latest world total military expenditure of US$1,100,000,000,000 )US$1.1 trillion).
  
  
• Offset rising crude oil prices by using organic fertilizers from local sources

These are just some ideas from a layman who firmly believes the assertion that the  "Long era of cheap food is over" is part myth being propagated to benefit the global agro-industrial complex with more profits, yet at the same time curse it with more deaths by starvation.
 
BBC's David Loyn's report assumes that all variables will remain the same but this may not be the case. The only ingredient lacking is political will and desire to apply the money and expertise available in the world economy to tackle the food problem.
 
Another important factor is making people the "first world" aware of the problems and what can be done if governments take a proactive hand in this matter. It is certainly the case that the BBC could play an important role in this strategy with its global reach to all corners of the world.

Is there the journalistic and humanitarian will in the BBC to dare to assume this role in the name of the 4 billion poor in a world it serves with information? 

ADDITIONAL ARTICLES BY ARTURO ROSALES