For this Unit, Death, we were able to dive deeper into the meaning of famine and how monocultures can lead to famine. We looked into the Irish Potato Famine. We were able to go to the Lincoln Park Conservatory. We looked at 5 different plants and we learned why and how they grow in the environments that they do. For our AP, we chose a certain issue that we wanted to present to the UN in order to solve specific problems. I chose to write about War/ political instability and how that might effect our world today in relation to food.
War & Food (2018) NBE
Do you ever think about the correlation of war and political instability in relation to food? By having certain elements like governance, food production, climate, etc. we are able to develop a global food system. This global food system can be affected by these elements like war/ political instability. The reason for why I chose to write about my stance with war and food is because I don’t think people usually remember or correlate war and food together as being a crisis. We think of it more as separate issues but really these issues affect each other in some sort of way almost in a domino effect, where if one of them is happening for example war, we should be thinking of food scarcity being the next crisis. War/ Political Instability is the biggest threat to our global food system. The reason I want to put this out there in the world is in order to inform others about the issue with war and food. I want to give out ways that political instability or war can threat food supply and ways that we can help globally. When we begin to have others get involved in a certain situation others will be informed and will want to create a better world.
Wars from Syria, South Sudan, Somalia, Pakistan, etc. are all affecting the food scarcity and the way these citizens live. This is a threat to the global food system because according to an article by the Washington Post, “ ...increases in food prices caused by drought were also a factor in the 2011 Arab Springs uprising in Tunisia, Jordan, Yemen, and Egypt.” Not only are we thinking about food droughts here but we are also thinking about the food prices that are rising. How would you assume that a refugee would have enough to pay for this? Would they think of food as priority in a certain situation like that? Also, we are having people protest which is all related to these food conflicts. “...Riots, protests, ad massacres are among the types to unrest that can lead to civil war - and all can be linked to food conflicts.” It has a domino effect, with anything. Food is such an important source in our lives that once we have one situation it will immediately lead to food production. Lastly, going back to a quote from the Washington Post, “ Low crop yields increase the competition for remaining crops.” Now we have competition in this situation for remaining crops which leads to dispute.
There was such thing as food stamps which I assume we are all aware of; this was needed in times of World War 2. An era that faced a similar problem is our own country. Back in 1947 the U.S. was involved in World War 2. This lead to an increase in the use of food stamps. The OPA was the Office of Price Administration which was established within the Emergency Management of the U.S. government used to control money. In the book, Empires of Food, there was a short excerpt, "...in England, the price of wheat jumped eightfold." (Pg. 34). We can see that even in "1316" the prices were being raised on crops.
A civilization like Ancient Greece surprisingly had food scarcity and land problems as well. The way the ancient greeks would address this problem was by having each social class in a different section; or maybe a different set of privileges than each other. Land had been separated for people who owned a portion of it. According to ancient.eu, “The state did not control farming and crops were grown and livestock reared by private individuals on their own land.” By having these crops being grown by private individuals a situation may come up like, controversy leading to possibly war because of food supply. We can learn from history because although it may seem like an organized idea to have an organized agricultural society we can also have dispute. I think this is something that we are still trying to work on but we have evolved in some way. There may be public gardens where people are easily able to pick up any crops they may need. We can see by having private land that it won’t entirely make a difference from the people that own the land. They have more of a supply but won’t share it causing controversy over the community in which they may have lived in.
Now that we know how food and war can relate to one another or create some kind of effect on one another. We can see that there isn’t really a divide in both of these situations. We can create ways in which we can put this to an end. For one, we can create different organizations which are already being created for refugees leaving their war torn countries. By having more and more organizations I think the world will begin to see that helping out will become more of a task rather than a yes or no situation. Second, education. Someone wouldn’t want to be a part of an organization without being informed in the first place. Educators should be teaching their students the effects that war can lead to rather than having their students assume what might be the effects. Lastly, awareness. We need the people around us to be aware of certain situations that are not just happening in their nation but globally. Without the people being aware around us we aren’t able to help the people in need like bringing them into your country for shelter, providing food and water, etc. and we aren't able to create a better world without knowing our world.
To conclude, my reasoning behind writing this is because I don’t think people usually correlate food and war but they are similar in a way. Food droughts can lead to a raise in prices, protests and rioting can occur, and low yields. One of the UN's SDGS that relate to this subject is #10 reduced inequalities because the divide between who and who get access to food and water varies depending on your social class which can suddenly drop because your country can be fleeing a war like many of these refugees which are flooding to new countries for shelter. Before I go, I want to leave you thinking about something, what are your views of political instability in relation to food scarcity? What would you do as an outsider in order to solve this food supply problem?
Citations:
Cartwright, Mark, Food & Agriculture in Ancient Greece, Ancient. eu, 25 Jul 2016, 22 May 2018
Koren. Ore, Food Scarcity causes conflict - but so can food abundance. Here's why, The Washington Post, 23, November 2016, 22, May 2018
Tran. Mark, Millions of Syrians need of food aid as war devastates food production, The Guardian, 5 Jul 2013, 22 May, 2018.
Rimas. Andrew, Empires of Food, Pg. 34
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