A Zimbabwean peasant
farmer in a crop of maize destroyed by drought. One expert warns: 'The
geopolitics of food is fast overshadowing the geopolitics of oil.'
Photograph: Howard Burditt/Reuters
World grain reserves are so dangerously low that severe weather
in the United States or other food-exporting countries could trigger a
major hunger crisis next year, the United Nations has warned.
Failing
harvests in the US, Ukraine and other countries this year have eroded
reserves to their lowest level since 1974. The US, which has experienced
record heatwaves and droughts in 2012, now holds in reserve a
historically low 6.5% of the maize that it expects to consume in the
next year, says the UN.
"We've not been producing as much as we
are consuming. That is why stocks are being run down. Supplies are now
very tight across the world and reserves are at a very low level,
leaving no room for unexpected events next year," said Abdolreza
Abbassian, a senior economist with the UN Food and Agriculture
Organisation (FAO). With food consumption exceeding the amount grown
for six of the past 11 years, countries have run down reserves from an
average of 107 days of consumption 10 years ago to under 74 days
recently.
