Paul Krugman writes in the New York Times about the global food crisis.... it is good that it's finally being brought to attention in the U.S. This stuff is all over the news right now too in Southern Africa, and there was a 5-page special issue about food insecurity in the Singapore paper I picked up on my way here to New Zealand. More on this issue yet to come, once I have a bit more time to sort out my thoughts about this stuff.

I don't like that Krugman takes as a given that the Chinese are a driver of the food problem; sure, their numbers are growing, but the embedded assumption behind it is that they will eat more like Westerners as their incomes grow, and that the Western diet is a fixed one, based heavily on meat. Way to reinforce the problem and build up greater antagonism, Mr. Krugman...

The oil linkage is pertinent... so as long as I'm on the topic, check out this great article from Harper's Magazine (2004), by Richard Manning called "The Oil we Eat". I'll be teaching about it next week. Energy in food, wars, food security ...it's all right there... 4 years later, here we still are...