Is Africa protected from another food crisis?
OLIVIER DE SCHUTTER: We cannot understand the tragedy of hunger based only on the evolution of food prices on international markets. By focusing on these aspects alone, we ignore all the problems related to the production chain and to the distribution of food. Poor people in African countries do not buy rice or manioc on the Chicago Stock Exchange, but in local markets or village shops; producers sell the goods to intermediates, and not to the international market. Therefore, even when prices do go up, few producers may in fact enjoy an increase in revenues. Similarly, the decrease of prices on the global markets does not automatically lead to lower prices for consumers: in April 2009 FAO [the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations] published a report made in 58 developing countries showing that in 80 per cent of the countries being looked at, foodstuffs were being sold at higher prices compared to April 2008, and 40 per cent of those surveyed had seen price increases
