Weather Withers Wheat

In the vast agricultural lands of New South Wales, Australia, where wheat stalks once stood bountiful and strong; a dust bowl now exists. Drought has all but wilted the wheat crops that have rendered its productive farmlands into a wasteland. For two years in a row, the country that produces the worlds second biggest supply of wheat is facing drastic reductions in harvests. Last year, it was 66% below normal levels, the year before was worse at one sixth of normal harvest. Farmers have not recouped the cost of planting and nourishing, and will have to borrow from the banks for this year's season. And if this year's harvest still fails, they will have to sell their farms. Or, they may not plant at all this year.

The huge wheat silos of Australia that used to store 25 million tonnes of wheat are empty, and its impact has been felt halfway around the globe. Rising food prices have made the poor eat even less. The price of wheat increased by 130% from last year due to Australia's low harvest. Josette Sheeran, head of the UN World Food Program (WFP) predicts that rising costs of food will continue through 2010; and fears that poorer nations and the poor in general will eat less nutritious food, in less volumes, and will rely on aid. The donations to WFP must be increased to meet the same level of volume for food aid, or be doubled for the expected rise in hunger and starvation in poorer parts of the world. Global food reserves are at their lowest in 30 years.

In parts of Asia, Africa and the Middle east, the inadequate supply and price increases have resulted in food riots, even as bands of hungry people walk the parched earth demanding more for prices they can afford. The supply drop even for grains other than wheat, such as rice and corn, is beginning to wreak havoc as prices become unreachable. Apart from weather conditions, the population increase, the conversion of grains and vast lands for biofuel production, and the economic miracles in China and India that produces vast numbers of emerging middle class populations that consume more, have triggered a supply shortage that caused a rapid increase in food costs. In the end, it is only those countries who can afford to pay more that will have sufficient supply of food.

In another part of the world, at the Chicago Board of Trade, a frenzy is visible everyday with buyers and sellers screaming and using hand signals, exchanging pieces of paper, volumes of grains being traded by the minute, billions change hands in four full hours of market activity. There are no actual grains on the trading floor. These are moneyed people looking at the current and future depletion of grain crops as an investment opportunity because of the rising price. These are the people who do not have to worry about their meals for the next 2 years while starvation stalks several regions of the globe. They see it from the perspective of making a profit, unmindful of the the hunger, death and desolation that their expected profits will bring.

Haarrrrwwwwk...Twoooooph...Ting!