May 6, 2008...1:59 pm
Think Of Bush Before You Eat…
A few years back I was watching an American TV serial in which a mother was scolding her child-don’t waste food, think of the poor starving children of India. Situation is changing fast. Rising prosperity of India’s huge middle class is sending shock waves in USA. President of the world’s richest country believes that India’s growing income is responsible for the increase in international food prices. I am not even sure that his statement deserves a reaction. Even by Bush’s standards it is insensitive and irresponsible. USA consumes more food and fuel per capita than any other nation. Increase in oil price are also being blamed on India and China. Compare the number of cars in USA and India. It would not be very difficult to decide who is responsible. President Bush’s has been ridiculed over and over again for his ignorance on most issues but he has crossed the limit this time.
The US President said: ”Just as an interesting thought for you, there are 350 million people in India who are classified as middle class. That’s bigger than America. Their middle class is larger than our entire population. When you start getting wealth, you start demanding better nutrition and better food, and so demand is high, and that causes the price to go up.”
Secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, first started this great theory. She said that the ‘apparent improvement’ in the diets of people in India and China and consequent food export caps is among the causes of the current global food crisis. Bush and Rice are not the only ones who believe that we are responsible for the plight of Americans-
Addressing a press conference in Washington, the House Minority Leader, John A Boehner, observed that people from India and China are demanding better food as their economy begin to grow. ”So when you begin to look at the demand coming from India and China and other developing countries for better diets at home, you can see that this world food shortage that we have is real.”
He believes that price increase is because we are eating more than ever. The US is the biggest consumer of grain, milk, vegetable oils, meat and, of course, fuel. Total foodgrain consumption by each US citizen is five times that of an Indian, twice that of the European Union and three times that of China. The size of the average portions of food in USA are a proof of that.
The question here is that millions of people in Africa are starving. When, and I sincerely hope so, conditions improve there and people start getting enough food, Americans will suffer again. They better work out a plan because at the moment Bush and associates are busy discovering WMDs in Iraq, supporting democracies in selected countries while promoting despots in other countries. Indians can’t do much to help them. What should the Indian middle class do? You can’t expect us to give up the prosperity and return back to the days when a large part of our population went hungry ( we still have starving people, only the numbers are less).
The other side of the story now- The Indians politicians have reacted sharply to these statements by Bush and company. However our own ministers share the same views. Commerce Minister Kamal Nath, recently pointed out that more families are eating at least one full meal a day and families that hitherto ate one meal are now eating two.
Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar has blamed wheat prices on changing dietary habits in the country, claiming that “south Indians eat more wheat now”.( South Indians be ready to hit back. The BCCI president is blaming you).
Whatever the reason, instead of blaming external reasons for increasing food prices( this is applicable to Indians as well as Americans) we have to find ways to increase the yield from our farms and stop wasting food. Living standards are going to improve and we all should wish that nobody sleeps hungry. As the consumption of food and buying capacity of people increases we should bother about producing more and not complain about people consuming more.
19 Comments
May 6, 2008 at 2:32 pm
this is what i observed:
1)asia was first blamed
2)india was blamed.
3)middle class was blamed
4)south india was blamed.
now for south Indians eating more wheat…comeon…it was you who sold Dhoni to us…
and there is a huge north Indian population here….in fact i suspect in Chennai they might out number us(yet we don’t hit them or blame them,they are also one of us now)…
to bush:- dude get a life…why don’t you tell your people to stop eating? see you guys have rice even in your govt? how can you blame us? hoarding in the white house?
May 6, 2008 at 4:47 pm
George Bush is a total idiot so what he says is of no importance to this world. & as far as Pawar is concerned, hes spitting out rubbish just for the seat, its all for the money.
May 6, 2008 at 8:12 pm
this proves that one doesn’t need to know economics to become the president of USA..and the burgeoning demand of our ever rising middle class is what keeping a lot of their cos. afloat…
May 6, 2008 at 10:01 pm
wow
America is the 1st blamed here, supposedly because Bush said higher incomes in East and Southern Asia have lead to an increase in food prices. I’m not defending Bush on any other issue, but for once he’s right. Regardless of how to interprete it, it’s true (who can prove otherwise? The author admits it himself when he suggests producing more as a solution). Where do I read a quote that says it’s bad for all people to have 2 full meals a day? I’d rather say this statement should be interpreted by Americans (as well as rich Indians and others) as a positive understanding to why they are spending more to eat, and be content that the higher bill is actually good news.
The fact people eat more is a good thing, why biasly interpret it so negatively and throw stones at the US (hate?) (what extremist “news”paper does this article come from anyway? I’m curious)
It’s not very funny but now I think I understand why it’s filed under “humour” …
May 7, 2008 at 1:41 am
Nice article. I was talking about food shortage and about Bush’s comment with my boss yesterday- He is recognized as a leader in research on asset pricing and portfolio management in emerging markets. Ofcourse, he is not a economist per se, but has very indepth knowledge on these topics.
He said that what Bush said is not entirely incorrect, but the manner in which he said was very unbecoming of a US president. Burgeoning middle class in India has ofcourse contributed to more consumption of food, but that’s just one of the many reasons for this food crisis.
High commissions earned by middlemen is a more serious contributor to this crisis.
Couple of days back, Shekhar Kapoor on his blog wrote about it too. He has an interesting take on it & some comments to his post were quite enlightening.
You can check that post here
http://www.shekharkapur.com/blog/archives/2008/05/global_food_sho.htm
May 7, 2008 at 2:00 am
Well i think the first bit of news out was from the UN… factually there is nothing wrong in it but the news eventually exploded
not only condi and bush the central govt and Agri minister and BCCI boss also picked it up…
worse oil is touching 121$ barrel
Ive summed up most of the reasons for this shocker in my post
Why Blame it on India ?
http://techntrek.wordpress.com/2008/05/04/why-blame-it-on-india/
May 7, 2008 at 2:09 am
interesting link lallopallo
May 7, 2008 at 4:17 am
I think Bush might be correct to some extent — So far as I know, in economic terms, an increase in demand is likely to lead to an increase in prices.
Of course, the way Bush put it sounds like he was blaming India for the current level of demand, when the US is a — maybe even the — major contributor to world demand for food.
Well, what can be expected of that imbecile?
May 7, 2008 at 5:30 am
I love the idea that a global food crisis could be blamed on a single, convenient factor! I’m sure US politicians will soon think up other single sentence answers to problems that have stumped wise men for centuries.
May 7, 2008 at 5:53 am
Really interesting to read this post and the comments were mostly spot on. I agree with most of you guys, and I don’t condemn Bush for identifying one of the important factors leading to the food crisis. Another one could be that the world is investing 90 cents on food to create 10 cents of ethanol fuel.
May 7, 2008 at 11:55 am
Bush should really try to solve the problem of the food shortage(if there is any) rather than playing the blame game. India and Africa never blamed America(where 60% of the population is obese). People still starve in India, only the number is less. Before passing such statements Bush should understand that he is the PRESIDENT of USA. There is some responsibility attached to the role and he should do his homework before talking like this.
May 7, 2008 at 2:44 pm
Actually Bush needs lessons on propriety. And why blame Bush, our politicians are as insensitive. And you forgot our PM who came with a nice solution:
Dowsize corporate salaries. The theory is that if we can’t pull our BPL and lower classes up, let’s pull our middle classes down. (Of course down sizing corporate salaries won’t bring upper classes down)
May 7, 2008 at 3:43 pm
@ Prerna, you may want to see Harini’s post (Who Eats What And Where) on her blog. I hope it is ok to leave the link here.
http://calamur.org/gargi/2008/05/05/who-eats-what-and-where/
By and large, the US produces a significant surplus of calories over those required for its population. However I imagine, just like in the UK - where a third of food bought goes into the bins - there is considerable wastage of food in the US.
However agriculture is highly subsidised and if Amit (Lotusnova) reads this, I am sure he will have something to say about the Farm Bill negotiations in the US! So consumers are used to paying artificially low prices for their food. At the moment, however the median income earner in the US is screwed because both fuel and food costs are rising. Fuel prices make headlines everyday; food prices are harder to explain to the common public.
There is also evidence of much stockpiling by some food ‘manufacturers’ who fear commodity prices rising further; ironically their mass purchases have the exact same effect of price rise too.
Ergo Bush’s argument needs to be examined more closely, and framed in terms of _consumption_ (not production) data as well as the realpolitik of food trade. One of the comments made here refers to the distinction between what he said and how he said it. I think that is just a red herring.
Instead of getting all het up about yet another thing Bush said, is this not a fabulous chance to examine the shifts in the tectonic plates of the realpolitik underlying food - a universal basic necessity?
May 7, 2008 at 11:06 pm
It would be sad if political correctness had forced him to invent another reason, and/or avoid this one (and then be labelled as a hypocrite/ as he often is). Growing demand is not the only factor (some of you mentionned other explanations), however, it is a huge change. India is mentionned not because it is to “blame” but because India (and other countries) is where demand has increased the most. Production lags behind (which is normal when you have rising trends), but should rise appropriately (let’s hope).
The “stockpiling” Shafely mentionned increases the scarcity, but we may just wonder if it isn’t a secondary effect of rise in demand… (just like oil stock was seen as an investment)
Also, stockpiling can’t last forever and the food will have to be put back on the market quite soon.
I think we can expect the food prices to stabilize at some point, but it will probably be an expensive one (considering the land and even the fuel required to produce, stock, and transport food).
As it has always been, this world is still one where many people have trouble filling their plates.
Let’s be thankful for what we have, and try to make a better world where everyone has at least the minimum to live.
May 8, 2008 at 10:43 am
Hi,
Still bush needs to thank many of religious Indians, who do fasting etc
Seriously, this is ridiculous comments by the president and Secretary of the state, of the ‘greatest nation’. US has always been accused of double standards and this proves the point very loudly and clearly.
May 8, 2008 at 11:23 am
Dear Bush, please set up a plan to reduce the population of India because they are giving you nightmares with huge food consumption. Take away their food and sell them your food. As you have already said, they have prosperty and can buy your imported food. Your food should be of GM variety so that once they eat it, they should all become impotent. If this idea succeeds, then there won’t be any food threat from India in the future.
May 8, 2008 at 12:15 pm
Rajiv:
“Also, stockpiling can’t last forever and the food will have to be put back on the market quite soon.”
The stockpilers are food manufacturers ; because they process and hence transform food into a longer shelf-life product/ reduced perishability product, they are in no rush to put it back on the shelves. That is in the case they actually have possession of the foods. Mostly it is forward-buying which locks in prices.
May 8, 2008 at 4:44 pm
Thanks Rajiv,Shefaly,JV, Poonam ,Amit @ Truthwalker,Paul,@Prax,@Lallopallo,Rahul for you views.
Welcome @ Gear.
Vishesh has a point-//see you guys have rice even in your govt? how can you blame us? hoarding in the white house?//
Thanks for the link Shefaly and Lallopallo.
“I think it makes sense for America to be growing energy. I’d much rather be paying our farmers when we go to the gas pump than paying some nation that may not like us.”- One of President Bush’s earlier statements.This proves the priority of the Bush administration.As Rambodoc said//Another one could be that the world is investing 90 cents on food to create 10 cents of ethanol fuel.// Global maize production is being diverted towards bio-fuels.This could be a major reason for food scarcity.Before blaming India and China for their food consumption one should look at the lopsided priorities.
May 14, 2008 at 10:07 am
The food crisis is going to lead to many, many problems. While it seems that wide spread starvation isn’t going to be one of them, read my post below about a much more silent but deadly way that it will impact India.
http://blog.giveindia.org/2008/05/malnutrition-quietly-destroying-future.html
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