The Hindu : New Delhi News : ‘Food crisis no sudden emergence’

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Thursday, Apr 17, 2008
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‘Food crisis no sudden emergence’

Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI: “The food crisis that the country is now witnessing is not a sudden emergence but a creation of deliberate policies and laws that have over a period of time practically taken away the country’s food security,” said Navdanya founder-director Vandana Shiva here on Wednesday, adding that “the Government cannot now wash its hands off the food crisis that the country finds itself in”.

“India has witnessed a very high increase in prices of essential commodities and all kinds of reasons are being thrown around. The Government has intervened at every step to create corporate monopolies in the food system from seed to domestic production and trade, to food processing, to liberalised imports, export-oriented agriculture, to corporate retail. While the Government intervention had unleashed forces driving up food prices, the Government is now throwing up its hand and saying that it cannot do anything about the escalating food prices,” said Ms. Shiva addressing a press conference. Also present at the press conference were former Planning Commission member S.P. Shukla and Supreme Court advocate Prashant Bhushan.

Listing the major factors that according to her were driving up the food prices, Ms. Shiva said: “Integration of food economy with the volatile speculation-based financial economy driven by agribusiness; climate extremes caused by climate change; large-scale diversion of food-growing land to export-oriented cash crop; imports that are no longer affordable; dismantling of the public distribution system; entry of large corporate houses creating monopolistic conditions; and Government intervention on behalf of corporations.”

‘Right to life’

Ms. Shiva said several measures available with the Government to reverse the trend include bio-diverse ecological farming which increases food output while lowering costs of production, stopping policies that encourage unnecessary imports besides stopping reduction of import duty on products that Indian framers can produce.

“Denial of food is denial of the right to life and ensuring safe, good and affordable food for all is central to protecting the right to life. This is not blind control but a Constitutional obligation of the State,” said Ms. Shiva

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