Article: UK always 'a few days away' from serious food shortages, warn MPs (and the U.S. is in the same boat)

Another reminder -- this time from the mainstream media -- that shortages of food and other necessities are very real. If you don't stock up now, will you be able to when it's too late? Regardless of how you feel about government intervention/intrusion in telling people what they should do with the resources they have (the story below is out of Great Britain), shortages do occur, and if you don't stock up while you can, you're waiting too long.

http://www.standard.co.uk/business/business-news/uk-always-a-few-days-away-from-serious-food-shortages-warn-mps-8643150.html

Businesses should be penalised for wasting food and consumers should buy meat only as an occasional treat to protect future food supplies and keep prices down, a committee of MPs has recommended.

The International Development Committee warned that the UK is "never more than a few days away" from a significant food shortage and called on ministers to act to improve food security.

MPs urged the Government to redouble its efforts to cut the huge amount of discarded produce - estimated to be around 30% globally.

In its Global Food Security report, the committee also called on the UK to investigate whether nations should use domestic stockpiles of food to protect themselves from price spikes in the future.

Although the practice is costly, the increasing volatility of food prices means "there may be a case for judicious use of stocks to relieve the tightness of markets", it said.

Sir Malcolm Bruce, chairman of the International Development Committee, said: "There is no room for complacency about food security over the coming decades if UK consumers are to enjoy stable supplies and reasonable food prices.

"We have seen two notable 'shocks' or 'spikes' in global food prices over recent years, with price peaks in June 2008 and February 2011. These crises - driven by rising demand for food and by the impact of biofuels produced through agriculture - hurt many parts of the UK food industry and strongly undermined the global fight against hunger."

He called for ministers to set producers and retailers targets for food waste reduction, with sanctions imposed if they are not met.

He said the Government should also push ahead with previous proposals to persuade households to cut the amount they throw out and promote schemes that redistribute unwanted food.

Increases in global meat consumption are unsustainable and, longer term, the focus should be on pasture-fed, rather than on grain-fed, livestock with meat promoted as a occasional product rather than an everyday staple, the committee said.

The moves should be part of a wider strategy to improve food security, including help through the Department for International Development (DfID) with the creation of farmer organisations, such as cooperatives, in developing countries and aid targeted at increasing smallholder production in such nations.

MPs also suggest that some biofuels, which can be produced by the fermentation of some crops or by using fats, are having a significant impact on food security by driving higher and more volatile food prices and, in some cases, may be even more damaging to the environment than fossil fuels.

The committee calls for EU targets requiring 10% of transport energy to be drawn from renewable sources by 2020 to exclude agriculturally-produced forms to the fuel.

It also warned that the rising world population, expected to increase from 7.1 billion today to 9.3 billion by 2050, will continue to heap pressure on food security. Wider schemes by DfID have made significant efforts to improve women's reproductive rights but there is still a "great unmet need for contraception", the report said.

It comes as the UK plans to host an event, Nutrition for Growth: Beating Hunger Through Nutrition And Science, under the umbrella of its G8 presidency.

MPs also calls for an expansion of nutrition programmes in developing countries, with a particular focus on nutrition during pregnancy and early years.

Ivan Lewis, shadow international development secretary, said: "The IDC's report rightly highlights the importance of supporting smallholder farmers and nutrition interventions to tackle hunger and food security.

"The scale of hunger and malnutrition is devastating. Over one billion people in the world still go hungry and every year 2.3 million children die from the effects of malnutrition.

"With the G8's 'Nutrition for Growth' event this weekend, the Government has an opportunity to show global leadership on this issue and turn its rhetoric into substantive commitments to increasing DfID's funding to support nutrition interventions."