Effective Utilization of Natural Resources for Food Depends on Sound Management Theories Research Proposal

Food Crisis

Effective utilization of Natural Resources for food Depends on Sound Management Theories

Relationship between the world food crisis and the world financial crisis

According to Howard G. Buffett, an organizer of the philanthropic Buffet Foundation, the world food crisis and the world financial crisis coincided at a particularly unfortunate time. Despite the fact that the financial crisis temporarily caused fuel and thus commodity prices to decrease, the majority of the world's consumers were still "spending 70 to 100% of what you make on food, and the balance of what you don't spend on food you may easily spend on transportation or cooking or producing food in small agriculture, those two things are killers. You have an increase in the problem and a reduction of funds. It's the worst possible scenario" ('The worst possible scenario,' 2009, World Food Programme). The devastation of the global economy and reduced availability of credit led to reduced donations to projects to bring prosperity to the developing world. Both aid and development projects struggled to attract funds.

Furthermore, as the world economy slowly began to improve, the prices of basic commodities soon begin to rise again -- but income and employment did not. Research conducted in Bangladesh, Indonesia, Kenya, Jamaica and Zambia on the impact of the financial crisis on the food supply, found that "eating less frequently and less diverse and nutrient-rich foods was commonly reported...children who drop out of school to earn or because their parents cannot afford fees, books or breakfast, are unlikely to reenroll once food prices decline" (Gentleman 2009). And "Asian and Pacific countries are particularly vulnerable to the triple threat of food and fuel price volatility, climate change and the global economic crisis" (Gentleman 2009).

Additionally, some analysts viewed the impact of the financial crisis on the world food crisis as far more deeply-rooted than in the immediate price of commodities. "Deregulation in the financial services industry allowed banks to cross over their investments: small banks that traditionally held mortgages were allowed to invest in other areas of the economy... As banking became more centralized, loans to small businesses, including farms,….....