The food crisis

I have been reading a number of articles on the internet about the current food crisis – the prices for rice, wheat, beans, and corn have risen astronomically. Last Wednesday night I spoke of the crisis over dinner with some folks I know. The husband is working on a project in a rural village funded by an evangelical group in the US.

I don’t know how this is affecting folks in the US, though I saw a headline on an article in the Iowa State Daily that the price of beer may go up. And so far I have not seen exactly how it is affecting people here, though I expect I'll know a little more in early may when I go out for a workshop on making silos in the remote aldea of Oromilaca.

But one statistic that is troubling is that people in countries like Honduras spend 40% to 60% of their budget on food, while people in the US spend about 13%. That means when the prices go up, the people have to spend more on the basics.

What do they do? - eat one less meal? give the kids the basics and cut back on what the adults eat? Keep kids home from school because they cannot afford shoes or school supplies? Who knows?

But the next few months will be crucial for many people here since their reserves from the last harvest may run out in May and June and they have to wait till the next harvest in July or August.

That's why the project to teach people to make silos to store their basic grains is so important. That's why Padre Efraín in the Dulce Nombre parish is so intent on developing agricultural projects to help promote sustainable food security.