Más sobre la crisis alimentaria

Manufacturing a Food Crsis
Walden Bello

The IMF was unrepentant; in
fact, it suspended its disbursements on an adjustment program on the
grounds that "the parastatal sector will continue to pose risks to the
successful implementation of the 2002/03 budget. Government
interventions in the food and other agricultural markets… [are]
crowding out more productive spending."

By the time an even worse food crisis developed in 2005, the government
had had enough of World Bank/IMF stupidity. A new president reintroduced
the fertilizer subsidy, enabling 2 million households to buy it at a
third of the retail price and seeds at a discount. The result: bumper
harvests for two years, a million-ton maize surplus and the country
transformed into a supplier of corn to Southern Africa.

Malawi’s defiance of the World Bank would probably have been an act of
heroic but futile resistance a decade ago. The environment is different
today, since structural adjustment has been discredited throughout
Africa. Even some donor governments and NGOs that used to subscribe to
it have distanced themselves from the Bank.

Leer completo…

Reportaje de PBS sobre las tortillas y el ethanol, se puede ver aquí.