Popular Wisdom Can Fight Food Crisis
Ever since the wheel was invented, perhaps nothing so boosted technology as the discovery of oil. The black gold minted the petrodollar, and helped topple the Soviets, ignite Gulf wars and restore Russia. But power still flows down umbilical pipelines! After burning 150 trillion barrels of oil since the world’s first oil-well was drilled 149 years ago, oil-guzzling industrial nations now panic they will need equal quantities just for the next 25 years. West Asia’s role in the equation compounds the panic. Thus, greed fires a green gold rush. The world’s irrigated land area tripled in the past 50 years, but grain demand for agro-fuels has doubled in three years, leaving less grain for food. With the World Bank saying grain price hikes may spread food riots to 33 nations, the U.N. secretary general called a food summit in Rome.
