This afternoon, our BCA director Daniel had some of us over to his house to hang out and discuss food - Ecuadorian food experiences, the culture of Ecuadorian food, and the causes/effects of rising global food prices. Our group for the afternoon was six girls, plus Daniel and Martha (the assistant director), plus Daniel's two children (a little pug and a rescued, street-dog mut).
But before the discussion, we cooked. First, we made two loaves of beer bread, using Ecuador's national beer, Pilsener. Then we made tortillas de quinoa (quinoa patties) using the common Ecuadorian grain quinoa, which is kind of like cous cous and is extremely rich in protein. Both of the recipes are really easy and they yield very delicious results, so no doubt I'll be making them again when I get home. Daniel also made a pot of fresh, delicious coffee, which tasted exceptional. Everyone here in Ecuador drinks instant coffee/Nescafé, which rarely satisfies the coffee craving.
After eating our delicious bread and patties, we - paradoxically - had a lengthy conversation all about the food crisis. World Bank President Robert Zoellick recently acknowledged the global food emergency, caused by drastically rising food prices and causing much hunger. There has been an 83% increase in overall food prices over the last three years. Ecuador has especially seen food prices rise considerably. There was a recent radio report that nearly half of Ecuadorians who usually make a traditional Holy Week soup didn't think year because the ingredients were too expensive. Reasons for the global price hike include increased demand, natural disasters (perhaps linked to global climate change), diversion of food crops to energy production, and domino effects of the US economic recession. Right now, there are sufficient resources and land to feed the world's population, but the problem lies in distribution, which is a difficult problem to correct.
Afterwards, several of us went out to a sushi bar for dinner, where there was a 2 rolls for 1 deal. Sushi is like one of my favorite foods, so needless to say I really enjoyed the dinner.
But now I'm back at home and am exceptionally alert for the hour -- probably due to the three generous cups of coffee I had at Daniel's house. And I can't help thinking how lucky I am that despite the enormous problem facing our global population, everyday I have more than sufficient food to eat. How do we allow this to continue to be a persistent problem?
Any thoughts are welcome on this issue... It is something that is so easy to ignore, since it doesn't affect us in our daily lives, but something we really should be conscious of...
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2 comments:
Thats interesting. Similar food price increases are seen here. SG told me than a bag of rice used to cost muuuuuch less than it does now. I forget the exact amounts. I had thought that maybe it was because of the bad transportation systems and population increase putting a higher demand for foods, but that wouldnt explain why its increasing globally. I think that overall food production in Africa has decreased. I heard about zimbabwe and robert mugabe and the end of colonialism. ahha got to go
Today's Washington Post addresses how the US has been caught flat-footed by rapidly escalating global food prices, and how we are scrambling to respond by releasing emergency food aid, not just for humanitarian reasons, but for national security reasons. Problems in Egypt, Haiti, Indonesia, Pakistan and India, propelled by high prices for rice, corn, wheat etc skyrocketing by record oil costs, droughts, corn for ethanol, etc, are especially worrisome, and some food costs in some parts of Africa/Asia have doubled in six months. Even Costco is now limiting rice purchases in the US! A real serious issue.
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