when fuel ate the food

Today the world faces one of the toughest choices since evolution, what is more important to solve first - Hunger Or Global Warming? Ever since the 'Go Green' phrase has become a phenomenon, the fight against global hunger for food has become tougher. The fear of global warming has led to governments offering record breaking subsidies to producers of bio fuels. Which in turn has led to replacement of growing essential crops like wheat and rice with bio fuels like corn. The production of corn is at an all time high. And countries like China becoming a net importer from exporter of wheat is not helping either.

The global demand of food is driven by many factors. The most interesting of which is the rise of the middle class in two of the most populous countries in the world - China and India. Together these two countries alone have 2.5 billion residents out of the 6.2 billion in the world. The incomes of the middle class are reaching $ 3,000 and $ 5,000 in both the countries, which leads the people to replace rice and cereal with meat, poultry and fish. The protein intake has risen to 15 grams a day. The world's hunger problem would be solved if people stuck with wheat, rice and cereal, but that is not the case.

With increasing demand for meat, half of the wheat crops produced every year goes in raising and feeding cattle to keep up with the demand. This leads to more demand and less supply of these crops. China will become a net importer of wheat in the next year and countries like India have already shut down export of wheat to control the rising shortage of food within India itself.

All of the above has led to sky rocketing food costs in rest of the world. In the US alone, the food costs are up by significant number and the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization have already sent warning signs for scarcity of basic food commodities like wheat. This was also fueled by farmers in US opting to abolish their traditional wheat growing practices to get subsidies for growing corn and other bio fuels.

The flip side of the coin, is just as grim. Planet earth is rapidly changing and if steps are not taken rapidly to conserve it, the rising sea levels will cause huge problems for major cites in the world. Drastic measures need to be taken to reduce emissions from carbon based fuels and thus the use of bio fuels as an alternative has become so popular. With an ever increasing demand for bio fuels, governments have no other way of encouraging people to produce them but by giving huge tax breaks and subsidies.

With the world population about to reach 9 billion in 2050, and the planet already in peril, the choices are handful. The hunger problem is immediate and the time for taking action against global warming is running out. Steps need to be taken today to avoid global calamities in the coming years. Hunger has led the people to streets and riots in many countries of Africa and other parts of the world.

An entire civilization is at stake and thus this is one of the toughest choices since evolution - Hunger or Global Warming?