<Interview Preparation>

Read the following excerpts and summarize each excerpt. Please prepare logical responses to
the questions. Your responses should have a clear statement and must be logically coherent in
terms of supporting details and structure.

Questions to consider:
1. What are the causes of global food crisis? What is the status quo of international food
crisis problem?
2. What are the outcomes and other influences of increase of basic food crisis?
3. Please explain the link between the food crisis and increase of meat consumption.
4. “Leaving no one behind is a moral and political duty, and requires political will.
Working in partnership is the best guarantee for addressing this common challenge in
a globalized world.” This is the quotation from the United Nations 2017 global report
on food crisis. Do you agree or disagree with the statement?
(A)
Globally, 108 million people in 2016 were reported to be facing Crisis food insecurity
or worse (IPC/CH Phase 3 and above). This represents a drastic increase compared to 2015
when the figure was almost 80 million. In 2016, major food crises were fuelled by conflict,
record-high food prices and abnormal weather patterns caused by El Niño. Crises were
widespread and severe, in some cases affecting entire national populations, and in others,
causing intense damage in localized areas such as in northeast Nigeria. Moreover, shocks were
not bound by national borders, and the spillover effects had a significant impact on neighboring
countries.
The acute and wide-reaching effects of conflicts left large numbers of people food-
insecure and in need of urgent assistance in Yemen (14.1 million), Syria (7.0 million), northeast
Nigeria (4.7 million), and Burundi (2.3 million). In Somalia, insecurity coupled with severe
drought conditions has resulted in high food insecurity levels in 2016, which were expected to
increase further in early 2017. The latest analysis confirmed the worsening of food insecurity
with an estimated 2.9 million classified as severely food insecure in February 2017 with risk
of famine. In South Sudan, the latest IPC analysis confirmed also an upward trend estimating
4.9 million people in IPC Phase 3 and above, food insecure with famine and risk of famine in
conflict affected counties of Unity state.
The outlook for 2017 points to worsening conditions in some locations, which may
engender famine in pockets of northeast Nigeria, Yemen, Somalia and South Sudan. In addition
to conflict, record staple food prices, notably in Nigeria and South Sudan, greatly restricted
access to food for vulnerable populations, aggravating food insecurity.
(B)
Prior to the global financial crisis, concerns about the spikes in food and energy prices
were at the center of public and media attention. Global leaders and policymakers were
concerned about the potential welfare impacts of the sharp increases in the prices of food
commodities, such as rice, corn (maize), wheat and soybeans, as well as global food security.
There was concern about how higher food prices were adversely affecting low-income
consumers and efforts to reduce poverty, as well as the political and social stability of poor
countries and food-importing countries. These concerns have subsequently heightened with the
social tensions, unrest and food riots that have broken out in several countries.
As the prices of food and energy soared to new heights between 2007 and 2008, many
countries were confronted with major social and political crises. Food riots and protests
threatened Governments as well as social stability in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin
America and the Caribbean. Massive public protests in response to higher food prices erupted
in very diverse countries, such as Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Egypt, Guinea, Haiti, Indonesia,
Mauritania, Mexico, Morocco, Nepal, Peru, Senegal, Uzbekistan and Yemen. The number of
people in need of emergency food aid in low-income food-deficit countries also increased.
According to the Famine Early Warning Systems Network of the United States Agency for
International Development, an estimated 2.7 million people in Niger were likely to be highly
or extremely food insecure in 2010 and an additional 5.1 million people were at risk of
moderate food insecurity. Altogether about 60 per cent of the population would face food
shortages. In the Horn of Africa, the serious food insecurity situation is expected to continue in
2011 in the face of persisting rainfall deficits, high prices for staple foods at local markets, poor
livestock production and lower agricultural wages.

(C)

People in Britain should eat meat less often, in order to help ease the food crises in the
developing world, an influential committee of MPs has urged. It could also help to mitigate the
rampant food price inflation that has seen the cost of staple foods in the UK rise by close to
one-third in the last five years.

The massive increase in meat consumption in rich countries in recent decades has led
to spikes in the price of grain, used for animal feed, as well as leading to widespread
deforestation and pressure on agricultural land, and has contributed to the obesity epidemic.
By avoiding meat even for a day or two each week, people could help to ease some of these
pressures.

Intensive farms, favoured by some farmers as they make raising livestock cheaper by
housing them in vast sheds instead of fields, also came under fire, because they require animals
to be fed on grain instead of grass. Another area of concern highlighted in the report was the
increasing trend for big companies to buy up large areas of land in many developing countries
previously farmed by smallholders. MPs recommend that UK-domiciled corporations be
required to be transparent about land deals, with full implementation of the UN voluntary
guidelines on the governance of tenure.