A typically forthright and sensible article from former WTO head Mike Moore in the New Zealand Herald argues that we need more globalisation, not less, in response to the food crisis. He berates rich countries’ wrongheaded fuel subsitution policies – biofuels – as “a populist Green response to global warming that does the opposite of what was intended,” and argues that, while food aid to the poorest will be needed in the short term, the medium and long-term solution is more trade liberalisation and fewer subsidies.
And then, to really ram his point home, Moore adds a startling factoid, which recalls the equally memorable cartoon posted by Alex a while back: “Filling a Range Rover with subsidised ethanol takes as much “grain” as would feed an African family for a year.” Yikes. Anyone for a ban on Range Rovers?
