Indra’s Net: Food Prices

The Tribe   |   Franklyn Wu  |   April 7, 2011, 4:30 pm

“Far away in the heavenly abode of the great god Indra, there is a wonderful net that has been hung by some cunning artificer in such a manner that it stretches out infinitely in all directions. In accordance with the extravagant tastes of deities, the artificer has hung a single glittering jewel in each “eye” of the net, and since the net itself is infinite in all dimensions, the jewels are infinite in number. There hang the jewels, glittering like stars of the first magnitude, a wonderful sight to behold. If we now arbitrarily select one of these jewels for inspection and look closely at it, we will discover that in its polished surface there are reflected all the other jewels in the net, infinite in number. Not only that, but each of the jewels reflected in this one jewel is also reflecting all the other jewels, so that there is an infinite reflecting process occurring.” ¹

– Avatamsaka Sutra

In late December 2010, a municipal bureaucrat in Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia cursed, perhaps slapped an unlicensed fruit vendor and confiscated the vendor’s scale. The young fruit vendor, Mohamed Bouazizi—perhaps feeling hopeless after losing an essential piece of equipment for his livelihood for the third time—spent his remaining assets on a canister of gasoline, then doused and set himself on fire at the town’s main square. The event generated widespread outrage, beyond just the working class, and sparked persistent and large-scale protests that eventually ousted Zine El Abidine Ben Ali when he fled the country on January 14, 2011, 10 days after Bouazizi died from his injuries. Ben Ali’s ouster was just the beginning, as similar protests broke out in other Middle Eastern/Northern African countries such as Algeria, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, and Libya. The civil movement in Egypt led to the end of the 30-year rule of President Hosni Mubarak, whereas the unrest in Libya has escalated into a full-out civil war with participation from Western Powers.

However, poverty and social and economic injustice have persisted in this region for decades. So why now?

The waves of civil unrest in these countries are perhaps not so surprising, given the pervasive poverty in these countries. Taking Egypt for example, three quarters of the 84 million people in the most populous nation in Africa live in apartments (instead of houses), and overall, the country has more people than rooms. More than one third of all Egyptians live on less than $2 a day. The country’s sizable youth population is largely unemployed and face bleak prospects for landing a job. However, poverty and social and economic injustice have persisted in this region for decades. So why now?

The New York Times Op-Ed columnist Paul Krugman and ClimateProgress.org editor Joe Romm, just two reputable analysts among many sharing similar concerns, suggested in their respective columns that large spikes in the price of basic food such as wheat and corn are what “lit the tinder” for the current wave of civil movements in Tunisia and other Middle Eastern and Northern African nations. For people in this region, food expenditure accounts for more than 40% of their overall expenses, and the over 60% increase in cereal prices that took place in 2010 represents a serious threat to their survival.

One can attribute the steep increase in food prices to several factors, including higher demand of certain crops, diversion of crops toward biofuel production, and increase in oil prices (which make cultivation, harvest, processing, and transportation of crops more expensive). However, Romm, Krugman, and others highlight that the most significant factors influencing food prices are the recent severe weather patterns and disasters in several major grain-producing nations, which, in turn, led to the steep decline in production. For example, the severe heat and wildfires in Russia and Canada reduced these nations’ wheat production by 20% in 2010. Historic floods in Pakistan and Australia also reduced global wheat production significantly, and the Australian floods further downgraded the nation’s usually high-quality wheat to feed.

That’s why the drought in Northern China was closely watched by the world this past winter. Northeastern China, a major wheat-producing region, experienced the worst drought in 200 years, until precipitation in late February and early March relieved the conditions somewhat. The Chinese ruling elite, with its roots in working class uprisings, know the importance of keeping the people fed and will not hesitate to increase China’s import of grains if needed. With its deep reserve of foreign trade surpluses, China can easily secure large quantities of grains on the international market, drying up supply for poorer nations and further driving up already high food prices.

The metaphor of Indra’s net points to the interconnection among all beings. The connection between a drought in Northeastern China and civil movements in the Middle East ….

The metaphor of Indra’s net points to the interconnection among all beings. The connection between a drought in Northeastern China and civil movements in the Middle East helps to shed light on this. At the most basic level, these concurrent events show that localized disasters—floods in Australia and Pakistan, and drought in China—have far-reaching consequences and affect people, not only in the direct disaster areas, but also people—especially those with less means—in other corners of the world. More important, but less obvious, is how human actions contribute to shaping these events.

Fast economic growth in BRIC countries like China and India and lack of conservation efforts in developed countries place a large and increasing demand on energy. Uncertainties that Japan’s nuclear accident has cast on the future of nuclear energy and the continuing unrest in the Middle East add up to high oil prices, which will help to sustain high food prices. Movement toward a higher level of meat consumption in countries like China also further increases food prices. Because multiple pounds of feed grain need to be ingested by livestock to produce one pound of meat, a populous nation such as China moving toward a more meat-oriented diet will place a demand on animal feed and potentially reduce production of grain for human consumption. Finally, continuing use of fossil fuel at today’s levels contributes to climate change, specifically destabilization of weather patterns, from which natural disasters are a result.

Therefore, all of us, in our simple acts of eating, moving from place to place, and buying processed goods, can have varying levels of impact on the amount of pressure those less fortunate feel all over the world. In making choices on what we eat, how we are transported, and how steeped we are in mindless consumerism, perhaps we can think of Indra’s net and Mohammad Bouazizi. Let us reflect on how inextricably linked we all are and how we put the match in Bouazizi’s hand on that December day in Tunisia.

Source:
¹ Francis Cook’s rendition of the Indra’s net metaphor from the Avatamsaka Sutra; Francis H. Cook, Hua-yen Buddhism: The Jewel Net of Indra (University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1977), p. 2.
The New York Times
“Droughts, Floods and Food” by Paul Krugman
“Rain and Snowfall Ease Drought in China” by Keith Bradsher
ClimateProgress.org
“Reports: Egyptian and Tunisian riots were driven in part by the spike in global food prices”
The New York Review of Books
“Volcano of Rage” by Max Rodenbeck

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