Text nº 13 for translation: A global food crisis could be approaching. 15 de diciembre de 2021.

Buenas tardes, estimada familia IPEP #inglésipep #ingléspagsypau (en Twitter).

Vamos otra semana más, con otro texto con el que vais a reciclar vocabulario ya trabajado, además de ser de los temas habituales en las pruebas: medioambientales, cuidado de la naturaleza y similares.

De nuevo, es un texto extraído de un artículo del periódico The Washington Post, y que podéis leer entero para aprender más vocabulario aquí.

The Washington Post. Democracy dies in Darkness

Amid drought, conflict and rocketing prices, a global food crisis could be approaching, top expert warns.

You’re reading an excerpt from the Today’s WorldView newsletter.

Global food prices are soaring. Fertilizer costs are sky-high. In Afghanistan, nearly 23 million people — more than half the population — are expected to facepotentially life-threatening food insecurity this winter. Madagascar is confronting its worst drought in 40 years, with more than a million people there in need in urgent food aid.

Is a new global food crisis coming?

In an interview this week, Maximo Torero Cullen — chief economist at the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization — told me the answer is: Not yet, but we could be on the brink. The world is witnessing an increase in localized and conflict-driven food crises, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. But across the globe, the food price surges of recent months are still not as bad as the two critical spikes sparked by weather, biofuel production and surging Asian demand in 2007-2008 and 2011-2012.

That doesn’t mean we won’t get there. Because of the pandemic, global hunger shot up by an estimated 118 million people worldwide in 2020, jumping to 768 million people, the most since as far back as 2006. The number of people living with food insecurity — or those forced to compromise on food quantity or quality — surged by 318 million, to 2.38 billion.

As vaccination rollouts lag in the developing world, Cullen told Today’s WorldView that he fears the slower economic recoveries in low- and medium-income nations could worsen the food insecurity picture further in 2022.

How did the pandemic change the nature of global food insecurity, and how is the problem evolving?

The major drivers before covid-19 were conflict, and climate and economic downturns. Lockdowns and covid-19 have exacerbated those problems.

But what is new are two things: One is the significant recovery plans and inflation we are seeing as the U.S., China and other countries create excess demand, which has affected, of course, prices because of their demand for commodities. The competition for containers has exacerbated the situation, making transportation costs higher.

The other element is fertilizer prices and scarcities. Countries like Bolivia that used to export to Peru, for instance, are exporting much, much less. An incredible shrinkage. Russia has put some export limits on fertilizers. China produces one-quarter of the fertilizers in the world, but now they are also importing. So the pressure on that sector is a different than we’ve faced before.

By Anthony Faiola