Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Alternative Futures for World Food in 1985, Vol. 1: World Gol Model Analytical Report
Until 1972, the impact of these problems was largely mitigated by the extensive stocks held by the major grain exporting countries, particularly the United States. The increasing dependence of the developing world on both commercial and concessional imports, the increased import demand of the centrally planned countries, and the expansion of grain-fed livestock production in the developed world permitted the exporting countries to reduce surpluses resulting from farm income support programs. But the use of concessional food aid shipments as part of the exporters' surplus management program, and the low food price policies made possible by the developing countries' concessional imports, dampened incentives to produce food in a number of developing countries. The stock drawdown policies and tighter production controls implemented by the United States and the other major exporters in the late 1960's and early 1970's reduced their grain stocks even further, made more grain available to food importers, and encouraged more extensive use of grain in livestock production in the feed importing countries. Production shortfalls in the USSR in 1972, followed by the Soviet's decision to import enough grain to maintain high consumption levels, combined with shortfalls in other parts of the world, depleted world stock reserves. Production shortfalls in the United States in 1974 and in the Soviet Union again in 1975 could not be made up through stock drawdowns. The world was consequently left dependent on annual production to meet current food needs. Marked improvements in production in and again in virtually reversed the world food situation by the beginning of With world supplies up and consumption lagging, world stocks of grain hit a decade high, while stocks in the United States hit a 15-year high. This pronounced shift back toward abundance has not solved the problems that generated the world's food crisis. Recent short-term improvements in world food supplies could well worsen the world food problem in the longer term by making supply management in the exporting countries more difficult and by disguising problems in the deficit areas of the world as opportunities to dispose of excess supplies. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
