Natural Disasters and Food Security

The Icelandic volcano eruption has wreaked havoc on the worldwide air traffic system. Not only are airline travelers throughout Europe grounded, but food and other basic essentials are not being flown in, highlighting why we need to seriously rethink the local food idea.

From the Guardian:

Britain's supermarkets could soon run short of perishable goods including exotic fruits and Kenyan roses as the ongoing ban on UK air travel brought Britain's largest perishable air freight handling centre to a standstill today...

The UK imports about 90% of its fruit and 60% of its vegetables. While the vast majority come by sea – Fair Trade bananas from the West Indies, for instance, are regularly delivered to Southampton and Portsmouth – some of the more exotic inhabitants of the UK's shops come by air. Air freight makes up about 25% of all British imports by value, but just 0.5% of all imports by weight.

It is quite disturbing that any country is so dependent on another country for its food security. Meanwhile in Kenya...

...Kenyan farms have laid off 5,000 staff, and growers have warned thousands more workers could be told to stay at home if flights did not resume by Tuesday, which would deal a serious blow to the country's economy...

...Kenya's flower council says the country is haemorrhaging $1.3m a day in lost shipments to Europe. Kenya normally exports up to 500 tonnes of flowers daily – 97% of which is delivered to Europe. Horticulture earned Kenya 71 billion shillings (£594m) in 2009 and is the country's top foreign exchange earner...

...Farmers say they have been able to avoid avoided major losses since flights from Kenya were suspended early Thursday morning. But if they can't start shipping in earnest in the next day or two, they will have to dump much of their product...

A question to the multinationals: How is that new African food colonialism going for you?