Expert Opinions: How Would You Fix the Broken Food System? It’s
no secret that the food system is failing. Between 2006 and
2008, international food prices doubled. The poorest people in
the world are already spending up to 80 percent of their income
on food, and increases in oil, fertilizer and transportation
costs are making matters worse. These hurdles coupled with
inefficient government policies, such as grain-based biofuel
programs and export bans, result in the fragile and volatile
food system that, according to Oxfam Chief Executive Barbara
Stocking, is “pretty well bust.” So what next? In addition to
improving today’s system, experts are turning their attention to
the food system of the future. By 2050, the global population is
expected to reach nine billion and the demand for food will
increase by 70 percent. UN news service IRIN asks three experts
how they would fix the food system. Christopher Barrett,
professor of development economics at Cornell University in the
USA: - More money for research: S