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SPIEGEL ONLINE Interview with UN Expert

'We're Only at the Beginning' of the Food Crisis

The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization is holding a summit in Rome this week to discuss the global food crisis. Assistant Director-General Alexander Müller speaks to SPIEGEL ONLINE about the rising oil prices, the risk of biofuels and how agriculture could be transformed to help tackle climate change.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: This week governments from across the world are gathering for a special summit in Rome to discuss the global food crisis. Why is the summit only being held now?

Alexander Müller: The 850 million people who have been going hungry for many years, mostly in remote rural areas, never had the power to draw attention to their plight. Now rising food prices are hitting entirely new sections of societies. People in towns are protesting and governments notice this immediately. The pressure is enormous.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: What is the main reason for food production no longer keeping up with demand?

Müller: Various factors, including very significantly the rising oil price. Traditional agriculture is itself very energy intensive: It needs oil for fertilizer, pesticides, tractors and transport. To get away from that, many governments are promoting fuels made from agricultural products. This is turn links the price of bread to the price of oil.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Has the food crisis reached its peak?

Müller: Quite the opposite, we're only at the beginning. Unchecked climate change would lead to farmland drying out or becoming flooded. New animal and plant diseases are emerging; yields could fall. We have to produce 40 percent to 60 percent more food, while there is a marked reduction in the land available for cultivation in the south.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: But agriculture is actually responsible for one third of CO2 emissions.

Müller: That is exactly what has to change very quickly, otherwise the system will devour itself. We want to highlight this point during the summit: climate protection is the same as food protection.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: How will that work?

Müller: We have to practice agriculture so that it captures carbon rather than releases it. That means putting a stop to deforestation. And we have to cultivate the soil with greater care, so that more CO2-capturing grassland is preserved. On top of that we have to, for example, create so-called agricultural savannahs, where livestock can graze in specially planted tree plantations.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Where will the money come from for such a radical transformation?

Müller: From CO2-emissions trading in industrialized countries. The industrialized countries will anyway only get a grip on their CO2 problems with the help of developing countries. Billions are already being invested to neutralize our own emissions. But so far all the money has been chanelled into industrial projects. Why shouldn't small farmers in Asia and Africa profit from this, if they can capture carbon on their land just as efficiently, maybe even more cheaply.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: That sounds like a green revolution?

Müller: But unlike the ones in the past. We will soon publish maps that show in what regions of the world agriculture can capture carbon, how to manage the land and where new forests must be planted.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Should the production of biofuels be stopped to achieve this?

Müller: That would be good in countries where forests are cut down to make way for palm oil and soya plantations. But you have to differentiate. The situation is different in Brazil. There biofuels are being produced, without state subsidies, unlike in Europe and the US. But we need international agreements on how sustainable biofuels can be produced, without worsening the international food crisis.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Germany's Agriculture Minister Horst Seehofer claims biofuels have no impact on food prices, because their production takes up only 2 percent of the arable land.

Müller: Our specialists, as well as other experts, have come to a different conclusion: 20 to 50 percent of the hike in food prices is the result of the demand for biofuel plants.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Germany's Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul is therefore calling for a general biofuel ban. What do you think of that?

Müller: Not much. I also think it's wrong to say an ever-rising proportion of fuel must consist of biofuels, as the EU and Germany have done, without having a sustainable model. The subsidies create market distortions, which make CO2 reduction unnecessarily expensive. In any event, feeding the world has to take precedence over energy production.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: German Chancellor Angela Merkel has promised €500 million ($777 million) a year from 2013 for the protection of forests. Is that enough?

Müller: It's a good start. UN experts in nutrition, development and the environment are already working closely with Norway, which has announced a similar initiative. Such funds offer the chance to no longer have to address the problems in isolation with small budgets, but tackle them at their roots. Until now climate change negotiators, conservationists and agricultural professionals have undertaken their tasks separately. This has led to a dead end.

Interview conducted by Petra Bornhöft and Christian Schwägerl