The quickly depleting seas

Oceans have provided humanity with a rich source of food and economic well being. Rampant overfishing however has caused fish stocks to fall everywhere. The global catch exploded to 93m tonnes in 2006, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation, compared with just 19m in 1950. Better technology has enabled fishermen to catch more, smaller fish and recent research by Scripps, a marine-science research organisation, speculates that fish species may have declined by up to 80% from their original state. This is a disaster given how important fish is to human diet and the well being of entire communities around the globe. The tragedy is that depleting the seas is unnecessary and completely avoidable. Creating a global system of granting property and trading rights to fishermen, societies could encourage conservation and better use of scarce resources but narrow minded nationalism still prevails and until a big disaster strikes we fear inertia will prevail and proper safeguards may come too late.

Food and your Wallet

As commodity and agricultural prices rise, most people who have always taken for granted the low-cost of food and fuel are starting to realize how lucky we have been to enjoy such bonanza for so long. With inflation and prices rising, consumers’ disposable income is shrinking with inevitable consequences on economy growth. Looking at the numbers released by the IMF (see chart), consumers in rich countries should still feel appreciative of their good fortune given how little (while still increasing) of their household budgets is spent on food and fuel. In comparison many households in Africa and Asia shell-out more on food and fuel as a share of total spending and so are disproportionately hit by rising prices. The situation of course is made worse by the idiocy of all governments that impose tariffs on food and shower agricultural lobbies with lavish subsidies to support ‘poor farmers’. These distortions to prices ultimately prolong the crisis and rather than protect they hurt consumers, their wallets and the economy as less money is left in your wallet to fuel your spending and boost economic growth.