With today’s food crisis reaching alarming levels (food prices have tripled in the case of some staples), the ability of the global market to adequately provide food and other resources for the world has come into question. The logistical aspects of the global market see food products grown on one continent, shipped to another for processing, and returned for consumption; people now enjoy, and even demand, out of season food year round, food which must be shipped across oceans and hemispheres. Our global economy has accomplished all of this, but has been unable to supply an adequate amount of flour and rice in developing nations and places without the political power to ensure imports, or without the ability to produce enough of a certain good. The countries responsible for much of the world’s rice production have banned exports, focusing on the domestic issue and ignoring and exacerbating the world-wide problem, subject to no oversight or constraint. Indeed, the problem is endemic of the entire system. Countries grow accustomed to food imports, and grow complacent in the face of a system that seems so infallible.
Complex interdependence alone doesn’t seem a strong enough force to ensure that the weakest members of the international system can maintain their existence in a world of increasing demand and uncertain supply, and in a world where oil, used to create and ship nearly everything of scale, is growing even too expensive for the great all-consuming US. It seems it will be up to institutions to insure future cooperation amongst nations. The system truly does seem anarchical; while it may provide it times of plenty, the true test of our global world is its ability to provide in times of hunger.
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