Baylor College Medical School

Big Agriculture is the Only Option to Stop the World Going Hungry by Jay Rayner

(Paragraph 1)  You have to go back to 1816 to find a serious British food riot, the year after an Indonesian volcano erupted cancelling summer and blighting the global crop. Today, food riots are what happen in Thailand, Mexico or, as we reported last week, Mozambique, where seven people died in protests over a 30% hike in the price of bread. The question is whether the circumstances which led to that murderous bout of civil unrest have any implications for Britain. Too often, we regard ourselves as mere observers and commentators rather than potential participants in the dramas surrounding the complexities of food security. Until a few years ago, this was British government policy. A Cabinet Office document, nicknamed by Tim Lang, professor of food policy at City University, the "leave it to Tesco report", argued that we are a rich developed nation which could buy its way out of any supply crisis on the global market.

(Paragraph 2)  But with Russia banning wheat exports until the end of 2011, commodity prices lurching upwards and the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organisation preparing for an emergency meeting to discuss the crisis, that position looks hopelessly naive. Having spent the past month travelling across Britain investigating the sustainability of our food supply for a new TV show, it's clear to me that we risk replacing a culture of a cheap and plentiful present with one of hyper-expense and scarcity in just a few years' time.

 

Questions:  In Paragraph 1 and 2....What  does it say?   What does it mean?    What does it matter?

                                                         (Summary or gist)     (interpretation)              (implications/conequences)

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Paragraph 1

 - Food riots are not out of the question in Britain.

-Western nations have become complacent in cheap food and seemingly endless supply. Apparently rich counties can buy their way out of a food crisis.

-We can question if our food supply will always be endless and cheap. Perhaps Western nations are living in a "fool's paradise."

 

 

Paragraph 2

-Food can become scarce.

-Our supply countries may not keep supplying Western nations with cheap food.

-Food prices in Western Nations could skyrocket.