Nancy Birdsall and Arvind Subramanian write in the Taste pages of The Wall Street Journal Asia on rising food prices, the role of Asia's fast-growing economies, and the best trade policy.
The leaders of the world's largest economies have agreed to address the food issue at their next G8 summit in June. What should they do? Food aid will be the first line of help but it can be only a short-term palliative. Countries will have to refocus to boost agricultural supply, including more research and development, and more investment in water and irrigation. But all these will take time to have an impact.
And none will, by themselves, be a long-term solution. To prevent future crises, the fundamental incentives in agriculture need to be fixed. That in turn means efficient and food-friendly trade policies around the world. But not only are we far away from that objective, we are moving in the wrong direction.
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