And what about wheat, sugar, et cetera?

First, I'd like to note that this post is a complement/follow-up to B. Palmer's last post ("Forget Oil: what about rice?") That said... 

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/27/AR2008042702165.html 

The above article, titled "Where Every Meal Is a Sacrifice", made the cover of the Washington Post yesterday and provides a real-life example from Mauritania of the struggles faced by millions of people worldwide as global food prices continue to rise. 

Ever-increasing demand with a constantly decreasing amount of supplies has combined with a disruption in the free flow of global trade to leave residents of countries that do not have well-developed agricultural infrastructures starving.  

This disruption of free flowing global trade begs the question: Where did globalization go wrong? Why, in such an efficient global market, are major food-producing countries like Argentina, Russia, and Kazakhstan cutting their food exports (or hiking taxes on them) in order to protect their own access to the crops they grow themselves? Furthermore, isn't it just a little ridiculous that wealthier countries who can afford the rising food prices (like Singapore and Malaysia) are busy stockpiling food staples while people in 30 countries are literally starving to death? 

Perhaps even more depressing is the fact mentioned in the article that the food Mauritania actually does produce itself, fish, does not make it onto the tables of Mauritanians themselves; rather, it ends up being exported to countries like Japan, England, and the United States since Mauritania relies on the sale of fishing licenses for 30% of its income (a substantial chunk) and could not easily replace those profits otherwise. 

Thus, countries like Mauritania are stuck in a perpetual state of catch-22. Clearly, globalization is not as positive a thing as some would make it seem; it certainly hasn't done much for the millions of people dying due to the economic selfishness inherent in the competitive economic system dictated by the current capitalistic hegemon (empire?) in power, the United States. 

Hah that last sentence was way more intensely anti-capitalist than I intended... :\ I am definitely not a communist or anything. I don't know what else the reason could be, though...