ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the world food crisis of 1972–1975 on the global level and explores its complex origins. The rise in meat consumption (in industrial and especially in socialist countries), climatic influences (el niño), a commodities boom and speculation in the final phase of a long boom and the beginning of economic crisis, the end of the Bretton Woods system, the enlargement of the EEC and national politics and policies all played a role. An age of scarcity seemed to dawn. The crisis meant that the price for internationally traded grain tripled, with a severe though indirect impact on national and local grain markets. Authorities in the USA crafted the price hike for a mix of reasons such as election politics despite outphasing support payments for farmers to reduce the budget deficit, improving the balance of payments, and foreign policy purposes, including détente. The main results of the crisis were an expansion of the world grain market, the emergence of a new international grain trade system in which non-industrialized and socialist countries became major importers, and the commercialization of the international grain trade at the expense of food aid.
