Food and world peace

All along I thought it is just a Philippine phenomenon (or Asian or African problem for that matter). I haven't been watching any foreign news channels lately but when I did yesterday, the new anchor said that food has become a global crisis as affected by climate change. It has definitely affected crop, livestock and fish production. Some areas are heavily flooded while others have cracked fields due to much drought. Food has now become a commodity that tests a country's political and economic powers. I fear that access to food will become like those in the historical war movies or documentaries of personal accounts of people who experienced it. This has gone beyond food preference (being vegetarian or vegan) or fad diets (low carb high protein diets, grapefruit or cabbage soup diets). I have this friend whose family is well off. Whenever she would eat out, there will always be some leftovers. One time a companion pointed it out to her to finish her food. Her reply? "Eh, ako naman nagbayad" ("Well, I paid for it"), implying that she can do whatever she wants because she paid for it. Boy, was I blown away. I hope those people who have access to food (financial and physical access) will think beyond themselves and know that their i-can-eat-whenever-whatever-i-want-so-i-can-throw-it-away-or-give-it-to-the-dogs days will come to an end. One way or another, the food crisis will catch them up. So eat up everything on that tiny plate of food knowing that there are many people who haven't had any decent food and water for the past weeks or months.