Editorial THE statement made by the head of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) last week that the global food crisis could lead to civil war in some countries and requires a complete revamping of the international food system is both timely and welcome. For too long, the conventional wisdom peddled, and sometimes imposed, by international organisations such as the World Bank and IMF has had a detrimental impact on agriculture in the developing world, and it is long overdue for fresh thinking that puts the needs of the hundreds of millions in the developing world for whom food security is of paramount concern front and centre. If there is to be a silver lining in the current global food crisis it is this. At least now we can see how unsustainable was the prevailing mind-set, with its emphasis (if not coercion) on developing countries cutting their subsidies and opening their markets, while the developed countries continue to subsidise and protect with tariff and para-tariff barriers their own agricultural sectors. The FAO chief correctly pointed out that part of the problem in the past, and even today, was the competing politics of different international organisations and the grafting of political solutions onto what is essentially an economic problem. The suggestion that politics should have no place in addressing the issue of food security is salutary, especially coming from the head of an organisation such as the FAO. The current food crisis calls for serious measures and it also calls for policy-makers and international bureaucrats to change their thinking. The first thing is to acknowledge that this is a global problem that requires a global solution, in much the same way as we have fought diseases and terrorism. The second is to acknowledge that many of the ideas propounded over the past few decades have made things worse not better, and that countries, especially those in the developing world must not be have their hands tied in their efforts to avert hunger and misery. Thus, governments must be free to put in place measures such as agricultural subsidies, government procurement, and guaranteed minimum prices for farmers, without interference or coercion from outside. And most importantly, let us never play politics with food security again.