Portland-based Mercy Corps has been getting an ear-full from its international offices.   Poor people around the world are having a harder time locating and buying food.   Joy Portella, the director of communications at Mercy Corps, says the problem isn’t new.

Portella:  “it’s not as sudden as some people think.  It’s something that’s been happening over the past year.  It’s been a bit more severe in the past couple of months, but it’s really a combination of things and it’s a global problem.”

Portella says the situation is especially bad in Niger, Tajikistan, and Afghanistan.  Some of the causes of the crisis include poor harvests, the use of food stock in bio-fuels and the rise of the middle in class in India and China.  She says the problem is highly nuanced and as such requires a multi-faceted solution.

Portella:   “Some countries actually need food distributed, some countries need, people need cash transfers to help them get a boost in income, and I would say in all places more can be done to help people feed themselves in the long term so that when there’s not this immediate infusion of cash and food, they’ll be able to feed themselves.”

Portella says you can help by donating to the Global Food Crisis Fund and supporting legislation that allocates more money to food aid.  Mercy Corps web site includes detailed reports from its international bureaus.