Millions face hunger from climate change

NF Reporter · 04-10-2007, 12:58 PM

AP - Warming temperatures could result in food shortages for 130 million people across Asia by 2050 and cause potentially catastrophic problems in Africa, wiping out one of the continent's staple crops altogether, according to a U.N. report released Tuesday.

Full Story...

waltky · 09-21-2007, 09:51 PM

Flooding from global warming devastating Africa...

Emergency pleas go out from Africa
Friday 21st September, 2007 International aid agencies have launched emergency fund appeals for flood-ravaged areas across the African continent.

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Agencies urgently need to provide essential shelter and water purification tablets, to those affected by the crisis. In Uganda, the government has declared an emergency following the deaths of fifty people.

UN relief experts are dealing with the emergency in Uganda, as well as Ghana, Togo and Burkina Faso. In northern Ghana, the White Volta River has burst its banks following days of torrential rain. Burkina Faso has been badly affected, with displaced people sheltering in schools while waiting for the government to build makeshift shelters.

The UN says 1.5 million people have been affected by the floods. Aid workers say food needs to be airlifted to areas which have lost their crops and are completely cut off. The floods are said to be the worst in many decades, with 250 killed and more than 600,000 displaced.

Emergency pleas go out from Africa

waltky · 11-21-2007, 09:59 PM

Famine in China expected...

China Faces 4.8 Million Tons Grain Shortage By 2010
November 21, 2007 - Barely three years from now, China is facing a possibility of a 4.8 million ton grain shortage, translated to almost 9 percent of the country's grain consumption.

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Amidst this forecast released by the Study Times, a newspaper affiliated with the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, an official of the country's top economic planning agency on Wednesday assured the region will remain self sufficient in grain in the future.

"As rural populations move to urban areas, fodder grain and oil-bearing crops such as soybeans are already in short supply. Domestic supply of grain was currently sufficient but would fall short of demand in the long term," Fang Yan, deputy director of the Department of Rural Economy told Xinhua News.

Fang maintained that although China is the world's most populous nation, it will remain 95 percent self sufficient in grain by expanding both the outputs and reserves and by resorting to large-scale production rather than production by scattered, small farms.

"Reserves are necessary to a big country like China. We will try to increase the output of wheat and rice per unit area and expand the fields for corn planting. To keep up the supply of edible oil, the country will mainly develop the colza-growing areas along the Yangtze River and stabilize soybean production in the northeast," he added.

China Faces 4.8 Million Tons Grain Shortage By 2010 | November 21, 2007 | AHN

waltky · 12-17-2007, 07:48 PM

Wheat supply declining here...

Wheat Prices Surge to Record High
Dec 17, 2007 - Wheat Prices Climb to Record Above $10 Per Bushel As Strong Demand Depletes US Supply

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Wheat prices surged above $10 a bushel for the first time ever Monday amid concerns that strong demand globally could result in a grain shortage in the United States next year worsening food price inflation. Other commodities markets mostly declined, with energy, other agricultural futures and metals moving lower. Wheat supplies in the U.S. have dwindled this year as one wheat crop after another around the world has been damaged by poor weather, most recently in Australia and Argentina. That's sent buyers scrambling for stockpiles at any cost. U.S. wheat exporters already have sold more than 90 percent of the 1.175 billion bushels the U.S. Department of Agriculture expects will be exported during the whole marketing year, which ends in June 2008.

Wheat prices crossing the $10 a bushel threshold won't immediately translate into a spike in retail prices for bread, cereal, cookies and other products, experts say. That due partly because companies like Kellogg Co., General Mills Inc., ConAgra Foods Inc. and Kraft Foods Inc. typically protect themselves from price volatility with long-term supply contracts. But analysts say consumers should expect that higher wheat prices will eventually work their way into the grocery aisle.

A bushel of wheat for March delivery surged to a record $10.095 on the Chicago Board of Trade early in the day before shedding 13.5 cents to settle at $9.66 a bushel as profit-taking set in. Wheat prices have hit a record high each of the past three trading sessions and have doubled since the start of the year, when wheat traded for about $5 a bushel. Food prices rose at a 4.1 percent annual rate in the three months ended in November largely due to higher milk, egg and meat prices, according to the Labor Department's latest index of consumer prices. Wheat, corn and soybeans are used to feed livestock; as those costs go up, so does the retail cost to consumers.

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See also:

UN warns on soaring food prices
Monday, 17 December 2007, Droughts have affected harvests, pushing prices up

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The soaring cost of food is threatening millions of people in poor countries, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has warned. Food prices have risen an unprecedented 40% in the last year and many nations may be unable to cope, the agency says.

It is calling for help for farmers in poor countries to buy seeds and fertiliser, and for a review of the impact of bio-fuels on food production. The FAO says 37 countries face food crises due to conflict and disaster.

"Without support for poor farmers and their families in the hardest-hit countries, they will not be able to cope," said FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf. The agency's food price index has jumped almost 40% from last year, hitting its highest level since its inception in 1990.

Urgent action

waltky · 03-10-2008, 06:54 PM

Global famine looming...

Could we really run out of food?
3/6/2008 - Biofuel production, poor harvests and emerging nations' growing appetites are emptying the world's pantry, sending prices soaring. It's a good time to invest in agricultural stocks.

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As if a bear market, credit crunch, energy crisis and city financing emergency were not enough for one year, experts say the world is now facing down the barrel of the worst catastrophe of all: famine.

The very idea that the modern world could run out of food seems ludicrous, but that is the flip side, or cause, of the tremendous recent increase in the cost of raw wheat, corn, rice, oats and soybeans. Food prices are not escalating because speculators have run them up for sport and profit, but because accelerating demand in developing nations, biofuel production and poor harvests in some areas have made basic foodstuffs truly scarce.

In energy circles, folks who warn about the beginning of the end of cheap fossil fuels talk about "peak oil" as a point we have dangerously and expensively crossed. Likewise, you can now add "peak wheat" to your political and investment lexicon. And it's a lot worse.

Food fighting

waltky · 03-17-2008, 08:49 PM

Uproar over lack of bread in Egypt...

Egypt bread shortages cause riots
Monday 17th March, 2008 - Bread shortages in Egypt have prompted President Hosni Mubarak to increase the production and distribution of bread.

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Rising prices and alleged corruption have sparked recent clashes at bakeries in poorer neighbourhoods, leading to several deaths.

Because the army and interior ministry control numerous bakeries, normally used to supply bread for troops and police, Mr Mubarak has insisted that some of the supplies should be provided to the public.

Mr Mubarak has ordered the government to use some foreign reserves to buy additional wheat from the international market.

Egypt bread shortages cause riots

sunken · 03-19-2008, 03:06 PM

It's certainly a scary thought. We often take food for granted in the US, but in many countries, it's hard to come by in some respects. I think like any resource, one has to continue to look outside the box to find solutions for future problems.

waltky · 03-28-2008, 01:33 AM

Rice not growing where it used to...

Asia faces a rice supply crisis
27 Mar.`08 - A sharp rise in the price of rice is hitting consumers across Asia; Rice prices on world markets have jumped 50 percent in the past two months; Experts blame rising fuel, fertilizer expenses and climate change; Prices could rise a further 40 percent in coming months

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Philippine activists warn about possible riots. Aid agencies across Asia worry how they will feed the hungry. Governments dig deeper every day to fund subsidies. A sharp rise in the price of rice is hitting consumer pocketbooks and raising fears of public turmoil in the many parts of Asia where rice is a staple.

Part of a surge in global food costs, rice prices on world markets have jumped 50 percent in the past two months and at least doubled since 2004. Experts blame rising fuel and fertilizer expenses as well as crops curtailed by disease, pests and climate change. There are concerns prices could rise a further 40 percent in coming months.

The higher prices have already sparked protests in the Philippines, where a government official has asked the public to save leftover rice. In Cambodia, Prime Minister Hun Sen ordered a ban on rice exports Wednesday to curb rising prices at home. Vietnamese exporters and farmers are stockpiling rice in expectation of further price increases.

Prestoline Suyat of the May One Labor Movement, a left-wing workers group, warned that "hunger and poverty may eventually lead to riots." The neediest are hit hardest. Rodolfo de Lima, a 42-year-old parking lot attendant in Manila, said "my family will go hungry" if prices continue to rise.

More Asia faces a rice supply crisis - CNN.com

See also:

U.N. Report Says Neglect Of Agriculture In Asia Leaves Hundreds Of Millions In Poverty
March 28, 2008 - Chronic neglect of agriculture in Asia and the Pacific has left over 200 million people in extreme poverty amid rising prices for foodstuffs and despite robust growth in other sectors, a United Nations report says, released on Thursday.

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The Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific 2008, produced by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), says that 218 million people - a third of the region's poor, largely living in rural areas - could be lifted out of poverty by raising agricultural productivity.

This year's issue also marks the 60th anniversary of the Survey, founded in 1948 to examine the Asia-Pacific region's key short- and medium-term prospects and challenges in macroeconomic and selected social areas, especially from the point of view of minimizing human suffering. The 2008 survey, entitled "Sustaining Growth and Sharing Prosperity," calls for revitalization of agriculture through a focus on improving agricultural productivity and market orientation.

Reforms in land policy are needed to connect the rural poor to cities and markets and to make it easier for farmers to access loans and crop insurance, says the survey, which also proposes skills diversification training, to help the poor, particularly women, tap more job opportunities. Looking at overall prospects of Asia and the Pacific in the near term, the survey says that the region's robust economic growth will continue in 2008, despite economic uncertainties in the United States and the continued appreciation of regional currencies.

U.N. Report Says Neglect Of Agriculture In Asia Leaves Hundreds Of Millions In Poverty | March 28, 2008 | AHN

waltky · 03-28-2008, 10:59 PM

Not enough to go around...

In food aid crunch, U.S. reluctant to tap crop trust
Fri Mar 28, 2008 - WASHINGTON - As the United States scrambles to prevent soaring food prices from eating into global food aid programs this year, the Bush administration appears reluctant to tap a "rainy day" stash of almost a million tonnes of wheat.

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The Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust, which contains 915,000 tonnes of grain, mostly wheat, and $117 million in cash, was set up as a fund of last resort when hunger emergencies erupt in the world's most vulnerable corners. Several members of Congress, including Kansas Republican Jerry Moran, will send a letter to President George W. Bush next week, calling for extra funding for U.S. and U.N. food aid programs, an aide said.

They will also ask the administration to tap the crop trust for the first time since 2005, when hundreds of thousands of tonnes were used to help staunch famine in Africa. Officials at the U.S. Agency for International Development, which runs the largest food aid program, and the Agriculture Department, which decides when to release crops from the trust, have not said whether they will tap the trust any time soon.

But its wheat -- stored and maintained in silos at a cost of millions of dollars a year -- takes on new importance as officials struggle with what many experts predict is a permanent upward shift in global crop and food prices. USAID, whose flat budget is shrinking relative to soaring food prices, is bracing itself for reducing food donations unless it receives a last-minute funding injection from Congress.

More In food aid crunch, U.S. reluctant to tap crop trust | Special Coverage | Reuters

waltky · 04-11-2008, 08:42 PM

Food shortages causing civil strife...

Why Are So Many Fighting For Food?
April 10, 2008 - ABC News Asks Reporters Around the World to Analyze the Global Food Crisis

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Food prices are rising around the world. In an interview with ABC News, Gregory Barrow, senior public affairs officer at the World Food Program (WFP), said that "the WFP has identified a number of countries that have been badly affected, and we have identified a type of country that's most likely to suffer from rising food prices." "The kind of country to be worst-affected is a country which depends on importing its food to meet its people's needs, it is likely to have witnessed dramatic inflation recently, and where individuals typically spend a significant portion of their income, i.e. 50 percent or more, on food."

According to Barrow, this definition "would cover a number of countries in Sub-Saharan Africa as well as countries in Asia, like Bangladesh and Pakistan." ABC News takes a look at some of the countries most badly hit by the growing food crisis. The poorest country in the Americas, Haiti has seen some of the worst food-related riots in recent months, with protestors taking to the streets, burning tires and looting shops. As the vast majority of Haiti's population struggles to get by on less than $2 a day, the rising prices of staple food items like rice and beans have left many Haitians angry with the government for not reducing taxes on foodstuffs.

President Rene Preval recently acknowledged that the country's problems were related to its dependence on imported rice and promised to boost food production. But opposition leaders immediately attacked him for doing little to address immediately the issue of food shortages. Rising fuel costs have also made transportation of foodstuffs increasingly expensive, making the current global crisis especially painful for this nation, which already suffers from extreme poverty. On Wednesday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon asked donors to provide emergency aid to Haiti.

MORE

waltky · 04-26-2008, 06:34 PM

Is the World Running Out of Food?...

Can the Earth Provide Enough Food for 9 Billion People?
April 26, 2008 - That's How Many are Expected to Inhabit the World by 2050. Experts Worry Over Looming Food Shortages.

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The world is an odd place. A tight global food situation with record-high grain prices presents the possibility of increasing malnutrition, perhaps famine, in parts of Africa and South Asia. Yet an estimated 1.6 billion adults, about a quarter of the world's 6.7 billion people, are overweight, some of them obese. As a result, chubby Americans are spending roughly $1 billion a year to lose a few pounds with special diets, treadmills, etc., while hundreds of millions in poor nations are scrambling to buy enough food to add a little weight. "You couldn't write any stranger fiction," says Joseph Chamie, former head of the United Nation's Population Division.

The possibility of a world food shortage is causing more and more concern. "It's likely to get worse in coming years," reckons Mr. Chamie, now research director at the Center for Migration Studies, a New York think tank. His fear is partly based on the fact that the world's population is growing by about 78 million people a year, with projections of an additional 2.5 billion people by 2050 – a generation away. "The most significant event of the 20th and 21st century is the growth of world population," Chamie says. "It has affected every life form on this planet."

There have been a few dramatic spikes in food prices in the past century. For instance, in 1972 the Soviet Union, anticipating a domestic crop failure, quietly cornered available grain supplies in the world, doubling prices of wheat, rice, and corn. Weather-related events have pushed up food prices at other times. But these events were temporary. Using surplus stocks, emergency measures eased food shortages in some poor nations. A new crop restored an adequate supply.

More ABC News: Is the World Running Out of Food?

waltky · 05-05-2008, 01:26 AM

Food crisis could cause political upheaval in Asia...

Asia fears rising poverty, social unrest from soaring food prices
5 May`08 - Soaring food prices could push millions of people in Asia back into poverty and lead to social unrest, regional leaders warned at the Asian Development Bank's annual meeting in Spain.

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"The recent hike in the price of rice will hit Asian countries particularly hard. The ones who are most affected are the poorest segment of the population including the urban poor," Japanese Finance Minister Fukushiro Nukaga said Sunday. "It will have a negative impact on the living standards and also affect their nutrition. Such a situation may lead to social untrust and unrest and therefore safety nets addressing the immediate needs of the poorest are needed," he added. Prices for the benchmark Thai variety of rice, a food stable across much of Asia, are at about 1,000 dollars a tonne, up threefold from the last ADB annual meeting held in Japan one year ago. Meat prices have risen by 60 percent in Bangladesh in the year ending in March, and by 45 percent in Cambodia and 30 percent in the Philippines, according to a report issued Saturday by the ADB.

The rise in global food prices has sparked riots last month in Egypt and Haiti, protests in other countries and restrictions on food exports in Brazil, Vietnam, India and Egypt. Indian Finance Secretary Subba Rao said a 20 percent rise in food prices could force 100 million people into extreme poverty. "In many countries, including in Asia, that will mean the undoing of gains in poverty reduction achieved during the past years of growth," he said. The Indian government, which is facing a general election by May 2009, has implemented a raft of measures, such as banning the export of staple foods like rice and lentils and cutting customs duties on other items, to try to ease price pressures. It spends the equivalent of about 2.0 percent of gross domestic product per year on subsidies for food, fertilizer and energy to help offset the impact of rising prices on the poor, Rao said.

But Nukaga warned that export restrictions lead to higher prices while food subsidies to help the poor deal with surging prices could place a tremendous burden on state budgets. "Export restrictions will not only distort the proper functioning of markets in price formation but further exacerbate the price hikes in international markets," he said. "Subsidies that are intended to keep food prices under control have the risk of becoming a significant burden to budgets and are not sustainable over time," he added. Food subsidies in Bangladesh, one of the poorest nations in Asia, are estimated to double in the current fiscal year and reach over 1.5 billion dollars (973 million euros) in the current fiscal year.

The ADB estimates one billion people in Asia are seriously affected by soaring food prices. It announced Saturday on the opening day of its four-day annual meeting in Madrid that it would provide a sizeable amount in soft loans to help Asian countries subsidise the price of food staples for the poor. It will also provide two billion dollars in 2008 and 2009 in loans to finance agriculture infrastructure projects such as irrigation systems and rural roads aimed at boosting farm output in the region. Rising use of biofuels, trade restrictions, increased demand from Asia to serve changing diets, poor harvests and increasing transport costs have all been blamed for the price rise.

AFP: Asia fears rising poverty, social unrest from soaring food prices

waltky · 06-28-2008, 09:01 PM

Global warming changing seasonal growing conditions...

Over Four Million Ethiopians Face Severe Famine After Eight Month Drought
June 28, 2008 - The United Nations is calling for emergency relief that more than quadruples the original estimates of what would be needed to aid Ethiopians who face famine following the year's terrible drought.

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UN Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes said in a statement on the United Nations website, "The urgency of this launch cannot be overstated." According to The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) more than $325 million is needed in order to provide enough aid, including emergency food supplies, water, sanitation, agricultural assistance and health-care to the 4.6 million people in need.

Rural Ethiopians often live on a diet of wild-food; vegetables and fruits that grow in abundance when the seasonal rains come. This years rains were sparse, and with no new growth, Sky News reported that some have been eating the seeds for next years harvest.

Rising food costs are further exacerbating efforts to get enough food to feed the growing number of those in crisis. Children and the elderly are at the highest risk of starvation. According to the UN, there are already 75,000 children suffering from acute malnutrition and illness, and if aid does not come soon, most will not survive.

Over Four Million Ethiopians Face Severe Famine After Eight Month Drought | AHN | June 28, 2008

Eagle One · 07-08-2008, 11:39 PM

I can't keep up with Walt's prolific copying and pasting, but I'd like to comment on a few items.

Emergency pleas go out from Africa
I think there are about two BILLION people in Africa. We are already feeding about a half-billion of them. The simple fact of the matter is feeding them only increases the population. When Africans have ample food two things happen; they breed like rats and they kill each other ~ historical fact.

China Faces 4.8 Million Tons Grain Shortage By 2010
Here's some advice for the communist country's leaders:
>Get your nuclear missile-carrying war ships off the USA's west coast. Use the money you save to improve your infrastructure so you can grow food.
>Get your nuclear missile-carrying war ships off the USA's east coast. Use the money you save to improve your infrastructure so you can grow food.
>Get your nuclear missile-carrying war ships off the Panama Canal. Use the money you save to improve your infrastructure so you can grow food.
Instead of spending tens of billions of dollars on missiles, submarines and troops all over the world, you'd do well to focus on you many coal fires and that huge dust bowl problem you created.
>Give the people their country back. While a few at the top are basking in wealth and power, it's only a matter of time before the people revolt and lynch all of you.

China is a loser country occupied by a corrupt leadership hiding behind 'communism' to keep power over the masses. Feeding them would only serve to help keep the leaders in power. Remember the wheat shipments we sent to Russia and Japan. A few individuals got rich, but very little went to help the people who needed it.

U.S. wheat exporters already have sold more than 90 percent of the 1.175 billion bushels the U.S. Department of Agriculture expects will be exported during the whole marketing year, which ends in June 2008.

I suspect the bulk of this wheat was purchased by the US government, thereby increasing our tax burden AND the cost of food in the US.

waltky · 07-08-2008, 11:55 PM

Rampant reproduction is the root of overpopulation which in turn affects the food supply and its ability to feed everyone.

A food shortage will inevitably be the result of the refusal to use birth control.

waltky · 07-11-2008, 08:08 PM

If they can't meet their population control, how do they expect the food to go around??...

India misses population control targets for 2010, 2016
11 Jul 2008, At a time of spiralling inflation and dwindling food stocks, the failure of the ambitious National Population Policy-2000 to strategise a gradual reduction in the population growth rate has meant that the country has five crore more hungry mouths to feed than envisaged.

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NPP-2000, which set national socio-demographic goals for the year 2010, said if its strategies were implemented, India’s population, which is projected to be 116 crore by 2010, could be capped at 110 crore. However, in 2008, the population is already 113 crore, according to the figures given out by National Commission on Population. This is five crore more than what the average projection of population had said it would be.

More importantly, it means there would be five crore more mouths to feed at a time when the government has banned export of non-basmati rice to avoid a famine-like situation, as has been admitted by the Centre in the Supreme Court. This total non-implementation of NPP-2000 was brought into sharp focus on Thursday by counsel Sanjay Parikh before a Supreme Court Bench of Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justices P Sathasivam and J M Panchal during the hearing on a PIL by NGO Azadi Bachao Andolan, which seeks implementation of NPP in letter and spirit.

He said that though the court had issued notices to the Centre and the states in 2006, neither the Centre nor the states had responded. The Centre, through additional solicitor general Gopal Subramaniam, said the affidavit was ready and would be filed by Monday. Parikh said that pursuant to NPP-2000, the National Commission on Population was constituted on May 11, 2000, but strangely, it took five years to hold its first meeting - in July 2005.

MORE

waltky · 07-15-2008, 08:15 PM

Not taking land from productive white farmers might help too...

Feeding Africa: Key Is Better Farms, Not Food Aid
Jul. 15, 2008 : To End Africa's Cycle Of Drought And Hunger, Key Is Better Farms - Not Food Aid

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Hussein Ibrahim walked solemnly past tidy rows of bright green cabbages, vines bursting with tomatoes and trees weighed down with plump avocados. This modern, thriving farm _ a rarity in drought-ravaged Ethiopia _ filled Hussein with envy. Like so many other farmers across the Horn of Africa, he has no hope for his own crops this year.

"We are behind all the other people in the world," said Hussein, who tends his land in southern Ethiopia the way his ancestors did hundreds of years ago _ with rain, if it comes; and oxen, as long as they're healthy. To break out of endless cycles of drought, poverty and hunger, experts say, Africa desperately needs to modernize its age-old farming techniques. But the vast sums in foreign aid to Africa go toward feeding the hungry, and very little is left for improving farming so that Africans will cease to depend on handouts.

It isn't impossible. A decade ago, a "green revolution" helped millions of farmers in Asia and Latin America emerge from poverty with basic innovations such as fertilizer, improved irrigation and hybrid seeds. But Africa's farms, which employ more than half the labor force, remain one-fourth as productive as their counterparts around the world.

More Feeding Africa: Key Is Better Farms, Not Food Aid, To End Africa's Cycle Of Drought And Hunger, Key Is Better Farms _ Not Food Aid - CBS News

waltky · 09-04-2010, 09:32 AM

Natural disasters makin' food scarce...

World edges closer to global food crisis
Saturday 4th September, 2010 - As natural disasters batter the world's agricultural industry, fears are growing that we may be heading into the dark food crisis days of 2007 and 2008.

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Fears of a global food supply crisis are now entrenched as Russia announced a 12-month extension of its grain export ban, bringing the world ever-closer to the food insecurity of 2007 and 2008. Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister of Russia, made the announcement even as the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN called an emergency meeting to discuss the developing food shortages.

On Thursday, widespread riots in Maputo, the capital of Mozambique, left 280 injured and 7 dead after protesters took to the streets to oppose a decision by government to raise the price of bread by 30%. The government of Mozambique has found itself increasingly unable to subsidise the price of bread in the country following the spiraling price of wheat on global markets. Their announcement was met by desperation and anger from millions who cannot afford the increasing cost of staple foods such as wheat.

Currently, the world’s food supply is more abundant than it was in 2007 and 2008, the nature of the problem is not one of a global shortage, but a shortage of supply to regions of the world where the rampant prices are no longer affordable. The price of wheat has soared in recent weeks on the back of widespread droughts in Eastern Europe, wildfires in Russia, floods in Pakistan and mudslides in China, which have seen the global supply severely reduced and the price subsequently pushed up by demand.

More World edges closer to global food crisis