The global food crisis thread

[Realitycheck]

The World Bank reports that for each 1 percent rise in food prices, caloric intake among the poor drops 0.5 percent. Millions of those living on the lower rungs of the global economic ladder, people who are barely hanging on, will lose their grip and begin to fall off.

 

...

 

Projections by Professors C. Ford Runge and Benjamin Senauer of the University of Minnesota four years ago showed the number of hungry and malnourished people decreasing from over 800 million to 625 million by 2025. But in early 2007 their update of these projections, taking into account the biofuel effect on world food prices, showed the number of hungry people climbing to 1.2 billion by 2025. That climb is already under way.

 

Since the budgets of international food aid agencies are set well in advance, a rise in food prices shrinks food assistance. The U.N. World Food Programme (WFP), which is now supplying emergency food aid to 37 countries, is cutting shipments as prices soar. The WFP reports that 18,000 children are dying each day from hunger and related illnesses.

http://www.earth-policy.org/Updates/2008/Update69.htm

[ecoli]

or how about getting congress to remove subsidies on biofuels just because it's not really economically feasible. There's gotta be something in Africa we can trade for, so they don't all starve to death.

 

Though, I realize starvation is not the same thing as malnutrition.

[Realitycheck]

With prices like these, who needs subsidies?

[iNow]

It's more than just subsidies. Even the cost of rice is on the rise.

 

 

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89851922

 

A "silent tsunami" of hunger is sweeping the world's most desperate nations, said Josette Sheeran, the WFP's executive director, speaking Tuesday at a London summit on the crisis.

 

The skyrocketing cost of food staples, stoked by rising fuel prices, unpredictable weather and demand from India and China, has already sparked sometimes violent protests across the Caribbean, Africa and Asia.

 

The price of rice has more than doubled in the last five weeks, she said. The World Bank estimates food prices have risen by 83 percent in three years.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jLPll3S2VDzkMALcjD4vYyg1y5ZgD907S6QO0

 

The two biggest U.S. warehouse retail chains are limiting how much rice customers can buy because of what Sam's Club, a division of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., called on Wednesday "recent supply and demand trends."

 

The broader chain of Wal-Mart stores has no plans to limit food purchases, however.

 

The move comes as U.S. rice futures hit a record high amid global food inflation, although one rice expert said the warehouse chains may be reacting less to any shortages than to stockpiling by restaurants and small stores.

 

Sam's Club followed Seattle-based Costco Wholesale Corp., which put limits in at least some stores on bulk rice purchases.

 

Sam's Club declined to say if this is first time it has restricted sales of bulk foods. The limits affect 20-pound bags, not retail-sized portions. Costco could not immediately be reached for comment on its limits or whether they are the first ever.

 

Sam's Club said it will limit customers to four bags at a time of imported jasmine, basmati and long grain white rice.

 

The warehouse chain caters heavily to small businesses, including restaurants. Sam's Club spokeswoman Kristy Reed said she could not comment on whether the problem was caused by short supplies or by customers stocking up in anticipation of higher prices.

[Phi for All]

Tools and education for African farmers sounds extremely viable, as long as we can make sure they end up in the farmers hands, and not sold to buy food. It sounds like a bottom-up solution to the problem, like providing more efficient appliances to third world countries instead of pushing big hydro-electric dams on them.

[ecoli]

It's more than just subsidies. Even the cost of rice is on the rise.

 

 

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89851922

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jLPll3S2VDzkMALcjD4vYyg1y5ZgD907S6QO0

 

Risiing energy costs?