A bumper crop of rice is expected in Asia this year. Not only rice, but other staples of the diet are expected to have great harvests. But will the poor have enough money to buy this food?In a conference on food security of Asia, an United Nations official urged governments to create jobs and food stamp programs to make sure that the poor get some of the surplus.The Associated Press reports that the good harvest is expected to ease food prices. Our snippet of the story comes from the International Herald Tribune.U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization official Purushottam Mudbhary said buffer stocks of rice, corn and wheat, along with recent sharp drops in oil prices, should further ease food prices that rose alarmingly earlier this year.But if the poor, who will be hit hard by the global...
Africa is still trying to find it's way out of the food crisis. Even though increases in food prices has eased in developed nations, the rest of the world is still trying to find solutions. A story today in the Harvard Political Review points out that food shortages haven't improved yet in Africa. Because the continent depends so much on food aid the way out is trickier.Shreya Maheshwari of the Harvard Political Review asks an expert of international affairs on what might help the continent.Harvard Political Review November 4th Robert Paarlberg, an associate at Harvard's Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, told the HPR that even though higher food prices last year made news due to their impact on developed countries, the real fight against hunger is still very much centered on...
Jeffrey Sachs was interviewed by US News and World Report about the credit crisis. Sachs says that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has tried to keep the focus of poverty, hunger and rising food prices despite the other attention grabbing crisis.November 3rd US News and World Report Jeffrey Sachs, special adviser to Ban on the antipoverty Millennium Development Goals and an economist who directs the Earth Institute at Columbia University, says that the financial crisis "is front and center in the secretary general's attention," with particular focus on coordination efforts aimed at positioning the U.N. system—including the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank—so that it "can help to moderate a very deep crisis."Of particular concern to Ban and his advisers is ensuring that...
A new study confirms the effect of increasing food prices in Asia. In fact, the authors of this report say it is "devastating" the continent. Experts from universities in Britain and India, as well as officials from the United Nations authored the report. They say that rising prices of rice and wheat are slowing the economy of Asia. The rising prices are also increasing the income inequality in the continent. This could cause social unrest and will increase the numbers who are starving by 3 billion people. India ENews provides the following quotes and stats from the study:"Food price inflation is the most regressive of all taxes and is causing devastation across the whole continent of Asia," said Katsushi Imai of the University of Manchester's Brooks World Poverty Institute."Rising food...
On World Food Day that was held on October 16th, former US President Bill Clinton admitted getting the issue of food security for poor nations wrong.A lot of aid that goes into poor countries is food. But that makes it even harder for the small farmers of poor countries to stay profitable. In recent years, imports of food to poor nations rose, making them even more dependent on aid. If aid was ever removed, God forbid, the poor nations would be unable to sustain themselves. Former President Clinton actually praised our current President Bush for getting food security right, but he has been stopped by politics in the US. In this Associated Press article, writer Charles Hanley has quotes from President Clinton on improving aid effectiveness to the developing world. Former President Clinton...
OXFAM has relaesed a new position paper on how the world should react to the global food crisis. The report titled Double Edged Prices has 10 actions that OXFAM would like to see the world take to prevent another food crisis.Among the 10 steps, are the importance of investing in agriculture, having trade policies that ensure food security, and designing social protection systems that protect the poorest.Our snippet from OXFAM includes some stats on how many people have been pushed into poverty from the food crisis, and the profits that food manufactures have made since prices went up. The sharp rise in global food prices has pushed 119m more people into hunger, taking the global total to 967m. Higher food prices mean people are eating less and lower quality food, children are being taken...
The International Monetary Fund released a statement yesterday on how the global credit crisis will effect Africa. We have heard plenty of how the rising prices of food and fuel have reversed gains on poverty reduction on the continent. Now the number crunchers are starting to analise how this credit crisis will hurt poverty efforts. This snippet comes from a press release from the International Monetary Fund. The press release helps to promote a report that the fund release on the subject. The quote is from Ms. Antoinette Sayeh, Director of the IMF's African Department.from the International Monetary Fund "The worsening macroeconomic situation reflects headwinds from strong increases in food and fuel prices, slower world growth, and global financial turmoil. So far, the main effects of...
Yes, the rising cost of food and fuel have hurt the whole world, even you and me. In fact, the big banks have said that the increases will push another 100 million into poverty. With meetings going on now with would financial leaders, lots of reports are beeing issued. This one caught our eye, that names specific countries that are the feeling the effects the worse. from ReutersAmong the "fiscally vulnerable" countries are Jordan, Cambodia, Lebanon, Jamaica, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Tajikistan, Madagascar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Rwanda, Malawi, Ivory Coast, Eritrea, Fiji, Haiti, Seychelles and Mauritania.The report, published ahead of weekend International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings of finance and development ministers, said many of these countries had little or no room to take on new...
from Africa Science News Written by Venter Mwongera In an interview to the Africa Science News Service at her Nairobi-based office, the Chief Executive Officer for Africa Harvest Biotechnology Foundation International (AHBFI), Prof Florence Wambugu said access to inputs- machinery, targeted subsidy and credit programs, secure land tenure system especially for women to increase farmers capacity to use and invest in new technology; are the best starting points to build a stable economy. She said increased investment in water technologies, increased agricultural extension services, development of new crop varieties resistant to drought, pest and diseases are other milestones needed towards alleviating poverty in developing countries. She however attributed changing global climatic...
from the Bretton Woods Project By Nuria Molina, Eurodad and Bhumika Muchhala, Bank Information CenterAlthough conditions attached to food and fuel crisis lending are somewhat lighter, the Bank and the Fund should turn the crisis into an opportunity to learn that finance can be granted without the usual strings attached.At the Food Summit in Rome last June, world leaders pledged to "eliminate hunger and secure food for all, today and tomorrow". Today is quite a tight deadline. According to the UN World Food Programme, $755 million is required to immediately address hunger. But $15 - $20 billion would be needed to implement measures to resurrect the hollowed-out agricultural sectors of low-income countries.The World Bank came up with the Global Food Crisis Response Programme (GFRP) in May...
from the Mail and Guardian Global numbers afflicted by acute hunger rose from 850-million to 925-million by the start of 2008 because of rising prices, the head of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said on Wednesday.The number of people suffering from malnutrition, before the worst effects of global price rises, "rose just in 2007 by 75-million", Jacques Diouf, director general of the Rome-based agency, told an Italian Parliament committee, according to ANSA news agency.An FAO prices index showed global food price rises of 12% in 2006, 24% in 2007 and 50% over the first eight months of 2008, Diouf added -- suggesting the number affected is likely to top one billion by the end of the year."$30-billion per year must be invested to double food production and...
from the IPS We haven't had many stories on how the food crisis has effected Latin America. A conference is happening now held that discusses how to cvope with the crisis, and how to help the poor thru it. "The countries have responded very well and very promptly, but obviously some are facing major difficulties, like nations in Central America that are not only net food importers, but oil importers as well," Alicia Bárcena, executive secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), told IPS.Bárcena avoided calling the present situation in Latin America and the Caribbean a "crisis", because ECLAC, a United Nations agency, estimates that the regional economy will grow by 4.7 percent in 2008 and by about four percent in 2009, thereby achieving seven...
from the AP via Google SURABAYA, Indonesia — With the dollar a day he earns scrounging for scrap metal and paper, Jumadi can't buy his family beef or even chicken. But until now, the rail-thin scavenger could at least afford soy.His wife and two children snacked on slabs of fried fermented soy, known as tempeh, and tossed the cake-like staple into bland bowls of noodles and soup. The soy provided protein, and it was cheap.Not any more. The cost of tempeh and tofu has doubled to record highs, driven by the soaring price of soybeans imported from the United States."What kind of life is this?" complained the 25-year-old, who like many Indonesians goes by only one name, as he stood outside his plywood shack that was buzzing with flies. "I just eat crackers now."The cost of soy is spreading...
from AFP PRETORIA (AFP) — UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) chief Jacques Diouf Thursday said world leaders had ignored warnings on the current food crisis and rising costs."No one can say that we did not inform well ahead of time. Everybody was informed. But as usual, unfortunately, it is a general trend in the world: we react when the crisis is already here," Diouf told a news conference."Before a crisis, you can say everything, people will listen to you but they won't act," said Diouf, who is on a one-day visit to South Africa.The FAO had in 1996 and 2002 convened world food summits, each attended by more than 100 heads of state, to draw attention to food security, he said."What lacked was the political will and the resources through the political will. So they were...
from ISN Underneath the high prices, there is the longer term failure of development policy as imposed by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.for Diplomatic CourierFor years, even decades, they have been sounding the alarm on what the international community has only recently recognized as a food crisis. But the crisis, they say, is not new. In fact, it has been decades in the making. And they would know: they are farmers. Hailing from Iowan cornfields to the Niger delta, attuned to the earth's subtle signs and currents in the atmosphere, they have been urging us to listen too.Now, as grain prices surge to unprecedented levels and food riots flash across the evening news broadcast, the world is starting to take notice. Dena Hoff, Vice President of the National Family Farm...
from the New York Times This article explores the effect that rising food prices are having on school lunches. School officials point out that what kids are getting for a dollar or two in the cafeteria would cost 6 to 7 dollars at a restaurant. - KaleBy WINNIE HUGas pumps, grocery stores, and now school cafeterias.Prices on some school lunch lines are going up this fall as school officials, like many others, struggle to pay higher prices and delivery fees for staples like bread, milk, fresh fruit and vegetables. The price increases, generally about 25 cents a meal, come as school districts in New York and across the country try to eke more out of already tight budgets, with some switching to four-day schedules to reduce utility and busing costs, and others asking more of their students...
from IPS News The food and fuel crises are bad enough, but add water into the fray and it could be disastrous. The World Bank still insists on water privatization before making loans. - KaleBy Thalif DeenSTOCKHOLM, - "It's the spectre of a food, fuel and water crisis," says Lars Thunell, executive vice president of the Washington-based International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank group."I believe we are at a tipping point," he said, because the scarcity of water poses a threat to the food supply just when the agricultural sector is stepping up production in response to riots over food prices, growing hunger, and rising malnutrition.Speaking at the conclusion of the weeklong Stockholm International Water Conference Friday, Thunell said the growing demand for water...
from Commodity Online A group of NGO's are trying to double rice production in Africa in 10 years. Here are details on the efforts. - Kale By Savitri MohapatraEveryone to the farm,” is the new decree of President Wade of Senegal—a country that has seen massive riots in the last few months, when thousands of citizens carrying empty rice sacks on their heads marched in protest against soaring rice prices. The President has just unveiled an ambitious agricultural plan called the Great Offensive for Food and Abundance (GOANA), which aims to make Senegal self-sufficient in food staples, especially rice.GOANA’s target is to produce in the next season 500,000 tons of rice—2.5 times more than the current production. Senegal, where rice-fish called cebbu jen is the most popular daily...
from the Mail and Guardian This article profiles new food co-operatives in South Africa that are being used to combat rising food prices. - Kaleby NOSIMILO NDLOVU Salaminah Motsoagae (23) is a single mother who lives in an informal settlement in Orange Farm, Gauteng. She lives with her mother, who is a domestic worker and the only income earner in the family.Rising food prices have put a financial strain on Motsoagae's family, leaving them with less money than before to buy food. "We are down to two meals a day," she says."Things are especially tough on people in my community who are HIV-positive because they must eat a nutritional meal each time they have to take their antiretrovirals (ARVs). Most of the time there just isn't enough for them to eat and they become very ill. Our...
from the Wall Street Journal's Live Mint Finally some good news! Signs that the world food crisis is easing. - KaleFarmers from Australia to China have increased plantings of wheat, corn, rice and soya bean, helping stockpiles gain from 30-year lowsby Thomas Kutty Abraham and Pratik ParijaMumbai / New Delhi: A worldwide food crisis that sent wheat, corn and rice prices to records and sparked riots earlier this year may be over after farmers increased plantings, a top official at the ministry of consumer affairs, food and public distribution said.“I don’t think there’s a crisis now,” said T. Nanda Kumar, food secretary, who is responsible for formulating food security policy in the world’s second most populous nation. “Food will be available.”Farmers from Australia to...
from Emirates Business The impact of the global food crisi in the middle east will be the subject of an upcoming conference in Dubai. - KaleThe crisis has triggered a broad review of agricultural and economic priorities in the region, where nearly all the states are net food importers. And new challenges such as climate change have hit agricultural production in the poorest countries.These problems will be discussed at the 2008 Regional Round Table Meeting on Commodity Development. The event is being held on August 24 and 25 by Amsterdam-based Common Fund for Commodities, an international financial institution established by the United Nations.The round table meetings are normally held in Africa, Asia and Latin America. However, this year the fund decided to hold a separate session in...
from the Guardian A lot of the stories we share on here only touch on the fertilizer issue. This one gives more detail on how the higher costs of fertilizer is hurting food supply. - Kale by John VidalA global fertiliser crisis caused by high oil prices and the US rush to biofuel crops is reducing the harvests of the world's poorest farmers and could lead to millions more people going hungry, according to the UN and global food analysts.Optimism that soaring food commodity prices could lift millions of developing country farmers out of poverty and lead to more food being grown have been dashed, says the UN. This is because small farmers either consume their own crop or have no access to global markets to take advantage of the higher food prices.There is little prospect of relief. A world...
from Reuters You don't say? :sarcasm: - KaleBy Lesley WroughtonWASHINGTON - Large increases in biofuels production in the United States and Europe are the main reason behind the steep rise in global food prices, a top World Bank economist said in research published on Monday.World Bank economist, Don Mitchell, concluded that biofuels and related low grain inventories, speculative activity, and food export bans pushed prices up by 70 percent to 75 percent.The remaining 25 percent to 30 percent was due to a weaker U.S. dollar, higher energy costs and related rises in fertilizer and transport costs, he wrote.An unfinished version of the research that surfaced in news stories sparked a heated debate earlier in July, with trade groups for the ethanol industry calling the 75 percent figure "a...
from IRIN This subject was debated during thefood summit last month. Past calls to cut taxes for chartable food purchases has met a lot of resistance. - KaleThe World Food Programme (WFP) has welcomed a call by the World Bank for a UN resolution to scrap taxes and export controls on food aid purchases, but experts say there is little chance of such a resolution being effected.Robert Zoellick, president of the World Bank Group, called on the UN General Assembly's 63rd session, coming up in September, to vote for a resolution to exempt humanitarian purchases from export restrictions and taxes.A global food and fuel price crisis has not only pushed up the cost of food aid but made finding adequate quantities to purchase and transporting them even more problematic, as governments attempt to...
from Red Dragon FM The direct link below also has some video, that I couldn't embed here. Another report on how the rising food prices are hitting the poorest regions of the world. - KaleMillions of East Africans are at risk of starvation due to rocketing food prices, Oxfam has warned.Spiralling costs combined with successive droughts, violent conflict and endemic poverty have left up to 13 million in the region in urgent need of aid.Oxfam has called for immediate action and increased donor support to avert the coming crisis, noting that a UN appeal for emergency assistance for Somalia has received only 37 per cent of funding needed.Food costs have soared in recent months, with the cost of imported rice in Somalia rising by 350 per cent since the beginning of last year.Areas of...
from Reuters There are plans for another economic stimulus package in the US. So politicians are coming up with add ons to the package. Help for those with food stamps is another one. - KaleWASHINGTON - With food-stamp enrollment at record levels, antihunger experts urged Congress on Wednesday to increase benefits, at least temporarily, in the largest U.S. program that helps poor people buy food.Some 28 million Americans received food stamps at latest count, the highest total ever except the 29.8 million recipients in November 2005, when emergency aid was given to victims of hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma. Benefits average $1 per meal."We strongly support efforts to provide a temporary boost in basic food stamp benefit levels to help people afford a basic healthy diet," said George...
from the New York Daily News Bono's guru finally weighs in on the global food crisis. - KaleBY JEFFREY SACHSThe surge of world food prices this year came like a bolt out of the blue, but warning lights were in fact flashing. Imbalances of global food supply and demand had been building for years beneath the public view.It's our job now to restore a balance of food supply and demand, and to defuse the long-term factors that can still come back to haunt us.To date, American policy has been part of the problem, not the solution. In a mix of misguided energy policy and brazen special interest politics, the U.S. adopted a bio-fuel boondoggle. Taxpayers pay billions of dollars each year to subsidize large grain companies to covert corn to ethanol. Yet on balance, corn-based ethanol saves...
from the Financial Times A report from a UK parliament committee asks for the doubling of aid to the UN's World Food Programme. - Kale By Javier Blas in LondonDonations to the United Nations' World Food Programme must double to secure aid for those pushed into poverty by rising food and fuel prices and to compensate for higher procurement costs, a report warned yesterday.The UK parliament's International Development Committee said that significant increases to the WFP's budget would probably be needed in the short term and sustained over the years. "The usual annual total of $3bn [€1.9bn, £1.5bn] in voluntary contributions may need to double."Last year, the WFP received donations of $2.7bn, up from $1.7bn in 1998. After mounting an appeal this year, the WFP received $2.6bn in the...
from the Financial Times Warnings of another famine in Ethiopia, this time due to the food crisis. - KaleBy Barney Jopson in Khartoum and Murithi Mutiga and Javier Blas in LondonHunger on a massive scale is looming across the Horn of Africa as a combination of drought and high food prices has left more than 14m people in five countries in need of emergency food aid, according to the United Nations.Ethiopia is the centre of the crisis, with 10.3m people, or 12 per cent of its population, in need of emergency aid in the next few months, the World Food Programme said. But the risk of starvation has spread in an arc that runs from Somalia and Djibouti through to Kenya and Uganda.The primary cause of the crisis is a prolonged drought across large parts of the Horn which has been exacerbated...
from the Washington Post In Burkina Faso, many women prepare the meals, but have the rest of their family eat, while they go without. A great story here on the global food crisi. - KaleCultural Expectations Ensure Women Are Hit Hardest by Burgeoning Food CrisisBy Kevin SullivanOUAGADOUGOU, Burkina FasoAfter she woke in the dark to sweep city streets, after she walked an hour to buy less than $2 worth of food, after she cooked for two hours in the searing noon heat, Fanta Lingani served her family's only meal of the day.First she set out a bowl of corn mush, seasoned with tree leaves, dried fish and wood ashes, for the 11 smallest children, who tore into it with bare hands.Then she set out a bowl for her husband. Then two bowls for a dozen older children. Then finally, after everyone else...