Rising prices tip another 75 million towards starvation:

AFP

Published: Wednesday September 17, 2008

Global numbers afflicted by acute hunger rose from 850 million to 925 million by the start of this year because of rising prices, the head of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation said 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 percent in 2006, 24 percent in 2007 and 50 percent 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.

"Thirty billion dollars per year must be invested to double food production and eliminate hunger," Diouf said, calling the figure "modest" in comparison with the amount many countries spend on arms and agriculture.

An summit vowed in June to halve global hunger by 2015 and take "urgent" action over the global food crisis, but only after going into overtime at the fractious gathering.

In a final declaration at the summit -- which saw some 6.5 billion dollars (4.6 billion euros) pledged, but which exposed strains notably over biofuels -- world leaders also agreed to boost food production in poor countries.

The declaration restated similar conclusions from food summits in 1996 and 2002.

Diouf said previously that "under the current trends, that objective would be obtained in 2150 instead of 2015."

Rising food prices have pushed 100 million people below the poverty line, the World Bank has estimated, and have sparked protests and even riots in some parts of the world, while also threatening world economic growth.

Experts have blamed a number of factors such as oil prices, growing use of biofuels and increased consumption of high-calorie food, particularly meat, in emerging economies.

The UN food relief agency said last month it had begun implementing a 214 million dollar programme aimed at 16 "hunger hotspots" around the world in the face of soaring food prices.

The programme includes food rations for highly vulnerable groups, feeding children even during school holidays, giving extra food to needy pregnant women and young childen, expanding food assistance to urban areas hardest hit by high food prices, and supporting small farmers and markets, the WFP said.

Half the aid, 104 million dollars, is directed at more than 11 million people in 14 countries particularly hard-hit by high food prices, including help to urban areas where "food is unaffordable and there is risk of discontent," the statement said.

Another 110 million dollars has been released for the conflict-ridden Horn of Africa, where the WFP has added funds from emergency reserves to meet urgent food needs.

In neighbouring Ethiopia, more than 10 million people are affected by drought, it said.

The other populations targeted are in Djibouti, Ghana, Guinea, Haiti, Liberia, Mauritania, Mozambique, Nepal, the occupied Palestinian territories, Pakistan, Senegal, Tajikistan, Uganda and Yemen.

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Problem Reaction Solution...

Would all those people starve worse if WE pulled out the funding we are providing the lions share of and sent it to Texas to care for our own.

starving people don't get cancer.....so they got that going for them

Texas, what about Louisiana, what about people in Florida that still don't have their home repaired from Charley 4 yrs ago?

and America leads the world in charitable giving and the abundance of the generosity of Americans still cannot overcome the hardships of the people of foreign countries.

Where are their own leaders?

Why can't they help themselves?

Why is it that America can and does and always has?

Certainly, we as Americans should be living in the same deprivation and neglect if it were a normal symptom of life itself.

Israel was a swamp until some looney Jews started buying the land back from Arabs that were glad to sell it to those jews whhiole laughing all the way to the bank when they sold that land.

That was after the balfour declaration in 1918.

Now , Israel is the breadbasket of the middle east and the mediterrainian region, much like California's Central Valley is.

What's up with that?


The Bush Doctrine was long overdue.

Let's put it to work for legitmate good, and abandon the empire building aspects of it.

the precedent exists now and we can amend his innovative and original thought process with ingenuity and generosity of spirit.

That good may come......

8 years and it hasnt come yet...All you have to do is open your eyes...

oh yeah......

I forgot......

the third world wasn't starving until Bush got in office.

silly me.

Oh silly me the economey was in the can when Bush took over, oil was at an alltime high, the housing market the worst since the great depression, unemployment at an alltime high, spending billions in Iraq but cant help people out from a hurricane 4 years ago ( People who got screwed by their insurers not some third world country starving)naaaa that was happening before Bush....

What planet are you on?

these proiblems were warned against whn Clinton was President and the libtards did nothing.

These problems are presently here with us and Congress in the libtard control is atrophying and stymied in suspension by the libtards since the libtards seized Congress.

This all started to manifest when the libtards got their inept hands on Congress two years ago.



you make it easy for Mccain.


and fun for me to further prove that libtards are aliens.


nobums with bidets 2008

No you really make it easy on the independents... Issues...Issues Quit the bashing!!! Issues..Issues..signed an Independent

now who is being the joker?



the independents cause is emasculated and self depricating worse so tha n the looney left and their delusions.


Nothing good comes from disengaging the national conversation by standing in the cold of the cheap seats at the furthest fringe of public discourse.

Why do you throw away your dignity and self esteem like that?

Playing the victim plays into the hands of the looney left.


oh well.....

one less vote for nobama 2008


thanks for helping!!!!

its a good life for speculators....

No we are people who stand up for what we believe is right and not to a party affiliation...With the last 2 elections its funny both partys are courting our votes..You just make the DEMs job easier!!!! You have alot to talk about dignity and self esteem..I guess noone is holier than tho!!!!! Dont lecture me about anything BOY!!!!!

Was it $85 billion that the current US government just injected into a failing bank?


Hmmmm....people can't eat money...or banks.

No, people can't eat cash or banks, but those banks helped move us into a system, where people are no longer, by and large, self sufficient enough to even grow their own food, which of course means that millions of Americans (let alone anywhere else) have to have money to buy food.
If the fed is destroying the value of the dollar, all the while printing up unbacked money to consildate the banking system, running off with all the hard assets and leaving us holding the bag, it's going to be like Russia right after their system crashed, lots of stuff on the shelves, not enough cash to buy any of it.

This is coming down the hard way, we have to decide whether or not we're going to sit on our thumbs and let them continue, but I don't see how we can go back, now that the Globalists have decided to kill this nation, starting with it's backbone, the middle class.