Loading...

Saturday, May 3, 2008

Global Food Crisis .... more catastrophic than the Oil Crisis !

This is but common sense. And it seems the whole world is heading towards a food crisis.

It's much more serious than the Oil Crisis. Because the Oil Crisis can be over-riden by methods like curtailing vehicles and other means.

But, food is what we live on.

Check out the excerpt by John Vidal in The Guardian :

"Empty shelves in Caracas. Food riots in West Bengal and Mexico. Warnings of hunger in Jamaica, Nepal, the Philippines and sub-Saharan Africa. Soaring prices for basic foods are beginning to lead to political instability, with governments being forced to step in to artificially control the cost of bread, maize, rice and dairy products.

Record world prices for most staple foods have led to 18% food price inflation in China, 13% in Indonesia and Pakistan, and 10% or more in Latin America, Russia and India, according to the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO). Wheat has doubled in price, maize is nearly 50% higher than a year ago and rice is 20% more expensive, says the UN. Next week the FAO is expected to say that global food reserves are at their lowest in 25 years and that prices will remain high for years.

Last week the Kremlin forced Russian companies to freeze the price of milk, bread and other foods until January 31, for fear of a public backlash with a parliamentary election looming. "The price of goods has risen sharply and that has hit the poor particularly hard," said Oleg Savelyev, of the Levada Centre polling institute.

India, Yemen, Mexico, Burkina Faso and several other countries have had, or been close to, food riots in the last year, something not seen in decades of low global food commodity prices. Meanwhile, there are shortages of beef, chicken and milk in Venezuela and other countries as governments try to keep a lid on food price inflation."



This might lead to potentially dangerous situations !



People grumble about Oil Prices,


BUT THEY WOULD RIOT IF THERE IS A SEVERE FOOD CRISIS !



And it seems almost all nations are getting hit.