World warned of ‘food crunch’ threat
The world faces “the real risk of a food crunch” if governments do not take immediate action to address the agricultural impact of climate change and water scarcity, according to an authoritative report out on Monday.
Chatham House, the London-based think-tank, suggests that the recent fall in food prices is only a temporary reprieve and that prices are set to resume their upward trend once the world emerges from the current downturn.
“There is therefore a real risk of a ‘food crunch’ at some point in the future, which would fall particularly hard on import-dependent countries and on poor people everywhere,” the report states. “Food prices are poised to rise again,” it adds.
The warning is made as agriculture ministers and United Nations officials gather from Monday in Madrid for a UN meeting on food security likely to conclude that last year’s food crisis, with almost 1bn people hungry, is far from over.
The UN will warn ministers in
The prices of agricultural commodities such as rice and wheat jumped to a record high last year, triggering food riots from
The cost of food commodities had fallen since then, but Alex Evans, the
Josette Sheeran, head of the UN’s World Food Programme, said she was expecting that this year would be at least as “challenging” as last year, when the number of undernourished rose by 40m to 963m people. “We are not seeing an alleviation of the hunger pressure,” she told the Financial Times…….
The report recommends governments to invest more in agricultural production and an increase in international aid in this sphere, too.
● Containing global warming will require an additional €175bn in annual investment by 2020, according to a European Union draft paper, writes Joshua Chaffin in
The paper, which says much of the €175bn ($227bn, £167bn) investment will have to be borne by the developed world, also forecasts that tens of billions of euros (and £s) in spending will be needed to help poorer countries prepare for even moderate warming.
Some of the ways that the EU proposes to raise those funds include requiring developed nations to pay for their annual carbon emissions, and levying taxes on aviation and maritime transportation. The EU should also expand its emissions trading system into a global carbon market and explore the establishment of a multilateral insurance pool to help deal with natural disasters that result from global warming.
The final paper, to be released by the European Commission, the EU executive body, on Wednesday, sets out the bloc’s position ahead of negotiations in
By Javier Blas in
www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a3efea7e-eafc-11dd-bb6e-0000779fd2ac.html
Food Police Scheme – funded by you:
www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/4214024/Dont-throw-away-leftovers-warn-food-police.html
Jan. 27, 2009
Alan Watt "Cutting Through The Matrix" LIVE on RBN:
Science and the 'Natural Aristocracy': and
Jan. 28, 2009
Alan Watt "Cutting Through The Matrix" LIVE on RBN:
One Ring to Bind Them All:
www.cuttingthroughthematrix.com