The hungry planet

[Briar]

The hungry planet
As stocks run out and harvests fail, the world faces its worst crisis for 30 years
By Geoffrey Lean

Food supplies are shrinking alarmingly around the globe, plunging the world into its greatest crisis for more than 30 years. New figures show that this year's harvest will fail to produce enough to feed everyone on Earth, for the sixth time in the past seven years. Humanity has so far managed by eating its way through stockpiles built up in better times - but these have now fallen below the danger level.

Food prices have already started to rise as a result, and threaten to soar out of reach of many of the 4.2 billion people who live in the world's most vulnerable countries. And the new "green" drive to get cars to run on biofuels threatens to make food even scarcer and more expensive.

The UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), which produce the world's two main forecasts of the global crop production, both estimate that this year's grain harvest will fall for the second successive year.

The FAO is still compiling its latest crop forecast - due to be published next month - but told The Independent on Sunday late last week that it looked like barely exceeding 2 billion tons, down from 2.38 billion last year, and 2.68 billion in 2004, although the world's appetite has continued to grow as its population rises.

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http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article1325467.ece

[orpupilofnature57]

1. Remember when we lead the World in these issues ,saving the world!

Shrubs biggest assault on our image is our ability to be generous.

[mcscajun]

2. This is what should be in headlines every month...how we stand

in resolving food shortages, water issues, poverty.

Unfortunately, articles like this surface and are buried, soon forgotten by all but the ones already working on the problem. The most basic issues of existence(!) and they have too little public interest, and too little political support. There's nothing "sexy" about food shortages, no "blood" (yet) to keep it on the front page.

Hard to think of Kissinger as a visionary. Wow. Too bad we've squandered the last twenty-plus years NOT resolving the problem.

On a purely selfish note, I'm glad I won't live past the next twenty years or so. What with food shortages, climate change, and water wars, the years following threaten to be bleak and harsh, indeed, on nearly every front. What a cheery thought for a sunny Sunday morning, eh?

[bhikkhu]

3. k&r

my thoughts exactly. I have a good 40 years to go myself, but if it were not for children to care for I could shorten it (as do many) by drinking more and starting smoking again. Having worried over the problems since Carter was in office, and seen everything consistently go in the wrong direction, it is hard not to expect massive suffering - the Olduvai Cliff, the Inevitable Malthusian Collapse, or what have you.

[MasonJar]

4. Our promises under Bush are words only. Look at his promise

(during the "bring 'em on") to Africa, to Polynesia after the monsoon and most significantly to New Orleans after Katrina. We allowed him to steal two elections. The Pugs were down in Florida during the recount, as was James "I gave Bush the election" Baker. Where were we? We cannot allow it to happen again.