By Larry Elliott, www.guardian.co.uk2 September 2012 The last decade saw the end of cheap oil, the magic growth ingredient for the global economy after the second world war. This summer’s increase in maize, wheat and soya bean prices – the third spike in the past five years – suggests the era of cheap food is […]
By Glenn Ashton28 August 2012 Food prices are rapidly heading toward new record territory, with far more at play than a simple drought in the US Midwest. There are serious implications, especially for nations with high rates of inequality and poverty. We will almost certainly face a potentially catastrophic, global scale famine in the next […]
By Larry Elliott, www.guardian.co.uk30 August 2012 The World Bank issued a global hunger warning last night after severe droughts in the US and eastern Europe sent food prices to a record high. Damage to crop harvests from exceptionally dry weather this year raised sharply the Bank’s food price index taking it above its peak in […]
By JEAN H. LEE, with additional reporting by Foster Klug30 August 2012 SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – Twin typhoons renewed fears of a humanitarian crisis in North Korea, where poor drainage, widespread deforestation and crumbling infrastructure can turn even a routine rainstorm into a catastrophic flood. Typhoon Bolaven struck the North on Tuesday and Wednesday, […]
27 July 2012 (Famine Early Warning System Network) – There are about 16 million people facing Stressed (IPC Phase 2) to Emergency (IPC Phase 4) levels of food insecurity in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan, Kenya, and Uganda. The main drivers of food insecurity in these countries are poor rains, conflict, high food prices, and […]
By Iona Craig, Special for USA TODAY21 July 2012 MARALI, Yemen – In this village under the sweltering summer heat of Yemen’s Red Sea coastal region, six women and a small boy huddle on the floor around a plate of watery tomato sauce mixed with fish remnants. Judging by his size, the boy looks about […]
By George Webster, CNN27 June 2012 (CNN) – At first glance, Austrian artist Klaus Pichler’s spell-binding photographs could be mistaken for a set of stylish advertisements. It takes a moment to digest — excuse the pun — that you’re staring at pictures of rotting food. Among them, a pineapple hangs suspended in negative space […]
By Rohit Kachroo, NBC News in Niger, West Africa19 June 2012 One-and-a-half-million children are in imminent danger of starvation in West Africa, according to The United Nations Children’s Fund, despite recent pledges of international aid. As world leaders gathered for the Rio+20 conference on sustainable development, aid workers warned there were only four weeks left […]
30 March 2012 (Médecins Sans Frontières) – The annual “hunger season” seems likely to be particularly serious in the Sahel this year, and a few particular regions may face acute nutritional crises in the coming months. Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is therefore expanding its nutritional activities to address the seasonal “peak” in malnutrition […]
By Eric Pfeiffer, The Sideshow4 April 2012 A new study from researchers at Jay W. Forrester’s institute at MIT says that the world could suffer from “global economic collapse” and “precipitous population decline” if people continue to consume the world’s resources at the current pace. [Here’s a pdf of Dr. Turner’s 2008 paper: “A comparison […]
