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Orwellian_Ghost (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Sun Mar-09-08 09:49 PMOriginal messageRiots, hoarding, panic: the sign of things to come? Advertisements [?]Already we have riots, hoarding, panic: the sign of things to come?Carl Mortished, World Business EditorThe spectre of food shortages is casting a shadow across the globe, causing riots in Africa, consumer protests in Europe and panic in food-importing countries. In a world of increasing affluence, the hoarding of rice and wheat has begun. The President of the Philippines made an unprecedented call last week to the Vietnamese Prime Minister, requesting that he promise to supply a quantity of rice....“This is a wake-up call,†said Robert Zeigler, who heads the International Rice Research Institute. “We have a crisis brewing in rice supply.†Half of the planet depends on rice but stocks are at their lowest since the mid1970s when Bangladesh suffered a terrible famine. Rice production will fall this year below the global consumption level of 430 million tonnes.Street protests and rioting in West Africa towards the end of last year were a harbinger of bigger problems, the World Food Programme said. The global information and early warning system of the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) has monitored outbreaks of rioting in Mexico, Morocco, Uzbekistan, Yemen, Guinea, Mauritania and Senegal. There have also been protests in Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, over government price increases.Population pressure and increased wealth are mainly to blame for the resurgence of food insecurity. More people are eating meat and dairy products in Asia, which increases the demand on the animal-feed industry. Milk powder prices rose from $2,000 to $4,800 per tonne last year as rising consumption of milk products in Asia coincided with shortages in the Western world. Drought in Australia has worsened the problem as have government policies in Europe and America to increase the use of biofuels....Wheat is suffering even greater pressures, with prices up 115 per cent in a year. A succession of droughts in Australia has put upward pressure on the cost of a food commodity that is already in short supply. Stocks are at a 40-year low and exports are being restricted from Beijing to Buenos Aires. Ukraine started closing its door to grain exports in June and Russia set a 40 per cent export tariff on wheat in January....http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/artic...Refresh | 3 Recommendations Printer Friendly | Permalink | Reply | Top
sleebarker Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Sun Mar-09-08 09:55 PMResponse to Original message1. The planet can't support six and a half billion humans and we just keep reproducing more and more.Any population that gets out of control meets the same fate - lack of food pares it down to a more manageable size.So - that whole abstinence only birth control is eeeevil thing working out for people? Printer Friendly | Permalink | Reply | Top
in search of sanity Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Sun Mar-09-08 10:00 PMResponse to Reply #13. Are you sure? I don't claim to know the optimum population for the planet but I do believe that the current problems are caused or at least exacerbated by switching the use of land from food crops to crops used in biodiesel.It was easily foreseeable and preventable. Printer Friendly | Permalink | Reply | Top
femrap Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Sun Mar-09-08 10:04 PMResponse to Reply #35. that's using corn.....not rice. Population has grown to the limits of this Earth....water is scarce as well. This has been coming for a very long time and no one would listen to POPULATION CONTROL...except the Chinese. Printer Friendly | Permalink | Reply | Top
femrap Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Sun Mar-09-08 10:01 PMResponse to Original message4. But we love fetuses! We must have more fetuses!Just watch...pretty soon some 'religion' will come along and say it's best to abort...the world is evil...send the fetuses to heaven where they will happy with God. I can hear it now. Printer Friendly | Permalink | Reply | Top
lonestarnot Donating Member (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Sun Mar-09-08 10:10 PMResponse to Original message7. It's not look'n good is it... :-( Printer Friendly | Permalink | Reply | Top
If they're so concerned about the planet you'd think they'd be willing to off themselves to help save it.Cindie
