	Generational Dynamics
	Forecasting America's Destiny ... and the World's

\| HOME \| WEB LOG \| COUNTRY WIKI \| COMMENT \| FORUM \| DOWNLOADS \| ABOUT \|

Generational Dynamics Web Log for 26-Feb-08
UN World Food Program to institute food rationing

Web Log - February, 2008

UN World Food Program to institute food rationing

Surging food prices are causing food riots around the world.

Related Articles

Food Prices
Food rationing comes to the United States: After years of price rises, mainstream media is finally recognizing there's a problem.... (24-Apr-08)

Food panics and riots spread around the world: The unending sharp price wheat, corn and rice prices are destabilizing nations.... (9-Apr-08)

UN World Food Program to institute food rationing: Surging food prices are causing food riots around the world.... (26-Feb-08)

Wheat price rises blocked by commodities market price increase limits: American wheat stockpiles are lowest since just after World War II.... (9-Feb-08)

Wheat prices surge above $10 per bushel, sparking little concern: World food stocks dwindling rapidly, according to the UN.... (23-Dec-07)

UN expert calls biofuels a "crime against humanity": Separately, Oxfam says that biofuels won't work, and they "trample" poor people.... (7-Nov-07)

United Nations warns of social unrest as food prices continue meteoric climb: With world wheat prices now up 60% since January, countries are panicking... (08-Sep-07)

World wheat prices up 30% since May on panic buying: Wheat prices hit an all-time record high, as stocks are low, and poor weather... (25-Aug-07)

The global warming fad is becoming the enemy of food production.: Food prices are continuing to increase sharply around the world.... (16-Jul-07)

Price of food is skyrocketing in India and China: In fact, crop prices are increasing around the world,... (11-Apr-07)

In Mexico, violent crime from drug cartels increases with tortilla prices: After Acapulco incident, Canada may advise citizens not to travel to Mexico.... (8-Feb-07)

UN World Food Program will cut Darfur humanitarian rations in half: This continuing genocide is a very sad situation, but it can't be stopped.... (29-Apr-06)

In a new bizarre move, North Korea demands an end to U.N. food aid: The famine-stricken country officially told the UN World Food Program... (26-Sep-05)

Food prices continue to increase dramatically around the world: Hunger, poverty and starvation are spreading to increasing masses of people around the world,... (10-Aug-05)
China appears to be approaching a major civil war : Unrest is spreading, and economic disparities make China a textbook case for a massive civil war in the making (16-Jan-2005)
Green Revolution vs Malthus Effect: Despite the "Green Revolution," world population continues to grow faster than food production. This is one of the fundamental reasons why wars occur. (28-Jun-2004)

It will be no surprise to the regular readers of this web site that there's a real emergency going on in the world, and I'm not referring to the fad "emergencies" like climate change.

Food prices around the world continue to surge uncontrollably. Overall, prices of food are up 40% in the last year. This may not mean much to most Americans, since food is a relatively small part of the American budget. But in places where average earnings are less than a dollar a day, this throws more people into starvation.

UPDATE: After this article was posted, wheat prices have hit fresh highs. Wheat on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) rose the maximum 90 cents allowed to $11.99 a bushel. (The 30 cent limit that I mentioned recently has been increased to 90 cents.) And Financial Times reports that prices of top-quality wheat jumped 25 per cent on Monday in Kazakhstan, a central Asian country that's one of the world's largest exporters of wheat. (This paragraph added on Feb 26.)

The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) is responsible for distributing food to world regions hit by war, natural disaster, or poverty.

However, food prices have been rising so rapidly, that the WFP's budget requirements have been rising by tens of millions of dollars PER WEEK.

According to the WFP's Josette Sheeran, we're "seeing a new face of hunger in which people are being priced out of the food market" with hunger now "affecting a wide range of countries", pointing to Indonesia, Yemen and Mexico in particular.

According to news reports, food riots have broken out in Morocco, Yemen, Mexico, Guinea, Mauritania, Senegal and Uzbekistan. Pakistan has reintroduced rationing for the first time in two decades. Russia has frozen the price of milk, bread, eggs and cooking oil for six months. Thailand is also planning a freeze on food staples. After protests around Indonesia, Jakarta has increased public food subsidies. India has banned the export of rice except the high-quality basmati variety.

There's little doubt that this can go on much longer. One of the features of the modern world is the success of modern medicine, and the reduction of the infant mortality rate, from 40-50% in the early 1800s to 1-2% today. This has created huge masses of young people around the world, often packed into huge "megacities," each containing tens of millions of people with no access to farmland. Families in poverty in those cities often survive by foraging in large garbage dumps for scraps of food left over by people who can afford to buy food. With the worldwide price of wheat doubling in the last year, and other food prices increasing as well, there are probably tens of millions more people in the world each month who have to forage through garbage dumps. Each month, more and more men are unable to feed themselves and their families, and their only choice for survival will be either mass rebellion or to join the army and go to war.

What never ceases to amaze me is how little attention this problem gets. We've just spent the weekend listening to the most bilious nonsense about whether it's plagiarism to quote someone who quoted the words, "We hold these truths to be self-evident." Can you think of a more moronic and fatuous debate?

But not a word about what is undoubtedly the greatest emergency in the world today -- the increasing starvation of millions of people, and the resulting instability.

From the point of view of Generational Dynamics, the world is headed for a "clash of civilizations" world war, with absolutely certainty, and it's just possible that it will be launched somewhere because a "tipping point" was passed in the growing price of food. (26-Feb-08) Permanent Link
Receive daily World View columns by e-mail
Donate to Generational Dynamics via PayPal

Web Log Pages

Current Web Log

Generational Dynamics Web Log for 26-Feb-08 UN World Food Program to institute food rationing

Web Log Pages

Generational Dynamics Web Log for 26-Feb-08
UN World Food Program to institute food rationing