Famine/Water Crises

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Is starvation the next big die-off?...

Tensions rise as world faces short rations
Sun Mar 30, 2008 WASHINGTON/PARIS (Reuters) - Food prices are soaring, a wealthier Asia is demanding better food and farmers can't keep up. In short, the world faces a food crisis and in some places it's already boiling over.

Around the globe, people are protesting and governments are responding with often counterproductive controls on prices and exports -- a new politics of scarcity in which ensuring food supplies is becoming a major challenge for the 21st century. Plundered by severe weather in producing countries and by a boom in demand from fast-developing nations, the world's wheat stocks are at 30-year lows. Grain prices have been on the rise for five years, ending decades of cheap food.

Drought, a declining dollar, a shift of investment money into commodities and use of farm land to grow fuel have all contributed to food woes. But population growth and the growing wealth of China and other emerging countries are likely to be more enduring factors. World population is set to hit 9 billion by 2050, and most of the extra 2.5 billion people will live in the developing world. It is in these countries that the population is demanding dairy and meat, which require more land to produce.

"This is an additional setback for the world economy, at a time when we are already going through major turbulence. But the biggest drama is the impact of higher food prices on the poor," Angel Gurria, head of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD, told Reuters. In Gurria's native Mexico, tens of thousands took to the streets last year over the cost of tortillas, a national staple whose price rocketed in tandem with the price of corn (maize).

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Makin' money off water...

Trickle of water sector IPOs seen increasing
Tue Apr 15, 2008 - With investor thirst for companies in the water purification sphere sparking a wave of acquisitions in recent years, more privately held companies in the sector are likely to go public in hopes of boosting their value.

Sparked by growing concerns over clean water shortages, the increased infrastructure needs of developing countries, more stringent regulations and an aging U.S. water distribution system, water companies have become prized targets. Private equity firms and other large players like General Electric Co, Dow Chemical Co and 3M Co have scooped up many water purification equipment makers with the most promising growth prospects within the fragmented water industry.

"With the intensity of interest in the (sector) there are certainly drivers for companies to go public," said Steve Maxwell managing director of Techknowledgey Strategic Group (TSG), which provides consulting and advisory services to the environmental industry. In the near term, consolidation has narrowed investment opportunities, but in the long run the sector is likely to see more new entrants, said Philippe Rohner, a fund manager at Pictet, which manages about $4 billion in the water industry.

Globally, the industry generates about $450 billion in annual revenues, with most coming from water utilities, and only about one-tenth, or $45 billion, pumped out of the water purification and allied services. The water utilities sector, largely regulated with a fixed rate structure, does not offer rapid growth prospects many investors seek.

More Trickle of water sector IPOs seen increasing | Special Coverage | Reuters

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Argentine farmers withhold food...

Argentine farmers close roads, withhold food
Mon., March. 31, 2008 - President pleads on 19th day of strike that left meat in short supply

President Cristina Fernandez on Monday urged striking Argentine farmers to end a 19-day national walkout after offering some concessions but refusing to roll back a disputed tax increase that sparked the farmbelt rebellion. Despite her nationally televised appeal, farm groups said the concessions were not enough and announced that they would continue the strike until at least until Wednesday. The walkout has emptied supermarket shelves of beef in this beef-loving nation. It also blocked key exports of soybeans, beef and wheat.

Fernandez told farmers she had no plans to roll back a new sliding scale of tax hikes on some farm exports, and joined Economy Minister Martin Lousteau in offering transport subsidies for distant farms and some new credit plans for dairy farmers, among other offers. “In the name of all Argentines, I ask you once and for all ... let the trucks go through,” Fernandez said, appealing too the farmers. “We are here to talk. We are open to dialogue.”

Small farmers complain that they have been unfairly hit by a March 11 presidential decree that hiked export taxes on soybeans from 35 percent to as much as 45 percent, and slapped new duties on other farm exports. Fernandez says the measure is intended to help stem rising inflation, which officially topped 9 percent last year despite independent projections it went above 15 percent.

More Argentine farmers withhold food - Americas - MSNBC.com

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U.S. farmers seen planting less corn this year
Mon., March. 31, 2008 WASHINGTON - Smaller crop could translate into higher grocery bills

Farmers are expected to plant less corn this year, which could mean higher continuing higher costs for consumers at the grocery store. Corn prices have skyrocketed in recent years, helped by the burgeoning ethanol industry, which turns the crop into fuel, and rising worldwide demand for food. The higher prices have hurt poultry, beef and pork companies, who use corn to feed their animals.

Farmers are expected to plant 86 million acres of corn this year, the Department of Agriculture predicted Monday, down 8 percent from 2007, when the amount of corn planted was the highest since World War II. The decreased supply could drive corn prices even higher — a cost for food producers that could be passed on to consumers.

According to the Agriculture Department, corn planting is expected to remain at historically high levels but could be down this year because of the high expense of growing corn and favorable prices for other crops, such as soybeans.

More U.S. farmers seen planting less corn this year - Food Inc. - MSNBC.com

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Famine a threat to security...

Hungry crowds spell trouble for world leaders
2 Apr 2008, "Is it not said 'A hungry man is an angry man'?" commented Simon Nkwenti, head of a teachers' union in Cameroon, after riots that killed dozens of people.

It is a proverb world leaders might do well to bear in mind as their impoverished populations struggle with food costs driven ever higher by record oil prices, weather and speculators trading in local market places. Anger over high food and fuel costs has spawned a rash of violent unrest across the globe in the past six months.

From the deserts of Mauritania to steamy Mozambique on Africa's Indian Ocean coast, people have taken to the streets. There have been "tortilla riots" in Mexico, villagers have clashed with police in India and hundreds of Muslims have marched for lower food prices in Indonesia. Governments have introduced price controls or cut custom duties to appease voters, but on streets of Africa, those voters want them to do more.

Over 300 people were arrested in some of the worst violence for years in normally calm Burkina, prompting the government to suspend custom duties on staple food imports. In Senegal, police raided a private TV station last Sunday after it repeatedly transmitted images of police beating demonstrators during an illegal protest over high food prices in Dakar.

There are several reasons for the spiraling cost of living. Record oil prices driven by strong demand and insecurity in major production areas have pushed up fuel pump costs, making anything that has to be transported to market more expensive. Rising consumption of livestock fodder and other foods by China and India, and the use of land and crops for biofuels have boosted demand. Erratic weather has trimmed harvests in some growing regions. Across the world, governments are facing the consequences.

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Hunger as a security threat...

Global Food Crisis Expected to Produce Social Unrest
April 03, 2008 - World Bank President Robert Zoellick says a global food crisis demands the immediate attention of world leaders.

"As financial markets have tumbled, food prices have soared," Zoellick said in a speech on Wednesday. He said the situation is not expected to get better any time soon -- and he is pushing what he calls a "new deal for global food policy." "Since 2005, the prices of staples have jumped 80 percent," Zoellick said on Wednesday. "Last month, the real price of rice hit a 19-year high; the real price of wheat rose to a 28-year high and almost twice the average price of the last 25 years." While that is good news for farmers, it is blow to vulnerable groups, including children, he said.

"The World Bank Group estimates that 33 countries around the world face potential social unrest because of the acute hike in food and energy prices. For these countries, where food comprises from half to three quarters of consumption, there is no margin for survival." Zoellick said the first step should be helping people with immediate needs. "The UN's World Food Program requires at least $500 million of additional food supplies to meet emergency calls. The United States, the European Union, Japan, and other (donor) countries must act now to fill this gap -- or many more people will suffer and starve," he said.

The World Food Program issued an emergency appeal last month, urging donor nations to fill "a critical funding gap" as it tries to meet the emergency needs of 3 million people a day in Darfur -- as well as 70 million people in some 80 other nations. The World Food Program blames the soaring cost of food and fuel for its shortfall. It said it is doing what it can to save money -- including making 80 percent of its food purchases in local and regional markets of the developing world. "In 2007 alone, we increased our local purchases by 30 percent," the WFP said. "This not only saves on food and transport costs but is a win for local farmers, helping to break the cycle of hunger at its root."

'Green revolution'

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Poor people can't afford to eat...

IMF head gives food price warning
Sunday, 13 April 2008 - The head of the IMF, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, warns of mass starvation if world food prices keep rising.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn said that social unrest from continuing food price inflation could cause conflict. There have been food riots recently in a number of countries, including Haiti, the Philippines and Egypt. Meeting in Washington, the IMF called for strong action on food prices and the international financial crisis.

Market turmoil

Although the problems in global credit markets were the main focus of the meeting of the IMF's steering committee of finance minister from 24 countries, Mr Strauss-Kahn warned of dire consequences from continued food price rises. "Thousands, hundreds of thousands of people will be starving. Children will be suffering from malnutrition, with consequences for all their lives," he told reporters.

He said the problem could lead to trade imbalances that may eventually affect developed nations, "so it is not only a humanitarian question". Food prices have risen sharply in recent months, driven by increased demand, poor weather in some countries and an increase in the use of land to grow crops for transport fuels.

The steering committee also called for "strong action" among its 185 members to deal with "the still unfolding financial market turmoil and... the potential worsening" of housing markets and the credit crunch. The finance ministers did not dissent from the IMF's previous forecast that only a moderate slowdown in world economic growth is the most likely outcome over the next year or two.

BBC NEWS | Business | IMF head gives food price warning

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Food Shortages Herald "New Era Of Hunger"
April 12, 2008 - As More Countries Suffer Riots Over Rising Prices And Shortages Of Staples, Aid Groups Call For Relief

A third day of riots in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, had by Friday paralyzed the city with looting and violence. The toll includes a U.N. soldier who has been shot and killed in the capital while delivering food to his unit. U.N. Mission spokeswoman Sophie Boutaud de la Combe said the soldier was shot Saturday afternoon and that he was a member of a 1,000-strong unit that deals with riots. She said U.N. troops did not exchange fire, but had no further details.

The demonstrations began earlier in the week, in protest against rising food prices, and turned into riots. The looting has made access to food even more difficult, doing little to ease widespread hunger among Haitians. Port-au-Prince hospitals were filled with people injured in the riots, being treated by volunteers from the organization Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders).

Wagner Pierre, who works for Medecins Sans Frontieres, said many of the wounds they were seeing were a result of bullets. "In the last 4 days we have received 160 wounded, 40 of which were from gun bullet wounds," said Wagner. Many of the injured were bystanders caught in crossfire, like David Saint Felix, who was wounded in the leg during the protests. "I was passing through the Haitian marine base looking for my brother who was in the protests, when I was hit with a bullet in my leg," said Saint Felix.

The fighting across the capital was punctuated with calls for the Haitian president's resignation. This afternoon, a Haitian senator said that parliament has voted to dismiss Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis. President Rene Preval announced a drop in the price of rice Saturday in a bid to defuse anger over rising food prices.

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Hunger's threat to global stability...

How Hunger Could Topple Regimes
Friday, Apr. 11, 2008 - The idea of the starving masses driven by their desperation to take to the streets and overthrow the ancien regime has seemed impossibly quaint since capitalism triumphed so decisively in the Cold War.

Since then, the spectacle of hunger sparking revolutionary violence has been the stuff of Broadway musicals rather than the real world of politics. And yet, the headlines of the past month suggest that skyrocketing food prices are threatening the stability of a growing number of governments around the world. Ironically, it may be the very success of capitalism in transforming regions previously restrained by various forms of socialism that has helped create the new crisis.

Haiti is in flames as food riots have turned into a violent challenge to the vulnerable government; Egypt's authoritarian regime faces a mounting political threat over its inability to maintain a steady supply of heavily subsidized bread to its impoverished citizens; Cote D'Ivoire, Cameroon, Mozambique, Uzbekistan, Yemen and Indonesia are among the countries that have recently seen violent food riots or demonstrations. World Bank president Robert Zoellick noted last week that world food prices had risen 80% over the past three years, and warned that at least 33 countries face social unrest as a result.

The sociology of the food riot is pretty straightforward: The usually impoverished majority of citizens may acquiesce to the rule of detested corrupt and repressive regimes when they are preoccupied with the daily struggle to feed their children and themselves, but when circumstances render it impossible to feed their hungry children, normally passive citizens can very quickly become militants with nothing to lose. That's especially true when the source of their hunger is not the absence of food supplies but their inability to afford to buy the available food supplies. And that's precisely what we're seeing in the current wave of global food-price inflation. As Josette Sheeran of the U.N. World Food Program put it last month, "We are seeing food on the shelves but people being unable to afford it."

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Finance Ministers Emphasize Food Crisis Over Credit Crisis
April 14, 2008 WASHINGTON - The world’s economic ministers declared on Sunday that shortages and skyrocketing prices for food posed a potentially greater threat to economic and political stability than the turmoil in capital markets.

The ministers, conferring in the shadow of a slumping American economy that threatens to pull down the economies of other countries, turned their attention to the food crisis and called on the wealthiest countries to fulfill pledges to help prevent starvation and disorder in Asia, Africa and Latin America. “Throughout the weekend we have heard again and again from ministers in developing countries and emerging economies that this is a priority issue,” said Robert B. Zoellick, president of the World Bank. “We have to put our money where our mouth is now, so that we can put food into hungry mouths. It is as stark as that.”

Mr. Zoellick said that almost half of the $500 million that the World Food Program recently requested in additional pledges for food aid this year had been committed, but that the program would not meet a deadline of raising the money by May 1. The World Food Program seeks the aid, on top of nearly $3 billion already committed, because of shortfalls in food distribution resulting from higher prices.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, said the food crisis posed questions about the survivability of democracy and political regimes. “As we know in the past, sometimes those questions lead to war,” he said. “We now need to devote 100 percent of our time to these questions.” World Bank and I.M.F. officials noted that political instability had already hit countries as disparate as Haiti, Egypt, the Philippines and Indonesia because of food shortages, forcing some countries to limit food exports.

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Hunger riots in Haiti...

Food Prices Spur Violence, Hunger Fears
WASHINGTON Apr 14, 2008 World Bank President Asks Nations for $500M for the U.N. Food Program

The president of the World Bank urged immediate action to deal with mounting food prices that have caused hunger and deadly violence in several countries. Sunday said the international community has "to put our money where our mouth is" and act now to help hungry people. "It is as stark as that." He called on governments to rapidly carry out commitments to provide the U.N. World Food Program with $500 million in emergency aid it needs by May 1.

He said the bank is granting an additional $10 million to Haiti for feeding programs, "and I understand others are looking to help." "It is critical that governments confirm their commitments as soon as possible and others begin to commit," Zoellick said. Prices have only risen further since the WFP issued that appeal, so it is urgent that governments step up, he said.

After a meeting of the bank's policy-setting committee, Zoellick said that the fall of the government in Haiti over the weekend after a wave of deadly rioting and looting over food prices underscores the importance of quick international action. A U.N. police officer was killed Saturday in Haiti's capital. Zoellick said that international finance meetings are "often about talk," but he noted a "greater sense of intensity and focus" among ministers; now, he said, they have to "translate it into greater action."

More ABC News: Food Prices Spur Violence, Hunger Fears

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Unrest spreads as food prices skyrocket...

Riots, instability spread as food prices skyrocket
14 Apr.`08 - Rise in food prices is "the world's big story," development official warns; World Bank chief warns that rise in prices could set anti-poverty efforts back; Crisis also spurs debate on whether ethanol production is to blame; Riots have occurred in numerous countries recently

Riots from Haiti to Bangladesh to Egypt over the soaring costs of basic foods have brought the issue to a boiling point and catapulted it to the forefront of the world's attention, the head of an agency focused on global development said Monday. "This is the world's big story," said Jeffrey Sachs, director of Columbia University's Earth Institute.

"The finance ministers were in shock, almost in panic this weekend," he said on CNN's "American Morning," in a reference to top economic officials who gathered in Washington. "There are riots all over the world in the poor countries ... and, of course, our own poor are feeling it in the United States." World Bank President Robert Zoellick has said the surging costs could mean "seven lost years" in the fight against worldwide poverty.

"While many are worrying about filling their gas tanks, many others around the world are struggling to fill their stomachs, and it is getting more and more difficult every day," Zoellick said late last week in a speech opening meetings with finance ministers. "The international community must fill the at least $500 million food gap identified by the U.N.'s World Food Programme to meet emergency needs," he said. "Governments should be able to come up with this assistance and come up with it now."

The White House announced Monday evening that an estimated $200 million in emergency food aid would be made available through the U.S. Agency for International Development. "This additional food aid will address the impact of rising commodity prices on U.S. emergency food aid programs, and be used to meet unanticipated food aid needs in Africa and elsewhere," the White House said in a news release.

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Fat cats not worried...

Investors undismayed by looming Africa food crisis
Tue Apr 15, 2008 - Africa may be facing serious social unrest from rising food prices that could starve its poorest, but some investors remain enthusiastic over a continent whose economic fate is increasingly tied to China not the West.

Even as aid agencies sound alarm bells over an "economic tsunami" from high global food prices, several new investment tools were started this month to let investors track African equity market growth. April saw the public launch of the Duet Victoire Africa Index, a $30 million fund tracking sub-Saharan equity markets outside South Africa, while index provider Standard & Poor's launched three of their own Africa share indices.

South Africa's Standard Bank has seen its Africa equity fund grown from $20 million last September to $280 million today as investors poured in cash, and is planning another $300 million African corporate debt fund. Despite recent food riots in Cameroon, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia and Madagascar, conflicts in Sudan's Darfur, Somalia and east Congo and continuing economic chaos in Zimbabwe, some clearly see long-term rewards worth the significant risks.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said at the weekend it saw 6.5 percent economic growth in Africa in 2008, only a marginal fall from 6.6 percent in 2007 and powered mainly by growth in oil exporting nations such as Nigeria and Angola. Africa's expected resilience is rooted in the same phenomenon causing the food crisis -- the seemingly counter-cyclical boom in energy and commodity markets.

More Investors undismayed by looming Africa food crisis | Special Coverage | Reuters

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UN food reserves gettin' tight...

U.N. food aid agency's gap grows, ration cuts loom
Fri Apr 18, 2008 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Surging crop prices have helped widen the World Food Program's funding gap to around $750 million this year, and the U.N. food aid agency warned it may have to cut rations for hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren if new donations don't materialize soon.

In February, WFP announced it needed extra donations to help cover a $500 million shortfall, driven by soaring food and fuel costs, and avoid cutting back food aid deliveries in 2008. Since then, costs have spiked even more even as tight crop supplies and high food prices intensify hunger, WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran said on Friday, bringing the total shortfall for this year to $755 million.

World prices for rice, wheat and other staple crops have soared to historic highs in recent months; the price the agency pays for rice jumped 70 percent in the last six weeks. The crop crunch is compounded by high fuel prices -- U.S. crude oil hit a record $117 a barrel on Friday -- that make it more costly to transport food.

"The world's misery index is rising," Sheeran warned in a speech that laid out a grim portrait of global food insecurity: The most vulnerable people in already poor countries, many of them overall food importers, skipping meals or choosing less nutritious meals for their children. The run-up in commodity prices, rooted in growing biofuel output, rising incomes, and poor weather, has been simmering for several years, but exploded in the past nine months.

More U.N. food aid agency's gap grows, ration cuts loom | International | Reuters

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U.N. Food Agency Needs $750 Million More To Feed Hungry People
April 19, 2008 - The United Nations World Food Program needs over $750 million more to meet its commitment to feed 73 million of the world's hungry people this year.

In February, 2008, the WFP announced that it required $500 million more to carry out its efforts, but surging food prices have led the UN food agency to revise that figure up to $756 million, a U.N. press statement said.

The WFP earlier appealed $2.9 billion for this to implement its commitment across the world. So far, $900 million has been received toward its original appeal. The cost of rice in Thailand swelled from $460 per ton on March 3 to $780 five weeks later, according to the statement.

The WFP also warned that prices could rice even higher. "We are not looking at a picture anymore, we are watching a movie," the agency's Christiane Berthiaume told reporters in Geneva on Friday, according to a statement.

U.N. Food Agency Needs $750 Million More To Feed Hungry People | April 19, 2008 | AHN

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The war over water may be the next mid-east war...

Report: Israel must resolve water crisis
April 19 (UPI) -- Israel is having a serious water shortage that must be resolved with speedy action, an Israel Water Authority official said.

Israel's Water Authority head Uri Shani said if the demand-supply gap isn't closed, all of Israel's water supply will fall below the "red lines" by 2013 and the country will have to substantially increase the amount of water it obtains through desalination.

Israel's government has opened a platform for offers to construct a new desalination facility, U.N. Integrated Regional Information Networks reported. Officials said numerous other plants are set to be built in years to come.

A non-governmental organization, Israeli Union for Environmental Defense, said it is considering telling the courts to make the state put more money into conservation efforts, as it said it would five years ago. "We are not opposed to desalination, but only as part of a wider plan," spokesman Aviad Oren said.

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'Silent Tsunami': The Food Price Crisis
April 20, 2008 - Millions of People Worldwide Face Starvation Because of Rising Food Prices

The surge in global food prices could set back the world's anti-poverty efforts and if the problem is not dealt with it could hurt global growth and security, warned United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. "The problem of global food prices could mean seven lost years ... for the Millennium Development Goals," Ki-moon said at a U.N. trade and development conference in Accra, Ghana, in west Africa, referring to the eight goals set by the international organization to improve the lives of people around the world by 2015.

"If not handled properly, this crisis could result in a cascade of others ... and become a multidimensional problem affecting economic growth, social progress and even political security around the world," Ki-moon said. The secretary-general is just the latest to sound the growing alarm over the effect that rising food prices is having around the world. The heads of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have also spoken out in recent weeks, calling for the leaders of the world's developed nations to increase their aid to global anti-poverty efforts like the U.N.'s World Food Program.

Rioting in Haiti brought the issue into sharp focus, but for weeks, tens of thousands of hungry people have been lining up for U.N. food handouts all around the world, from Latin America to Africa and Asia. In parts of Asia the problem is already so bad that rice is now guarded by military escort. According to the World Food Program, at least 850 million people are desperately hungry. "The world's misery index is rising," UN World Food Program executive director Josette Sheeran said. "(It is) a silent tsunami that respects no borders -- most don't know what hit them."

More ABC News: 'Silent Tsunami': The Food Price Crisis