Famine

Plan B Updates -- Water Shortages Threaten Food Future in the Arab Middle East*

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Lester R. Brown
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Long after the political uprisings in the Middle East have subsided, many underlying challenges that are not now in the news will remain. Prominent among these are rapid population growth, spreading water shortages, and ever growing food insecurity.

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earth-policy.org

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Food Prices Continue to Rise, Worsening the Food Crisis

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Food Prices Continue to Rise, Worsening the Food Crisis
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The U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization reported in early March that food prices reached another record high, as the price of basic food staples continued to soar.  The Index indicated that wheat and coffee prices have doubled in the past 12 months, while cocoa jumped 25 percent in just two months.  Dairy prices were also up sharply.  The FAO warned that food prices could continue to rise unless crop conditions improve.  The food crisis, which has contributed to the political unrest in North Africa and the Middle East, has raised renewed concerns about global hunger.  John Bongaarts, t

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Population Institute

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World On The Edge: Quick Facts

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January 25, 2011

We are facing issues of near-overwhelming complexity and unprecedented urgency. Can we think systemically and fashion policies accordingly? Can we change direction before we go over the edge? Here are a few of the many facts from the book to consider:

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World On The Edge: Quick Facts

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Hunger Index Shows One Billion Without Enough Food

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By Ania Lichtarowicz Health reporter, BBC News

The number of undernourished people, especially children, has increased in recent years

One billion people in the world were undernourished in 2009, according to a new report.

The 2010 Global Hunger Index shows that child malnutrition is the biggest cause of hunger worldwide, accounting for almost half of those affected.

Countries in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia were shown to have the highest levels of hunger.

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22 Countries Face Food Crisis: UN Agencies

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The Associated Press

UN food agencies say persistent food crises are leaving 166 million people in 22 countries chronically hungry.

Wars, natural disasters and poor government institutions have contributed to a continuous state of undernourishment in countries such as Afghanistan, Haiti, Iraq, Somalia and Sudan, the Food and Agriculture Operation and the World Food Program said in a new report.

Other nations in protracted crises:

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Food crisis caused by biofuels?

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There are conflicting opinions over a World Bank report which suggests biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75%.

The original study in 2008 depicted a direct correlation between the spike in prices of food products and the increased global use of biofuels.

The report argued that: “Without the increase in biofuels, global wheat and maize stocks would not have declined appreciably and price increases due to other factors would have been moderate.”

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http://www.renewableenergyfocus.com/view/12053/food-crisis-caused-by-biofuels

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Rust In The Bread Basket

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Rust in the bread basketA crop-killing fungus is spreading out of Africa towards the world’s great wheat-growing areasJul 1st 2010IT IS sometimes called the “polio of agriculture”: a terrifying but almost forgotten disease. Wheat rust is not just back after a 50-year absence, but spreading in new and scary forms. In some ways it is worse than child-crippling polio, still lingering in parts of Nigeria. Wheat rust has spread silently and speedily by 5,000 miles in a decade. It is now camped at the gates of one of the world’s breadbaskets, Punjab.

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UN Says Poor Nations On Track To Cut Poverty

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By EDITH M. LEDERER (AP) – Jun 23, 2010 UNITED NATIONS — The global economic crisis has slowed the fight against poverty but the developing world is still on track to meet a key U.N. goal of halving the number of people living on less than $1 a day by 2015, according to a report released Wednesday. The U.N. report cited new World Bank estimates suggesting that the crisis left an additional 50 million people in extreme poverty in 2009 and will leave some 64 million impoverished by the end of 2010, primarily in sub-Saharan Africa and eastern and southeastern Asia.

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