There was an excellent cover story in La Presse this morning, by Stéphanie Bérubé on World Famine.
The rapidly escalating global food crisis has reached emergency proportions.
It is threatening to draw back at least seven years of progress in the fight against poverty. According to the U.N. World Food Program, 30 countries are presently experiencing accute food shortages, 18 of which are situated on the African Continent.
The price of wheat, milk and meat have doubled within the last year. And rice, coffee and soya are at a ten year high.
If we look at the figures, meat consumption requires at least 6 kilos of cereals for one kilo of meat. That's costly. At this point we are consuming more than we are able to produce. According to Paul Roberts, we could reduce 20-30% of our meat consumption without affecting our protein intake.
Meanwhile a billion human beings live on a dollar a day. And on that income, when prices explode, disaster can be expected. The U.N. will need to amass half a million in funds before the end of the month, without which some aid missions will have to be abandonned and the hungry, left to their own devices...
Protests erupted last week in Haiti over rising prices.
In Pakistan, police now have to escort shipments of food to commercial venues.
In Somalia, inflation has raised to 100 000% this past year and 80% of the population lives under the poverty index, the state of famine is on it's fifth year.
We'll all have to make some changes. Because eating the way we do today will no longer be possible.
In Canada if you eat less and exercise more.
Cances are you'll live longer.
Longer than some, at least.
For further reading:"Who will Feed China?" by Lester Brown
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Here is a question, as offices and supermarkets go green, i wonder how effective it is. Now that Styrofoam cups have been abolished, i see coworkers flooding their mugs with soap and water for up to a minute, then using tons of paper towels to clean it off. And all the plastic bags that we have to pay for in supermarkets.. we just need to buy bigger bags for the garbage. I guess every good thought may not always have a great outcome. But I think you blog is interesting and it's great that you are so active in helping out. I'd love to get involved at some point too - you are definitely inspiring. -k
Post a Comment