U.N. Chief to Prod Nations On Food Crisis

[ensho]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/01/AR2008060101963.html


U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will issue an urgent plea to world leaders at a food summit in Rome on Tuesday to immediately suspend trade restrictions, agricultural taxes and other price controls that have helped fuel the highest food prices in 30 years, according to U.N. officials.

Ban is seeking to prod more than two dozen nations that have imposed such measures in the current crisis to reverse course, saying their actions have driven prices higher. The United Nations will also urge the United States and other nations to consider phasing out subsidies for food-based biofuels -- such as ethanol -- and to hammer out a pact with poor countries that would reduce agricultural tariffs and subsidies that have harmed poor farmers.

The immediate goal of the June 3-5 summit will be to secure a massive flow of assistance to the world's hungriest people and to ensure that subsistence farmers across the globe will have the seeds and fertilizers they need to plant their crops this season. World Bank President Robert B. Zoellick on Thursday announced the lending agency would issue $1.2 billion in financing for agricultural support, including $200 million in grants to help the world's poorest countries, starting with Djibouti, Haiti and Liberia.
-snip-
--------------------------

the neo cons will never help Haiti because they like the way it is now. the neo cons made Haiti beyond poor.

----

http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/index.php?smp=&lang=eng


600 plus FAMILIES lose food source to severe hail storm


Over 600 families in Kitimbwa and Busaana sub-counties in Kayunga district are facing a food shortage following a hailstorm last Thursday that destroyed their crops. The storm, which lasted four hours, destroyed banana, maize, cassava, vanilla and rice gardens. Strong winds damaged houses, but no deaths were reported. Busaana sub-county chairman Matayo Wesonga has asked the Government to come to the victims" rescue. "We need urgent assistance from the Government. Many people are miserable with no food and shelter." Kayunga deputy resident district commissioner Deborah Mbabazi, who toured the affected areas on Friday, promised to ask the disaster preparedness ministry for relief. Mbabazi attributed the storm to deforestation, saying most of the trees in the affected areas have been cut down for charcoal and firewood. She advised locals to plant fast-maturing food crops since the rainy season had not ended yet, adding that they should also plant trees around their gardens and homes. In March, another hailstorm hit the district, destroying crops and houses in Busaana and Nazigo sub-counties.)
---------------------------


more and more with less and less

----

the other day in Manhattan, NYC, the soft ball sized hail broke many car windows.

[SpiralHawk]

1. "What's in it for us?" - Republicon crony corporations

[JDPriestly]

2. We have a people surplus and a food shortage.

We also have a fuel shortage. The human population has grown too large for the agricultural and fuel resources on this earth.

But no one wants to talk about birth control. We need cheap oil in order to produce enough food. Without fuel, farmers cannot farm efficiently. And most of the food that developed countries produce is grown by farmers who use pesticides and fertilizers manufactured either with petroleum products or that actually contain petroleum products.

The elephant in the room is the population explosion. The earth just cannot handle the demands of so many human beings on the planet at one time. We cut trees. We waste water. If the human population continues to grow as it is now growing, ultimately, no inch of the earth will be unmolested by humankind. We destroy --- everything.

We have to control our numbers otherwise nature will control them for us.