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IT’S HARD TO STOMACH

• 800 million people are struggling to find their daily bread
• In Bangladesh a kilo of rice 56 cents, a day’s wages $1
• Children are fainting in school because they have not eaten in days
• Four children die from hunger every 30 seconds

EACH NIGHT MORE THAN 300 MILLION CHILDREN GO TO BED HUNGRY

An emerging global food crisis threatens to widen this tragedy by forcing an additional 100 million people into extreme poverty.

Knowing that children are going without food for one day is bad enough, but knowing that, because of the global food crisis, children are going without food for days on end is simply too hard to stomach.

Here in Australia we may be feeling the pinch of having to pay a few cents more for petrol and food, but it is those who already struggle to live on less than a dollar a day that are paying the worst price of all—the inability to feed their children.

WHAT IS THE GLOBAL FOOD CRISIS?

Like a ‘silent tsunami‘ the global food crisis has caught the world off-guard and left millions of people struggling to survive.

Throughout almost every region of the developing world people are experiencing localised food insecurity, lack of access to food, or shortfalls in production or supplies. According to the World Bank, in the last three years global food prices have increased overall by 83 per cent. In many developing countries the cost of food staples like rice, wheat and corn has more than doubled in the last 12 months.

One sixth of the world’s population, nearly one billion people, already live on less than $1 day—the common measure of absolute poverty. Of those, 162 million struggle to survive on less than 50 cents a day. Rising food prices have the greatest effect on those people already struggling with food insecurity who spend 60 per cent or more of their income on food. According to the Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organisation Jacques Diouf, there are now over 862 million people in the world without adequate access to food.

UPDATE ON THE GLOBAL FOOD CRISIS

Partly due to the global economic downturn, food prices have started to drop slightly after record spikes during 2008. However, it is expected that prices will remain substantially higher than pre-2005 levels and will continue to cause families living in poverty to decrease both the quantity and quality of nutrition.

As global economies begin to recover again, pricing pressures—particularly in developing nations—could even accelerate. Any decrease in food prices will most likely take longer to flow through and make a difference to the poor and will be less substantial than those seen in the markets of developed nations. The current macro-economic environment may be therefore be providing some broad temporary relief, but not a permanent reprieve from food price inflation, particularly for the poor.

Why is it happening?

All these factors converge to reduce the supply of staple foods like rice and wheat, making everyday food unaffordable for millions of people already living in poverty.

• Record high oil and fuel prices
• Natural disasters, including floods and drought
• A lack of adequate investment in the development of agriculture in developing countries
• The fluctuation in value of the US dollar
• Production of biofuels
• Increased speculation in the commodity markets
• Unfair trade practices
• Increased meat consumption
• A decrease in cereal reserves
• Food export controls
• Increasing urbanisation

Source : http://www.globalfoodcrisis.com.au