Posted on 04/08/2008 6:58:23 PM PDT by blam
Food riots could spread, UN chief warns
By Gary Cleland
Last Updated: 1:49am BST 09/04/2008
Rising food prices could threaten political stability around the world, the UN's leading humanitarian official said yesterday.
Sir John Holmes, the undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs and the UN's emergency relief co-ordinator, was speaking after two days of rioting in Egypt over the soaring cost of basic foodstuffs.
He told a conference in Dubai that rising prices would spark unrest across vulnerable nations. Average prices have risen 40 per cent across the world in less than a year.
Sir John said: "The security implications should also not be underestimated as food riots are already being reported across the globe.
"Current food price trends are likely to increase sharply both the incidence and depth of food insecurity."
As well as the riots in Egypt, rising food costs have been blamed for violent unrest in Haiti, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Mauritania, Mozambique and Senegal. Protests have also occurred in Uzbekistan, Yemen, Bolivia and Indonesia.
China, India, Pakistan, Cambodia and Vietnam have curbed rice exports to ensure there is enough for their own people.
Experts believe food insecurity should be treated as seriously as climate change.
LOL. This journalist passed his test. (Find some way to work 'Global Warming/Climate Change' into your stories)
The tortilla corn chips that I like went up 17% this week.
Wait till you see the price of Pizza soon.
Mayhap if the UN gave back all the Trillions of dollars they have stolen, this situation would disappear.
“Experts believe food insecurity should be treated as seriously as climate change.”
If climate change weren’t being taken so seriously food prices wouldn’t be rising!
So let’s forget about climate change so people can eat!!!!
Corn ethanol = burning food. No surprise prices are up.
The sooner we are able to once again exploit the most abundant and efficient fuel on the planet and abandon this notion that we should put our food supply in our gas tanks, the better I will like it.
That’s right. The US Congress and the President’s signature pretty much sealed the deal.
Feed me first, I will worry about world climate change later.
You mean to say that these governments are looking out for the interests of their own citizens?
That's no fare.
Look out when hungry people realize they're competing with your automobile for their food.
Even more directly, it's burning perfectly good Moonshine.
If they could just put the Jews on the other side of the dinning hall from the Arabs at the UN.
Amazing. The hoax of "climate change" is in part responsible for the emphasis on energy-inefficient biofuels being promoted as an alternative to oil. So the price of grain/food rises and we are doubly screwed. Lord save us from the ecotards who have generated the food crisis.
Funny,, in the week that Charlton Heston died, we have food riots in the news, in the context of a “warming planet”
SOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE!!!!!!!
I have noticed that my favorite brand of frozen pizza has gone up by about 40%.
“Feed me first, I will worry about world climate change later.”
EXACTLY!!!!
It’s so ironic that climate change legislation is causing people to starve!
This idea that we need to kill ourselves to save ourselves from the death of climate change is ludicrous.
Al Gore makes me sick!
Maybe if we weren’t burning food to fuel cars....
Food fight.
Hopefully there was no unrest around the buffet tables...
"Crowds of demonstrators in Haiti have tried to storm the presidential palace in the capital Port-au-Prince as protests continue over food prices. "
Food insecurity is partially attributable to the climate change follies.
God help those cruise ships if they decide to take them hostage. All that food.....
There’s plenty of countries that could grow their own food if the corrupt dictators that run them would leave everyone alone. The UN could help with that, No?
Maybe that’s why Somali pirates hijacked that French yacht, they were hungry!
“There’s plenty of countries that could grow their own food if the corrupt dictators that run them would leave everyone alone. The UN could help with that, No?”
That’s like asking a pedophile to work at a day care.
I love those Tree Tavern Pizza’s. No frills but just good pizza. Try one if you can. Large pizza’s, about 8 slices, are going for around $16.00 now. Up from $10.00 last year.
I once heard something on NPR stating that the UN and EU refuse to let genetically modified crops be planted in Africa....stuff that would flourish there. I heard that and stopped caring about all that nonsense. If all these problems were solved by good thinking, then all of the Non Government Organizations wouldnt need all those bureaucrats and monies.
Maybe if the Muddled-East would drop the price of a barrel of oil we wouldn’t be burning up food in gas tanks.
No Food For Oil!
It goes the other way, too.
Petroleum goes into running farm equipment and making pesticides.
So not only do we turn food into fuel, we also turn fuel into food.
With oil at $100+ a barrel, food prices have to go up.
This is caused by the mid-east raising the price of oil to where fuel made from food is competitive with the price of oil.
Why should we sell corn for food when we can get more for it by turning it to fuel?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.