Posted on 05/06/2008 1:28:44 PM PDT by blam
World food prices may worsen Burmese disaster
14:49 06 May 2008
NewScientist.com news service
Debora MacKenzie
As the scale of the disaster in Burma caused by Cyclone Nargis starts to emerge, relief agencies and rich countries are lining up to provide emergency aid. But with agencies already hit hard by soaring food prices, and Burma's own rice crop devastated, it is not clear where the relief will come from.
Nargis hit Burma on Saturday, bringing with it a reported oceanic storm surge more than 3 metres high, which is said to have destroyed some low-lying towns. The storm wreaked havoc throughout the heavily populated delta of the Irrawaddy River in the south, and hit the country's largest city, Rangoon.
Burma's military dictatorship today revised its earlier estimate of several hundred killed and admitted that at least 22,000 are dead – with thousands still missing. Many more people have been made homeless by the disaster.
"We have a major humanitarian catastrophe in our hands," Chris Kaye, head of the UN's World Food Programme in Burma, told journalists. "The numbers of people in need are still to be determined, but I'm sure we are talking hundreds and thousands."
Cash shortfall
But the WFP, the world's largest provider of food aid, is already struggling under huge rises in basic food prices over the past few months, including rice prices that have trebled since December.
The WFP depends entirely on voluntary donations. "Last year we estimated we would need $3.1 billion for 2008, but in March we told our donors we would be $500 million short," Caroline Hurford at the WFP headquarters in Rome, told New Scientist. "Now, with continued price rises, that's going to be $755 million."
(Excerpt) Read more at newscientist.com ...
Well, we can send money and ethanol!
I see that all of the editors received their food price/poor/starvation/death talking points from Howard Scream, today.
Thailand?
We can send Algore to explain why we are in this mess. He owes it to them — after all he is the Nobel Peace Prize recipient.
And vice-versa, the Burmese disaster may worsen world food prices. I heard most of their rice crop was destroyed.
"According to the latest rice statistics from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Thailand exports more milled rice by weight than any other country.
Frankly, that was my original thought when I heard about the cyclone passing through there...prices may depend on how much Thailand was affected though.
My feeling is that Thais are going to be introduced to the joys of Carolina Gold very very soon.
Before and after images:
http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/226227main_myanmarbothlabel_20080506_HI.jpg
The Thais already have their own version, and have a patent on Thai Jasmine Rice, and certain areas of the country are zoned rice production only and the farmers pay a special(higher) property tax on rice producing land.
Thailand was not affected by this Typhoon, outside of some clouds and showers, we are protected by 2 mountain ranges from storms out of the Indian Ocean in the main rice areas which are in the north
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