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The latest United Nations concern is the fear of a global food shortage. However, the U.N. and the United States are to blame for the crisis. It is interesting that food shortages in the world first became apparent over the last decade coinciding with the US-led effort to change the world's industry from growth to stagnation in an attempt to convert it to a green-based economy.

N.Korea 'Reverses Conventional Wisdom on Human Growth' A popular view in anthropology is that children born in late spring or early summer are taller than those born in late fall or early winter. Researchers from all over the world say it is a universal phenomenon regardless of race or region that height varies according to the time of birth. Anthropologists have not been able to find out why, but guess that the amount of sunshine has some effect on physical growth of human beings. However, research on children born in the early 1990s in North Korea produced results that are...

Sen Gregg’s statements about bankrupting the country and the path ahead being unsustainable for our children were very sobering. I trust his judgment and take him at his word. However, these statements sorely need to be expanded upon and put into practical terms. I know it would all be speculation, but what would it mean to me now, 10 years from now, 20 year or more down the road if the US went bankrupt? I am 39 years old and in my working life have really known nothing less than prosperity and growth. I know that I’ve heard complaints about...

If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their money, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.” -Thomas Jefferson Well we are now living in a time when we are being told that there is a shortage of oil and food. The demand for food and gasoline is up but the supply has not gone up and that means higher prices. It now costs 5$...

"Canine cuisine is being sent to the doghouse during next month's Beijing Olympic Games. Dog meat has been struck from the menus of officially designated Olympic restaurants and Beijing tourism officials are telling other outlets to discourage consumers from ordering dishes made from dogs, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Friday. "

Food riots. Scores of panicked people protesting, burning effigies and chanting. Shops being ransacked, supplies running out as soon as they come in, and stricken communities stockpiling rice, bread and water for fear of going without. These have happened in Haiti and Egypt in recent months as the price of scarce food has soared. But what if they happened on the streets of Bromley? Or Newcastle? Or Bath? As bizarre as this might seem, the prospect of UK food shortages has started to be taken seriously by food manufacturers and retailers. The global food shortage has raced to the top...

31,000 Signatures Prove ‘No Consensus’ About Global WarmingBRIEFING | BY MELINDA ZOSH - INTERN | MAY 22, 2008 Presidential candidate Barack Obama said on Monday that “we have to get used to the idea that we can’t keep our houses at 72, drive our SUVs and eat all we want.” Arthur B. Robinson, president and professor of chemistry at the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine, has a different response. “I don’t want to give up eating all I want because of a failed hypothesis,” said Robinson at the National Press Club here on May 19. Robinson said global warming...

May 4, 2008 By Greg Evensen NewsWithViews.com Hyperbole is not something I engage in for shock value alone and it is definitely not something I enjoy contemplating while discussing our national state of affairs. However, it is becoming more and more commonplace in discussions that deal with the United States and its immediate future. If, as casual readers of current events, you have become aware of the escalating sense of urgency, with the impending multiple world crises, then you are most likely comprehending the current history making events as they unfold. Wars and rumors of war, pestilence, mysterious shakings in...

The global food crisis reached the United States yesterday as big retailers began to ration sales of rice in response to bulk purchases by customers alarmed by rocketing prices of staples. Wal-Mart's cash and carry division, Sam's Club, announced it would sell a maximum of four bags of rice per person to prevent supplies from running short. Its decision followed sporadic caps placed on purchases of rice and flour by some store managers at a rival bulk chain, Costco, in parts of California. The world price of rice has risen 68% since the start of 2008, but in some US...

World Bank president calls for action as food prices cause rioting Jenny Booth The president of the World Bank has called for immediate action to deal with rapidly rising food prices that have caused hunger and deadly violence and threatened the economic stability of the world's poorest countries. A doubling of food prices over the last two years was potentially pushing 100 million people deeper into long-term poverty, said Robert Zoellick. “We have to put our money where our mouth is now, so that we can put food into hungry mouths. It is as stark as that,” Mr Zoellick said...

In the last year, the price of wheat has tripled, corn doubled, and rice almost doubled. As prices soared, food riots have broken out in about 20 poor countries including Yemen, Haiti, Egypt, Pakistan, Indonesia, Ivory Coast, and Mexico. In response some countries, such as India, Pakistan Egypt and Vietnam, are banning the export of grains and imposing food price controls. Are rising food prices the result of the economic dynamism of China and India, in which newly prosperous consumers are demanding more food—especially more meat? Perennial doomsters such as the Earth Policy Institute's Lester Brown predicted more than a...

N.K. asks China for massive rice aid: report SEOUL, April 4 (Yonhap) - North Korea recently asked China to provide massive rice aid for its hungry people amid a flare-up in tensions with South Korea, a news report said Friday. Pyongyang has also decided not to request rice and fertilizer aid from South Korea until Seoul moves to improve ties, the report by the vernacular daily Hankyoreh said. It cited a diplomatic source who is well informed about North Korea-China relations and an unnamed South Korean official who recently returned from a trip to Pyongyang. Seoul's Foreign Ministry said it...

/begin my translation In Pyongyang, No Food Ration Until October As of late March, food situation in Pyongyang is serious. Pyongyang (city authorities) stopped food ration in all districts for six months starting April. Some officials in Pyongyang say that food ration has never been stopped this long even during the "March of Suffering"(note: massive famine in mid-90's.) Still Pyongyang residents have some spare cash. They can go out and buy food in Pyong-sung, Sariwon, and Nampo, when their food runs out. They also have some food in stock now. There are few starvation victims so far. However, their food...

'Huge Food Shortage In North Korea' By Sky News SkyNews - Thursday, March 20 03:18 pmA dire food shortage across North Korea has become so acute it has started to affect the country's elite in the capital, Pyongyang, reports say. Aid agency Good Friends says food rations for some parts of the city have been cut by up to 60%, while others have seen their supplies cut off completely. Only citizens who show absolute loyalty to leader Kim Jong Il and his regime are allowed to live in Pyongyang and are considered better off than their fellow countrymen. But the...

Scientists say poorer populations in vulnerable countries could starve if a disease called Ug-99 hits yields hard enough to push up wheat prices. There is already a global wheat shortage and UN agencies are concerned about the impact of high food prices. Ug-99 is a form of black stem rust that prevents wheat taking up nutrients and can wipe out whole harvests. Scientists at the John Innes Centre, in England, are trying to find wheat with a natural resistance to the disease. Most wheat grown in Africa, Asia and China, has little resistance to Ug-99. The BBC's Anna Hill says...

March 5, 2008 Forget biofuels — we need to concentrate on our daily bread Steve Hawkes Britain's biggest food producer has called on the Government to free more farmland for growing wheat in an effort to combat spiralling raw material prices. Premier Foods said that further price rises on Hovis, its leading bread brand, and other everyday products were almost inevitable as food companies struggle with unprecedented cost pressures. The warning came yesterday as Premier reported a £73.5 million pre-tax loss for 2007 and almost halved its shareholder dividend. It also revealed a deal with banks that would raise its...

Bread and butter issue: Rising prices may herald the first global food shortage since the 1970s By Jenny Wiggins and Javier Blas in London Published: October 23 2007 19:11 | Last updated: October 23 2007 19:11 When the United Nations held its annual World Food Day last week to publicise the plight of the 854m malnourished people around the world, its warning that there “are still too many hungry people� was a little more anxious than usual.Finding food to feed the hungry is becoming an increasingly difficult task as growing demand for staples such as wheat, corn and rice...

via translation - The North Korea pains to produce its food The leader North-Korean Kim Jong it admitted that his country still did not manage to produce enough food for its population, brought back Saturday evening the official media. He was expressed at the time of a visit in a factory of manure. The communist mode North-Korean, with the bloodless economy, rests mainly on the food aid, of Beijing and Seoul initially, to nourish its 23 million inhabitants. UNO evaluates with approximately a fifth of its needs the food deficit for the North Korea for this year. South Korea took...

April 5, 2007 Kim Jong Il ate my rabbits for his birthday David Crossland in Berlin The offspring of the 12 giant rabbits were supposed to help to feed starving North Koreans. Now doubts about their fate have brought an abrupt halt to one of the more unlikely hunger-alleviating projects. Karl Szmolinsky sold the rabbits to Pyongyang so that they could be used to set up a breeding programme to boost meat production in the Hermit Kingdom. However, amid concerns that they have been eaten by the country’s leaders, Mr Szmolinsky will not be sending any more. The 68-year-old breeder...

/begin my translation German Breeder, "N. Korean Might Have Eaten Rabbits" The German Rabbit Breeder (Karl) Szmolinski, who sold 12 dog-sized giant rabbits to N. Korea in order to help alleviate N. Korea's food shortage, indicated that he would no longer supply the rabbits to N. Korea, according to Internet edition of 'Foreign Policy', a magazine specialized in foreign affairs. According to the publication, quoting German magazine Spiegel, Szmolinski made the decision, because he suspect that the rabbits he sent to N. Korea last year were not being raised but turned into food for N. Korean high officials. He originally...

Monster Bunnies For North Korea By David Crossland An east German pensioner who breeds rabbits the size of dogs has been asked by North Korea to help set up a big bunny farm to alleviate food shortages in the communist country. Now journalists and rabbit gourmets from around the world are thumping at his door. It all started when Karl Szmolinsky won a prize for breeding Germany's largest rabbit, a friendly-looking 10.5 kilogram "German Gray Giant" called Robert, in February 2006. Images of the chubby monster went around the world and reached the reclusive communist state of North Korea, a...

/begin my translation N. Korea to Grow Imported German Rabbits to Fight Food Shortage (Berlin = Yonhap News) Song Byong-seung = In order to fight its food shortage, N. Korea is trying to import large German house rabbits and grow them (domestically,) according to German media on Jan. 9. N. Korean authorities asked the rabbit farms in German state of Brandenburg to provide the rabbits, and twelve of them were already sent to N. Korea for testing (the feasibility), according to Die Welt. Karl Schusmolinski(?sp), a rabbit-breeding expert, is to visit N. Korea in coming April to instruct them how...

/begin my translation Depressed Market due to Bad Chinese Goods Life of N. Koreans We find out the life in N. Korea from N. Koreans who came to China. People do not go to work because government cannot give out food rations. The authorities cannot come down strongly on them, either. N. Koreans mainly use Chinese products, but many of them turn out to be health hazards, leading to boycotts. For example, lipsticks can cause fever, and skin to be peeled off. Brazier can cause rashes and itching. Worse, one newly-wed couple died after eating apples in 2005, or children...

Drought threatens food supply in western China Mon May 15, 2:27 PM ET Large swathes of north and west China face food shortages because of a prolonged drought that has dried up reservoirs and wells, and destroyed more 60 percent of the winter wheat crop in the worst-hit areas, the Food and Agriculture Organization said. "Five million hectares of winter crops are estimated to have been lost or damaged as a result of inadequate rainfall and higher temperatures," the UN-agency said, adding that the area planted with spring crops had also been substantially reduced. Out of 940,000 hectares of planned...

Pastor aims to send rabbits to feed North Koreans 29 Jun 2005 06:52:31 GMT Source: Reuters SEOUL, June 29 (Reuters) - A South Korean pastor is aiming to cut into North Korea's severe food shortage by sending the reclusive state 1.2 million rabbits to eat. Cho Soon-tae from the Evangelical Movement for National Unification said rabbits are tasty, resilient and reproduce, well, like rabbits, which would make them an ideal food source for North Korea. With the help of seven pastors from leading South Korean churches, Cho secured more than $1 million to buy rabbits at a little under $1...

Hungry N.Koreans Mobilized for '2nd Difficult March' Food shortages in North Korea became so bad in mid-May that Pyongyang told its citizens to prepare for a "second difficult march," in an allusion to the famine of the 1990s, an official from the reclusive country revealed Thursday. A North Korean propaganda squad sings to farmers busy planting rice at the Jeong-baek cooperative farm in Pyongyang on Tuesday. North Korea faces a grave food shortage and Pyongyang has warned citizens to prepare for a "second difficult march." The official said the order was disseminated in lectures to citizens by North Korean...

North Korea food shortage crisis growing worse : WFP May 27, 2005, 08:30 A food shortage crisis in North Korea is growing more severe by the day and the communist state is dispensing "starvation rations" to its population, a top UN agency official said today. The crisis has grown dire as international aid is drying up and food stocks from last year's harvest in North Korea grow short, Anthony Banbury, the regional director for Asia of the UN's World Food Programme, told a news conference in Seoul. "There is now a food crisis in North Korea and that crisis is...

I have mentioned Carlos Machado Allison in this blog before. He is retired from Universidad Central de Venezuela, was President of the Venezuelan National Fund for Agrarian Research .... He is just finishing a book called “Agriculture in Venezuela”. Today he is interviewed in page 3 of El Nacional ... here are some excerpts: “The agricultural states are the poorest of the country” On the state being the biggest landowner: “This is true; it has so much that it does not even know what it has. Some say it has 8 million hectares, other say 20 million. But there is...

Spectre of food shortage spooks China It has become a net importer of farm produce even as industrialisation puts further pressure on agricultural output BEIJING - China has become a net importer of farm produce, raising concerns at the highest levels of government about the security of the food supply for 1.3 billion people as land and water shortages put pressure on domestic grain production. Chinese President Hu Jintao has commissioned urgent studies on food security after evidence last year and this year that China's grain output is dwindling as demand rises in the long term, officials and academics said....

North Korea says it does not need food aid Pyongyang, North Korea, Aug. 14 (UPI) -- North Korean officials say their nation does not need humanitarian aid from the United Nations next year or later, the Kyodo news agency reported Saturday. Pyongyang's message was conveyed by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs on Friday, with no explanation as to why it no longer needs the U.N. aid. U.N. aid officials said they are baffled by North Korea's latest move since they believe that nation is suffering from an acute food shortage.

North Korea: And still they starve By Aidan Foster-Carter What's news? In my country, apparently, it's the rutting of three unmarried people who work - or did - for England's Football Association. (FA for short, perhaps appropriately.) Not that such trivia wholly blots out the real world. As ever, crises come and go. Darfur in Sudan is currently the new flavor of the month, and rightly so. But our attention spans are short, and the media circus will soon move on to horrors new. Darfur may still fester, but it will be off our television screens. As TS Eliot said,...

North's Markets Busier, Reports Say by Kang Chol-hwan (nkch@chosun.com) North Korea's farmers' markets, the only ways the public can buy food and daily necessities, are getting bigger and more active, as the government is loosening restrictions, according to reports. A Korean-Chinese who visited the North last week said after returning that the markets are busier, although the public is restricted from moving freely due to the SARS scare. Previously, farmers were only allowed to sell agricultural goods at the markets, but now the government is letting them sell other products and letting "approved businessmen" sell at the market, in addition...