Food prices help tip 75 mln into hunger in 2007-UN

[inanna]

Source: Reuters

ROME, Sept 17 (Reuters) - Rising food prices are partly to blame for adding 75 million more people to the ranks of the world's hungry in 2007 and lifting the global figure to roughly 925 million, the U.N.'s food agency said on Wednesday. Jacques Diouf, head of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), presented the figure to Italy's parliament ahead of the release of an official report on Thursday.

The latest data further distances the international community from reaching U.N. Millennium Development Goals that include halving hunger and poverty by 2015.

Diouf estimated that 850 million people were hungry before the 2007-2008 spike in food prices, which sparked widespread protests and even riots in the most affected nations. The FAO hosted a food crisis summit in Rome in June to discuss ways to combat high food prices, blamed on poor harvests, high oil costs, biofuels and rising demand for basic staple crops, especially from fast-growing Asian countries.

Next week, world leaders gathering at the United Nations are due to review an updated assessment of progress in meeting the Millennium Development Goals -- eight social and economic development benchmarks.

Read more: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=post&forum=102

---

This scares the hell out of me.

[GliderGuider]

1. That's the same number of people that were born last year.

Coincidence, or signal?

[inanna]

2. Everything is a mess...

This world has become unrecognizable to me.

[Xithras]

4. Not coincidence at all.

We keep making new people, but the Earth isn't making much new land. While biofuels may be a factor too, a big part of rising food prices is caused by increasing demand. More people want food, but we're not increasing farm production much.

[nam78_two]

3. K&R.nt