Food Shortage

In Spring of 2008, world food shortages caused food riots in Egypt, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Madagascar, Philippines and Haiti. Troops were deployed in Pakistan and Thailand to protect fields and food stores from being pillaged by hungry citizens.

The United Nations has asked developed countries for increased aid to help feed the over 73 million people in 78 developing nations who are facing reductions in the food handouts they rely on to feed themselves and their families.

Due to a variety of factors, such as increased transportation costs, drought, and the allocation of crops to biofuel production, the cost of food has increased 75% since 2000.

For the first time in history, the impact of rising food prices is being felt not only by people in the third world, but also by those in developed nations.

1. Demand for food is expected to double by 2030
2. World grain stocks have fallen to a 30 year low
3. Rice and wheat prices doubled in less than a year
4. It takes 232kg of corn to fill an average car's tank with fuel
5. 1/6 of U.S. grain harvest is allocated for fuel

1. "Climate change is a real issue and is rightly being dealt with by major global investment. However, I am concerned there is another major issue along a similar time-scale - that of food and energy security."— Professor John Beddington, chief scientific adviser to the British government
2. "The reality is that people are dying already. Naturally people won't be sitting dying of starvation, they will react...we have seen riots in Egypt, Cameroon, Haiti and Burkina Faso."—Jacques Diouf, UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
3. "We are seeing a new face of hunger. We are seeing more urban hunger than ever before. We are seeing food on the shelves but people being unable to afford it."—Josette Sheeran, executive director, World Food Program

• International Herald Tribune: As Australia dries, a global shortage of rice (April 17, 2008)

• Al Jazeera: Bangladesh hit by Food Price Riots (April 12, 2008)

• NPR: China's Food Prices Rise as Population, Wealth Grow (April 15, 2008)

• CNN: Famine fears for seven million Ethiopian children (May 20, 2008)

• The New York Sun: Rice Rationing Spreads as Far as Israel (April 28, 2008)

• Washington Post: Burma Warns of Food Shortage (May 20, 2008)

• Amazon.com: Food Shortage Search Results