Guardian UK: Nearly a billion people worldwide are starving, UN agency warns

[marmar]

Nearly a billion people worldwide are starving, UN agency warns
• Rising prices mean 14% now under-nourished
• Urgency over food crisis lost amid credit crunch

Julian Borger and Juliette Jowitt
The Guardian, Wednesday December 10 2008


Almost a billion people go hungry each day after food price rises pushed 40 million more people around the world into the ranks of the undernourished, the UN food agency reported yesterday.

According to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), food prices have more than halved from their historic peaks a few months ago, but the cost of basic staples measured by an FAO index is still high: 28% higher on average than two years ago.

That has led to an increase in the number of people unable to afford to eat enough calories to lead a normal, active life. There are now estimated to be 963 million people, 14% of the world's population, going hungry in 2008, up by 40 million from last year.

The FAO's hunger report, the State of Food Insecurity in the World 2008, found that the majority of the hungry live in the developing world, 65% of them in just seven countries: India, China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan and Ethiopia. The worst affected are landless families, particularly households headed by women.

"For millions of people in developing countries, eating the minimum amount of food every day to live an active and healthy life is a distant dream," said the FAO's assistant director general, Hafez Ghanem. "The structural problems of hunger, like the lack of access to land, credit and employment, combined with high food prices remain a dire reality." .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/10/hunger-population-un-food-environment

[JDPriestly]

1. This is another ground for trying to find alternative energy sources.

Oil is needed for many purposes including making fertilizers. I know many DUers want organic foods and organic farming, but organic foods and farming are labor intensive. They may also require that larger areas of land be used for farming. We need to spare the oil. It is a not a renewable resource. It is needed for producing chemicals also.

We view the hunger crisis as something that affects other people. It isn't real to us. In fact, it could become a reality right here. This is an extremely important post. Thanks for posting this.

[PearliePoo2]

2. Over population is too many hamsters in the cage..

There's only so much food and there's only so much territory.
Exceed this and you have chaos.

[Andy823]

3. I go to this site

http://www.thehungersite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=1

Someone else on DU posted the link a couple of weeks or so back, and I have gone there clicked, done some shopping, and gave a donation to help the hungry around the world.