Posted on 04/03/2007 10:38:45 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
ROME (AFP) - Despite projections of a bumper grain crop this year, 33 countries will not have enough food, with Iraq and Zimbabwe among the hardest hit, the UN food agency said Tuesday.
Countries with "widespread lack of access to food" include Afghanistan, North Korea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Haiti, Liberia, Mauritania, Nepal, Niger and Sierra Leone, according to the April issue of the Food and Agriculture Organisations "Crop Prospects and Food Situation" report.
Hardest hit, with an "exceptional shortfall" in food production and supplies, are Iraq, Lesotho, the Philippines, Swaziland and Zimbabwe, the FAO said.
In eastern Africa, millions "still depend on food assistance ... due to a combination of factors including conflict and adverse weather conditions," it said.
In southern Africa, preliminary forecasts suggest a below-average maize yield similar to that of 2006, the statement said, although prospects vary from country to country.
Prospects are good overall in Latin America and the Caribbean, except for in Bolivia, where severe weather, ranging from torrential rains to drought, has caused extensive losses to agriculture, livestock and other assets.
World cereal production is forecast to increase by 4.3 percent to a record two billion tonnes, the Rome-based agency said.
"The bulk of the increase is expected in maize, (and) a significant rise in wheat output is also foreseen, with a recovery in some major exporting countries after weather problems last year," it said.
About half of the increase -- some 41 million tonnes -- will come from the production of "coarse grains," mainly maize, in North and South America to meet surging demand for ethanol fuel, the FAO study found.
Should say: Despite the UN, 33 countries in food crisis.
Good edit job.
Where does the food come for muslim countries? Medicine and clean water, too.
Like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Egypt, Pakistan, etc.
Hopefully the vulnerabilities are part of the grand scheme, should it get nasty.
They can’t repair infrastructure without western expertise. Doubtful they can feed themselves, either.
North Korea made the list? I’m really stuned. (sarcasm off :)
Wonder why Iraq would choose to seek a goat and cowpea purchase from Niger? Does Niger normally produce an abundance of food?
Those are very good questions, piasa and I don’t know the answers.
Algore ordered all maize be turned into fuel. People don’t need to eat when the earth has a fever.
WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.
..the four Ministries between which the entire apparatus of government was divided: the Ministry of Truth, which concerned itself with news, entertainment, education, and the fine arts; the Ministry of Peace, which concerned itself with war; the Ministry of Love, which maintained law and order; and the Ministry of Plenty, which was responsible for economic affairs...in Newspeak, Minitrue, Minipax, Minilove and Miniplenty....
“1984”
Duly noted. I hadn't heard about any wide-spread starvation in either of those two countries. Maybe its a distribution problem. I wouldn't want to be a door gunner on a produce truck in Baghdad.
Iraq? Food crisis? If thats the case, why do most scenes of Iraq on TV show full sidewalk cafes? Every shot of the food markets show full stalls and throngs of folks..
Maybe it’s rural areas that are having a problem...I don’t know, cardinal4.
It’s interesting.
... due to a combination of factors including conflict and adverse weather conditions,”
They left out....and because the treasuries have been looted by their leaders. Call me a mean racist conservative, but I always wonder what gives a country the right to even exist when it has simply been a begger nation since day one and will always be that way.
Gee, could that “bumper crop” be due to the dreaded - global warming???
If so many people all over the world weren’t continuing to be very paranoid as well as also pretending to be very paranoid about genetically modified crops for many years now, then world starvation would be at even lower numbers today than what they presently are. Political correctness is also contributing to the continuing problems that exist throughout the third world. The same thing can be said about the continuing existence of world malaria if D.D.T. wasn’t banned. D.D.T. use all over the entire world is still the best solution to the ongoing world problems with malaria today.
Anyone notice how there is such a strong correlation betweent the countries suffering from food shortages and the ones with the most political instability, the ones fighting wars, and the ones with the most corrupt and useless leaders?
Its not producing the food thats the problem. Its getting it to the people who are hungry thats the difficulty.
Sorry, no sympathy for Zimbabwe!
Next year, Venezuela.
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