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Food price crisis poses 'risk of war'
GulfNews.com ^ | April 14, 2008

Posted on 04/13/2008 3:43:57 PM PDT by bjs1779

Dubai: The food price and supply situation is turning worse, and in some places is uglier than expected and could lead to domestic turmoil, including the "risk of war", a top official said.

The food price situation has already claimed its first victim - the Haitian Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis - who was forced to quit, and food ration lines in Bangladesh are becoming longer everyday with sporadic incidents, reflecting a near explosive situation due to hunger.

"Food prices, if they go on like they are doing today... the consequences will be terrible," International Monetary Fund (IMF) managing director Dominque Strauss-Kahn at a press conference ahead of the IMF-World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington.

Possible impact

Gulf News has been highlighting the global food price crisis and its possible impact on the Gulf countries. "Hundreds of thousands of people will be starving... [eading] to disruption of the economic environment," Strauss-Kahn told a news conference.

Development gains made in the past five or 10 years could be "totally destroyed," he said, warning that social unrest could even lead to war.

"As we know, learning from the past, those kind of questions sometimes end in war," he said. If the world wanted to avoid "these terrible consequences," then rising prices had to be tackled.

Skyrocketing prices on rice, wheat, corn and other staple foods like milk particularly hurt developing nations, where the bulk of income is spent on the bare necessities for survival.

Rising food prices have also encouraged the UAE government to intervene, when the Ministry of Economy allowed the retail chains to directly import food items by cutting the middlemen to keep prices of essentials at a decent level.

As a result, Union Cooperative Society and Emke Group have already signed a deal with the UAE Ministry of Economy to supply essential food items at 2007 base prices to help the consumers.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: burningfood; churchofalgore; ethanol; foodprices; globalwarming; solaractivity; solarcycle
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Is there a peep yet from our government leaders about burning up corn for fuel?
1 posted on 04/13/2008 3:43:57 PM PDT by bjs1779
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To: bjs1779

Oh goody! Then we can refer to them as “GORE WARS!”


2 posted on 04/13/2008 3:48:27 PM PDT by SierraWasp (Out of the dung of adversity, spring the seeds of opportunity! America will always be exceptional!!!)
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To: bjs1779

Of course not. We’re only at “domestic turmoil” level so far. ;)


3 posted on 04/13/2008 3:49:03 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin (Save The Earth. It's The Only Planet With Chocolate.)
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To: bjs1779
NO WAR FOR CORN!!!! ;-)
4 posted on 04/13/2008 3:49:41 PM PDT by Normal4me
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To: bjs1779
Cry me a river. Pay up, world, or cut oil prices back to $30 a barrel. If you'd rather, you can pay $100 a bushel for any kind of grain. Yes that's what I said, $100 a bushel, not $3, not $10. Why should oil be the only cartel on earth?
5 posted on 04/13/2008 3:53:00 PM PDT by JasonC
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To: bjs1779

Rising food prices have also encouraged the UAE government to intervene, when the Ministry of Economy allowed the retail chains to directly import food items by cutting the middlemen to keep prices of essentials at a decent level.

As a result, Union Cooperative Society and Emke Group have already signed a deal with the UAE Ministry of Economy to supply essential food items at 2007 base prices to help the consumers.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What the heck?!

Surely the citizens of the UAE are not poverty stricken and going hungry?


6 posted on 04/13/2008 3:54:05 PM PDT by mamelukesabre (Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?)
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To: bjs1779

“And no one’s gettin’ fat ‘cept Mama Cass.....”


7 posted on 04/13/2008 3:54:30 PM PDT by infantrywhooah (Hold your nose and vote in November. Even McCain is better than the alternatives)
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To: bjs1779
"As we know, learning from the past, those kind of questions sometimes end in war," he said.

When? Where?

8 posted on 04/13/2008 3:56:03 PM PDT by RightWhale (Repeal the Law of the Excluded Middle)
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To: JasonC

“Cry me a river. Pay up, world, or cut oil prices back to $30 a barrel. If you’d rather, you can pay $100 a bushel for any kind of grain. Yes that’s what I said, $100 a bushel, not $3, not $10. Why should oil be the only cartel on earth? “

BRAVO!!!


9 posted on 04/13/2008 3:59:18 PM PDT by Fox_Mulder77
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To: bjs1779

The Bush legacy gets another notch on the ol’ belt.


10 posted on 04/13/2008 4:01:51 PM PDT by paul544 (3D-Joy OH Boy!!!)
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To: JasonC

Hear Hear! Lets see the world run without American grain.


11 posted on 04/13/2008 4:02:26 PM PDT by utherdoul
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To: bjs1779
toon080412

Ethanol and Biofuels? Utter and complete madness.

12 posted on 04/13/2008 4:02:35 PM PDT by Conservative Vermont Vet ((One of ONLY 37 Conservatives in the People's Republic of Vermont. Socialists and Progressives All))
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To: JasonC
Cry me a river. Pay up, world, or cut oil prices back to $30 a barrel. If you'd rather, you can pay $100 a bushel for any kind of grain. Yes that's what I said, $100 a bushel, not $3, not $10. Why should oil be the only cartel on earth?

As usual, your comment is off base. Most of the people in the affected countries have nothing to do with oil.

13 posted on 04/13/2008 4:03:56 PM PDT by bjs1779
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To: Conservative Vermont Vet

A couple of them are already here. : )


14 posted on 04/13/2008 4:04:48 PM PDT by bjs1779
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To: bjs1779
It's only gonna get worse.

"From the Space Weather Prediction Center
Updated 2008 Apr 13 2203 UTC

Joint USAF/NOAA Report of Solar and Geophysical Activity SDF Number 104 Issued at 2200Z on 13 Apr 2008

Analysis of Solar Active Regions and Activity from 12/2100Z to 13/2100Z: Solar activity was very low.... Solar activity remains low and things should remain quiet. The solar flux remains in the 60's[EA].

Solar Flux Definition

The 10.7 cm (2800 MHz) radio flux is the amount of solar noise (light) that is emitted by the sun at 10.7 cm wavelengths....

The solar flux is used as a basic indicator of solar activity. It can vary from values below 50 to values in excess of 300 (representing very low solar activity and high to very high solar activity respectively). Values in excess of 200 occur typical during the peak of the solar cycles.

Solar Activity Forecast: Solar activity is expected to be very low.

Source: http://www.solarcycle24.com.

15 posted on 04/13/2008 4:06:19 PM PDT by Justa (Politically Correct is morally wrong.)
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To: SierraWasp

In the next 5 years or so when the global warming scare is finally understood by all to be the hoax it is; will Al Gore be brought up on some kind of charges for fomenting the deaths of millions?


16 posted on 04/13/2008 4:07:08 PM PDT by ROLF of the HILL COUNTRY ( Terrorism is a symptom, ISLAM IS THE DISEASE!)
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To: utherdoul
Hear Hear! Lets see the world run without American grain.

You better watch your mouth, we are exporting it with no regards to your well being.

17 posted on 04/13/2008 4:08:01 PM PDT by bjs1779
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To: JasonC

Right on.


18 posted on 04/13/2008 4:10:09 PM PDT by lainie ("You don't have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body." - C.S. Lewis)
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To: Justa
I always knew it would come to haunt us when we as a country wanted people to starve to death, ie, Terri Schiavo.
19 posted on 04/13/2008 4:16:26 PM PDT by bjs1779
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To: bjs1779

The one thing that could make the situation worse is a government-mandated price freeze - then you will REALLY see people starve. Unfortunately, it is the first solution that the bureaucrats always think of.


20 posted on 04/13/2008 4:18:16 PM PDT by Toskrin (Bringing you global cooling since 1999)
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