Saturday, August 25, 2012

Hunger in the Future


A couple of days ago I posted about the financial crisis' health and welfare consequences for millions of people globally.http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2012/08/killed-by-financial-crisis.html

At least 80 million people were pushed back down into severe poverty globally.

For people in some developing countries, severe poverty means the ever present threat of malnutrition and starvation.

I recommend reading Oxfam's report Growing a Better Future: Food justice in a resource-constrained world

Even in the US millions more people found themselves under or near the official household poverty level. Robert Reich writes “a record 37 percent of American families with young children are in poverty”

Yesterday I reported on hunger rising in American schools http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2012/08/hungry-kids-in-american-schools.html

Now, The Wall Street Journal reports of "dark clouds hanging over crops" (Pleven 8/24/2012 C1) because crops in China, India, and the US have been significantly impacted by adverse weather, mostly droughts. Even Argentina and Brazil have had poor harvests (of soybeans).

The article in the WSJ written by Pleven reports: "The USDA already is forecasting above-average food inflation for 2013. And weather remains a risk globally."

In 2008 and 2009 speculators fleeing chaos in the financial markets poured into commodities and drove food prices up significantly around the world, increasing global hunger.

Please see "The Food Bubble: How Wall Street Starved Millions and Got Away With It"
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/7/16/the_food_bubble_how_wall_street

Also see this Harpers magazine article on the food bubble by Kaufman in 2010:

The food bubble: How Wall Street starved millions and got away with it
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2010/07/0083022

I am concerned that poor crops are going to cause food prices to rise, encouraging more food commodity speculation by evil speculators (food speculators are evil) and catalyze more malnutrition and starvation globally.

Max Keiser interviews Dimtri Orlov  who offers a very interesting interpretation of this ongoing humanitarian crisis caused by the financial crisis and resource limits:; [KR331] Keiser Report: Liquidity Drought. I recommend listening to it:
http://maxkeiser.com/2012/08/23/kr331-keiser-report-liquidity-drought/


RELATED POSTS

US Poverty and Global Hunger Rise: Less then Tepid Policy Response to Global Crisis in Human Welfare 

Bad News for India's Crops and Hunger Globally?


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