Food Crisis: An Impending Global Tsunami?

• We have economic depression, a possible third world war and a coming global famine. What a mess we are in.
   
  Food Crisis – An Impending Global Tsunami
  The agriculture sector’s neglect is now leading to a food crisis that would change the very course of the global economy. The 1943 Bengal Famine of India is unforgettable, for it claimed four million lives. Nobel Laureate and well-known economist Amartya Sen argued that the famine was caused by the shortage rumors that resulted in hoarding and rapid price inflation leading to a disaster.
   
  Similarly, in 1989, China witnessed deadly protests in Tiananmen Square, the result of political unrest exacerbated by the high food prices (National Geographic 2008). But in 21st century, when mechanisms are dynamically inter-twined, the food crisis can change the very course of economic history.
    
  The 2007-08 food crisis sparked riots from Haiti to Bangladesh to Egypt. The skyrocketing food prices took the world by storm for it occurred in a year when the global farmers’ reaped a record grain crop
   
  Now in 2010, the crisis stands to repeat itself once again with greater intensity. Russia faces severe drought and wildfires throughout the region, especially, where wheat is grown. On the other hand, Pakistan’s devastating floods have damaged 600,000 tonne of wheat, an estimate that could be higher as agricultural lands have been wiped off.
   
  Food Crisis Threatens Bolivia Due to Climate Change
  Persistent drought, cold weather and flooding, all attributed to climate change, are threatening Bolivia with a food crisis, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and experts have recently warned. FAO coordinator Einstein Tejada said one fifth of Bolivia’s territory now suffer from the effects of climate change, causing food prices to rise.
   
  The most vulnerable zone is the Andean area, hit by a long-running drought, he added. According to the government, more than 16,000 head of cattle and over 24,000 hectares of wheat, bean, corn and other crops have been affected by the drought. “Bolivia is affected by all the climate phenomenon in the world” except the hurricanes, he said.
   
  Despite the government’s efforts to lessen these effects on agriculture and livestock, the impact on food security will be felt, as well as imbalances in the ecosystems, he said.
   
  Global demand outpaces crops
  Prices of flour, corn products could go up as Russian drought takes toll on stockpiles. The world’s appetite for meat, flour and ethanol is expanding faster than the supply of the crops needed to produce them, eroding inventories and increasing the chance of accelerating food prices.
   
  But in central Ohio, big buyers of flour aren’t doing more than keeping an eye on the situation. Wheat stockpiles are expected to slip to a two-year low as demand rises and a drought damages the crop in Russia, whose exports will plunge 84 percent, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said this month. Inventories of corn, used to feed livestock and make fuel, will be little changed from a year earlier, even as output rises to a record, the USDA said.
   
  Severe weather threatens world food supply
  (NaturalNews) Extreme weather conditions across the globe are destroying crops, cattle and land, as nations struggle through things like droughts, floods and other natural phenomena. And while some say that these occurrences are natural, cyclic effects from variations in solar activity, others point to climate change as the culprit.
   
  Russian wheat crop failures, Kansas cattle deaths and flooding in Pakistan are among the many struggles currently being faced by nations around the world, but why are these extreme weather conditions occurring in the first place? This is a question many are asking as they work to cope with the destruction and seek a solution.
   
  Weather extremes have put a heavy strain on food production, which could lead to skyrocketing food prices like the ones seen back in 2007 and 2008 when food was in short supply due to similar events. And according to a recent Reuters article, many are calling for further talks and agreements to be made about climate change legislation as a solution to the problem.

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