Apr 26, 2008

No one wants to say it...

GLOBAL FOOD CRISIS:  PANIC PUTS PRESSURE... From www.bobpark.org
Seemingly without warning, an additional 100 million people have been plunged into poverty by the abrupt increase in the price of food.  Most of the people on Earth could not dream of owning an automobile. For them the doubling of the price of wheat and rice is vastly more serious than $4 gasoline.  Contributing to the severity is hoarding, the high price of fertilizer, a shortage of fresh water for irrigation, and yes, the diversion of food crops into bio-fuels.  It's been thirty years since the world faced a food crisis of this magnitude, but no one seems willing to mention the Devil's name.  A recent BBC report on the Sudan captured the crisis perfectly: "The reality is that there are more people in one refugee camp in Darfur today than there were in the whole of Darfur and Khordofan in the 1930's!"  The problem is not too little food, but too many mouths.  No matter what advances are made in the human condition, they will eventually be lost if population is not constrained.