The Food-Price Crisis

Nityaananda! Gauraanga! Hare Krishna! The below article proves that meat eating not only kills innocent cows etc. but it also may end up killing millions of human beings due to causing a shortage of grains etc. which are in turn is fed to the cows to make them fat before killing them for meat. So is it not a simple decision for a kind hearted person who does not want to harm anyone, to give up eating meat and animal products before one can even think about other forms of compassion and mercy to others.

Daaso'smi, Swami Gaurangapada.



The Food-Price Crisis
By Steve Sampson of Knowledgenews.net.
Sat, Apr 26, 2008.

New sprouts needed now!

Friends, the world is facing a "silent tsunami" driven by skyrocketing global food prices--a crisis that could wreak as much havoc as the Asian Tsunami of 2004, and maybe much more. So says the executive director of the U.N.'s World Food Program (WFP).

She doesn't just mean that folks are feeling the pinch of inflation at the grocery store checkout counter. From South America to Africa to Asia, a wave of steep food price increases is threatening to undo decades of anti-poverty efforts and plunge millions of people into hunger and malnutrition. Why is this happening?

Analysts say higher oil prices and freakish weather are partly to blame for the price hikes. But the problem also involves simple supply and demand. More people, more animals, and more automobiles are consuming more grain than ever, and supplies are running short. Today, let's survey the global food-price crisis by the numbers.
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Price-Crisis Counts

83 percent � The increase in overall global food prices in the last three years, according to the World Bank. Global wheat prices have increased 181 percent in that period. The prices of rice and corn are way up, too. Such staples provide the basis for most folks' daily bread.

100 million � Number of people worldwide who could soon be plunged into hunger, according to the WFP. Right now, the WFP has approved projects to feed 73 million people in 2008, and there aren't any resources for adding 100 million more. In fact, the WFP says it already needs $755 million in additional funding just to cover the increased cost of food and fuel since June 2007.

Grain Drain Tallies

110 � Amount of meat each person in China now eats per year, in pounds (50 kg). Generally, economic development leads to more meat eating, and more meat eating means more grain goes to feed animals. That can drive up prices of the staple foods poor people rely on. China's per capita meat consumption is still lower than that of some developed countries, but China's number has more than doubled in the last 20 years, and China has more than 1 billion people.

27 � Percentage of the U.S. corn crop that was diverted for ethanol production last year. Other major grain producers are also investing heavily in biofuels. Again, the effect is a big increase in the economic demand for (and so price of) grain. Like the grain that goes to feed animals, corn that goes to feed cars can't go to feed people. And, unlike grain-fed animals, cars don't feed people either.

24 � Number of people killed last month in Cameroon in riots triggered by food and fuel prices. Meanwhile, protesters chanting "we're hungry" have forced Haiti's prime minister to resign, and food protests have cropped up from Italy to Indonesia. As governments struggle to find short-term solutions, experts say cultivating a long-term food-supply fix could take 10 years.

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