The Tunisian uprising was due to food shortages. How long before its happening everywhere?
Amplify’d from www.bloomberg.com
Risks of global instability are rising as countries cut energy and nutrition subsidies to ease budget crunches with food prices near an all-time high, the head of the United Nations’ World Food Program said.
“We’re in an era where the world and nations ignore the food issue at their peril,” Josette Sheeran said in an interview yesterday at the agency’s Rome headquarters.
The global recession has eroded government aid that helped people in poorer countries afford bread, cooking oils and other staples. The trend raises the odds of unrest even though prices have improved in many nations from 2007-2009, Sheeran said. During that period, more than 60 food riots occurred worldwide, according to the U.S. State Department.
“Many of the world’s subsidy regimes and support regimes have shrunk in the poorer nations,” Sheeran said.
The U.N.’s Food Price Index surged to 214.8 in December, exceeding the previous record in 2008 when global food shortage fears sparked riots from Haiti to Egypt. More than 100 people have died this month in protests in Tunisia against rising food prices, unemployment and alleged corruption, according to the U.N., and at least three were killed in Algeria.
Togo will increase electricity prices by as much as 25 percent this month as the government stops subsidizing power, a cabinet official said today. Malaysia’s inflation rate rose to a 19-month high in December after it reduced subsidies on fuel and sugar. Jordan increased public salaries and subsidies last week to counter protests over falling living standards, after riots in Tunisia toppled the nation’s ruler.
Rising Food Costs
Global food costs jumped 25 percent last year to an all- time high in December because of record sugar and meat prices, according to the United Nations. Countries probably spent at least $1 trillion on imports, with the poorest paying as much as 20 percent more than in 2009, the UN says.
Cereal crops such as wheat and corn are not at records, making the current situation less severe than in 2008 for poorer consumers that rely on grains, Sheeran said. Nations in sub- Saharan Africa, the region most prone to hunger, also have had better harvests in the past year than three years ago, alleviating pressure on local food supplies, she said.
The World Food Program is the world’s largest food-aid organization.
Corn traded in Chicago advanced 52 percent last year, while wheat jumped 47 percent and soybeans gained 34 percent.
To contact the reporters on this story: Alan Bjerga in Washington at [email protected];
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Steve Stroth at [email protected].
01/24/2011
James Quin
News Activist, Technological Singularity Enthusiast, Writer.
