(China Daily)
Ashley Tyner
The global financial crisis has sent food prices soaring and pushed an extra 119 million people into hunger. According to Oxfam 967 million people are now living bellow the poverty line. The UN's food and Agriculture Organization fears western governments embroiled in the financial crisis could cut aid to agriculture in developing countries and introduce protectionist trade measures. It has been warned that such steps could increase the risk of another food crisis occurring next year.
Some 36 countries around the world are still in need of external assistance as a result of crop failures, conflict or insecurity, or continuing local high prices. Commodity prices are currently dropping mainly on expectations of favorable crop prospects but also because of the world economy being as slow as it is among other factors as well.
With higher food prices, this only meant that people were eating less and lower qualities of food, while children were being pulled out of school and farmers were migrating to city slums.
"It is time the world woke up to the need for developing country governments to support their poor farmers, and the obligation of developed countries to help the to do so."
Agencies-Xinhua
2 comments:
It is sad that times have come to this. Especially with familial functioning at stake. There are 36 countries who are still in need of assistance for a basic necessity, yet we continue to fight wars for undistinguished reasons. If only a small portion of war funds were redirected, you would be surprised what we would be capable of.
Reading stuff like this makes me really nervous for our future. I don’t really think about stuff like this and when I do it’s kind of scary. With things going the way they are right now, who knows where we’ll be in a few years time.
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