- U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon plans to fast for 24 hours to show "solidarity"
- World Food Programme needs $6.7 billion, has donations of $2.9 billion so far
- Campaign comes ahead of summit run by the the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization
(CNN) -- The United Nations launched an online appeal for individual donations to fight hunger as donor nations tackle an economic crisis and, for the first time in history, more than 1 billion face starvation worldwide.
The World Food Programme's "Billion for a Billion" campaign aims to reach 1 billion individuals.
"If a billion Internet users donate a dollar or a euro a week, we can literally transform the lives of a billion hungry people across the world," said Josette Sheeran, executive director of WFP.
Feeding 1 billion people might seem like a challenge, but small donations can make a big difference, Sheeran said.
"Year in, year out, governments have supported WFP in its mission to feed the world's hungriest people, but they cannot be expected to do it alone," Sheeran said. "It's time for members of the public to act."
The campaign comes on the eve of a summit planned for Monday by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization. The agency called for a daylong global hunger strike to highlight the issue.
Some top U.N. officials are heeding the call.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon plans to fast for 24 hours to show "solidarity with the planet's 1 billion people who do not have enough to eat," said Marie Okabe, his spokeswoman.
The 1 billion number is about 100 million more than last year, the World Food Programme said. To meet the needs, the agency said it has to raise U.S. $6.7 billion. Donations to date stand at U.S. $2.9 billion.
"Citizen action has abolished slavery, given women the right to vote, and helped to ban the use of land mines across much of our planet," Sheeran said. " ... Why shouldn't we draw on that inspiration and try to harness the power of individual action to feed the world's hungriest people?"
12:13pm UK, Thursday October 16, 2008
More than 900 million people in developing countries face starvation as food prices soar.
Millions around the world facing starvation
A report by Oxfam says spiralling inflation in the cost of basic foods, such as rice and cereals, have pushed an extra 119 million people into hunger this year.
A separate study by CARE International said 17 million people were facing starvation in the Horn of Africa alone.
The reports are timed to coincide with United Nation'sInternational World Food Day, which raises awareness of the world food problem and tries to tackle malnutrition and starvation worldwide.
Oxfam's Double Edged Prices report found 967 million people were now officially living below the hunger line, because of the high cost of food.
It said there had been a 300% rise in the cost of wheat in Guatemala, a 100% increase in the price of flour and a doubling of the cost of rice in Cambodia and the Philippines in the past year.
Oxfam chief executive Barbara Stocking said the effects of the price rises were "devastating".
The charity said 1.7 million people in Tajikistan - one-third of the rural population of the country - is now classed as food insecure, after crops were devastated by a severe winter, followed by a hot spring and a plague of locusts.
Oxfam chief executive Barbara StockingThe international community has failed to organise itself to respond adequately to this.
In Honduras, food consumption among the poorest families has reduced by 8%, and in Cambodia 1.7 million people are facing starvation.
According to CARE International's figures, 6.4 million people in Ethiopia are in need of emergency food aid, and in Somalia half of the population is starving.
A combination of drought, conflict and rising food prices has left millions of people in the area facing starvation.
An emergency meeting of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Rome earlier this year pledged 12.3 billion US dollars to help tackle the world food crisis, but only one billion US dollars has been paid out from the fund so far, Oxfam said.
Charities condemned the slow response to the growing crisis, comparing it unfavourably with action taken against the banking crisis.
Ms Stocking said the contrast was "shocking", as the charity launched a £15 million appeal to help tackle the crisis.
"Developing countries are being bombarded with with different initiatives and asked to produce multiple plans for different donors. We need to see one co-ordinated international response," she said.
Mystery Bee Disappearances Sweeping U.S.
Stefan Lovgren in Los Angeles
for National Geographic News
February 23, 2007
Without a trace, something is causing bees to vanish by the thousands. But a new task force hopes to finger the culprit and save the valuable crops that rely on the insects.
Pennsylvania beekeeper Dave Hackenberg was the first beekeeper to report to bee researchers what's become known as colony collapse disorder (CCD).
Enlarge Photo
Printer Friendly
Email to a Friend
What's This? SHARE
Digg
StumbleUpon
RELATED
Wallpaper: Honeybees in a Hive
Buzz Kill: Wild Bees and Flowers Disappearing, Study Says (July 21, 2006)
Video: Bees Battle "Hornets From Hell"
In October Hackenberg had delivered honeybees to a Florida farm to pollinate crops. The bees typically return to their boxed hives when their work is done. But this time was different.
"I came to pick up 400 bee colonies and the bees had just flat-out disappeared," Hackenberg said. "There were no dead bees, no bees on the ground, just empty boxes."
"In almost 50 years as a beekeeper, I've never seen anything like it."
CCD has spread throughout 24 states and ruined hundreds of thousands of bee colonies.
Hackenberg has lost roughly 1,900 of his 2,900 hives. Other operators have lost up to 90 percent of their hives.
Researchers are scrambling to find answers to what is causing the commercially important honeybees to abandon their hives and disappear.
The epidemic could put a strain on fruit growers and other farmers who rely on the insects to pollinate their crops.
(Related: "Bee Decline May Spell End of Some Fruits, Vegetables" [October 5, 2004].)
An estimated 14 billion U.S. dollars in agricultural crops in the United States are dependent on bee pollination.
"A lot of people think honeybees are only important for the honey they produce," entomologist Maryann Frazier said. "But much, much more important are their pollination services."
Global Food Prices Set to Skyrocket
Costs rose to record levels in June 2008 but sank as the global economy fell into the grips of a recession. With economic growth predicted in the next year, increased consumption will likely place severe strains on the world's food supplies.
Rice, a staple for half of the world, could surge an astronomical 63 percent – from $638 a metric ton to $1,038 in the coming year, according to a survey of importers, exporters and analysts. Output has been stifled by dry weather and India and the Philippines have increased their imports.
Nonfat dry milk, commonly used in baking products and baby formula, could spike 39 percent next year, according to the USDA. Prices would climb to an average of $1.275 a pound from 92 cents.
Processed and fluid milk could jump 31 percent and cheese may see a 28 percent increase.
Overall, food prices around the world rose 7 percent in November – the fastest inflation rate since February 2008, which was the precursor to global food riots after prices reached record levels four months later.
"Volatility in price and supply are with us for the predictable future," Josette Sheeran, the executive director of the UN's World Food Program, told Bloomberg. "Risk is the new normal when it comes to food."
Gains in wheat inventories may mitigate the skyrocketing food prices. Warehouse supplies are enough to meet 23 percent of global demand, up from 19 percent two years ago, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said last week.
And global wheat stockpiles are expected to jump 17 percent to 190.0 million metric tons by May 31 – an eight year high – off of record production last year.
- Psalms 105:16 Moreover he called for a famine upon the land: he brake the whole staff of bread.
- Leviticus 26:21 And if ye walk contrary unto me, and will not hearken unto me; I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins.Leviticus 26:26 And when I have broken the staff of your bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver you your bread again by weight: and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied.
- Ezekiel 14:21 For thus saith the Lord GOD; How much more when I send my four sore judgments upon Jerusalem, the sword, and the famine, and the noisome beast, and the pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast?Hosea 2:8-9 For she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal. Therefore will I return, and take away my corn in the time thereof, and my wine in the season thereof, and will recover my wool and my flax given to cover her nakedness.1 Kings 17:1 And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the LORD God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.Jeremiah 14:1-4 The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah concerning the dearth. Judah mourneth, and the gates thereof languish; they are black unto the ground; and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up. And their nobles have sent their little ones to the waters: they came to the pits, and found no water; they returned with their vessels empty; they were ashamed and confounded, and covered their heads. Because the ground is chapt, for there was no rain in the earth, the plowmen were ashamed, they covered their heads.Amos 4:7 And also I have withholden the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest: and I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city: one piece was rained upon, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered.Joel 1:17 The seed is rotten under their clods, the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn is witheredDeuteronomy 28:38 Thou shalt carry much seed out into the field, and shalt gather but little in; for the locust shall consume it.Deuteronomy 28:42 All thy trees and fruit of thy land shall the locust consume.
n the Asian, African and Latin American countries, well over 500 million people are living in what the World Bank has called "absolute poverty"
Every year 15 million children die of hunger
For the price of one missile, a school full of hungry children could eat lunch every day for 5 years
Throughout the 1990's more than 100 million children will die from illness and starvation. Those 100 million deaths could be prevented for the price of ten Stealth bombers, or what the world spends on its military in two days!
The World Health Organization estimates that one-third of the world is well-fed, one-third is under-fed one-third is starving- Since you've entered this site at least 200 people have died of starvation. Over 4 million will die this year.
One in twelve people worldwide is malnourished, including 160 million children under the age of 5. United Nations Food and Agriculture
The Indian subcontinent has nearly half the world's hungry people. Africa and the rest of Asia together have approximately 40%, and the remaining hungry people are found in Latin America and other parts of the world. Hunger in Global Economy
Nearly one in four people, 1.3 billion - a majority of humanity - live on less than $1 per day, while the world's 358 billionaires have assets exceeding the combined annual incomes of countries with 45 percent of the world's people. UNICEF
3 billion people in the world today struggle to survive on US$2/day.
In 1994 the Urban Institute in Washington DC estimated that one out of 6 elderly people in the U.S. has an inadequate diet.
In the U.S. hunger and race are related. In 1991 46% of African-American children were chronically hungry, and 40% of Latino children were chronically hungry compared to 16% of white children.
The infant mortality rate is closely linked to inadequate nutrition among pregnant women. The U.S. ranks 23rd among industrial nations in infant mortality. African-American infants die at nearly twice the rate of white infants.
One out of every eight children under the age of twelve in the U.S. goes to bed hungry every night.
Half of all children under five years of age in South Asia and one third of those in sub-Saharan Africa are malnourished.
In 1997 alone, the lives of at least 300,000 young children were saved by vitamin A supplementation programmes in developing countries.
Malnutrition is implicated in more than half of all child deaths worldwide - a proportion unmatched by any infectious disease since the Black Death
About 183 million children weigh less than they should for their age
To satisfy the world's sanitation and food requirements would cost only US$13 billion- what the people of the United States and the European Union spend on perfume each year.
The assets of the world's three richest men are more than the combined GNP of all the least developed countries on the planet.
Every 3.6 seconds someone dies of hunger
It is estimated that some 800 million people in the world suffer from hunger and malnutrition, about 100 times as many as those who actually die from it each year.
Posts
