The battle to feed all of humanity is over. In the 1970s and 1980s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death... Paul Ehrlich

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The battle to feed all of humanity is over. In
the 1970s and 1980s hundreds of millions of
people will starve to death... Paul Ehrlich

• The road to the future leads us smack into the
  wall.... Our survival is no more than a question
  of 25, 50 or perhaps 100 years.-- Jacques
  Cousteau

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Famine 1975! ...or 2005!

• http//www.europaworld.org/Famine.htm

16/7/2004Hunger Drives Darfur's Locals To Take
Food Aid Meant For Displaced Sudanese
18/6/2004Annan Urges Tougher Action Against
Creeping Desertification  11/6/2004Food Airlift
Gets Under Way To Troubled Darfur4/6/2004Drought
-Hit Northern Somalia Faces Looming Disaster, UN
Warns14/5/2004Escalating Food Crisis In Uganda
 Future Food Aid To Zimbabwe Jeopardized By
Cancellation Of Food Assessment Mission
7/5/2004Angolans Return Home To Peace And
Hunger   13/2/2004Despite UN Efforts Spectre Of
Famine Looms Over Korea  
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• http//www.europaworld.org/week193/worldcereal2490
  4.htm

24/9/2004World Cereal Production Up But Locusts
Pose Threat In Africa UN said this week that the
2004 harvest will be much improved and is
unlikely to require any supplementing from long
term cereal stocks. But there remains a black
cloud on the horizon in the shape of a potential
locust plague in sub-Saharan Africa that could
have a devastating effect on crops there. In a
favourable update on global cereal production
this week, the United Nations Food and
Agriculture Organisation (FAO) raised its
forecast for the year by 29 million tons,
sufficient to meet projected overall consumption
needs. "This is essentially good news .we expect
cereal production to be close to total levels of
utilization." said the head of FAO's Global
Information and Early Warning System, Henri
Josserand. Cereal output for 2004 is now
forecast at 1,985 million tons, 29 million tons
more than predictions made in June of this year.
The wheat crop in Europe was much larger than had
been expected while favourable growing conditions
in the United States have boosted maize
production there. North Africa can expect a
record wheat harvest since the region has avoided
the potential threat from locusts by undertaking
large-scale control operations. The 2004 wheat
crop is estimated at a record 17.3 million tons,
up 38 per cent on the average of the previous
five years.
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The politics of food?

• Joint FAO/WFP UN agencies warn of massive
  southern Africa food crisis 10 million people
  threatened by famine
• http//www.fao.org/english/newsroom/news/2002/5260
  -en.html

...Two successive years of poor harvests caused
by natural calamities, coupled with economic
crises and disruption of farming activities in
parts, have slashed food production and
availability across the region, resulting in one
of southern Africa's worst agricultural disasters
in a decade....
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• http//www.theperspective.org/zimbabwefarmpolicy.h
  tml

http//www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/africa/land/impact.
html ... Since March 2000, agricultural output
in Zimbabwe has severely dropped and violent
clashes have ensued between government supporters
and white farmers. Nearly all of the 4,000 white
farmers who own portions of Zimbabwe's best
agricultural land have had their farms listed for
seizure...
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http//www.zimbabwesituation.com/aug9.htmllink2

• ...Mugabe and his government cannot fail to
  understand the consequence of redistribution of
  the country's most productive land to subsistence
  level farmers. At best, Zimbabwe will be able to
  feed itself. But the tobacco industry has already
  said that it will shut down if 3,000 farms are
  seized. Then there will be little hard currency
  to pay for fuel and electricity, and so little
  incentive for industry to stay around...

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• ...We reached rock bottom by December
  2002...economically and politically.  There was
  no fuel for most of December and inflation went
  up to about 180!  I can barely support Mom and
  Dad and myself any more on my salary and Mom and
  Dad have decided to go back to Sri Lanka later
  this month as it's much easier there than here. 
  I knew we had hit rock bottom when on X'mas day
  after the family lunch I dropped my X'mas pudding
  and raced out to join a 3 km long petro, queue
  for which I spent the nite in to get a few
  litres.  Such is life...

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