|
Media headlines around the world reported on the recent wave of food riots in Haiti, Bangladesh, and Mozambique—all countries in which Concern has been working for many years. According to Concern’s personnel in the field and global analysts at the World Bank, the crisis is expected to get much worse: the lives of millions of people will be at risk in 33 countries if prices for food—especially staples like rice, flour, corn and oil—continue to rise.
What are the Major Factors Behind the Food Crisis?
- Increased global demand for food products, caused mainly by the growth of emerging economies
- The high price of oil, which has increased the cost of agricultural inputs and transportation
- The growing demand for bio-fuels, which means that less land is being used to grow food
- Climate change, which is causing unpredictable weather patterns and failed harvests
The World’s Poorest are in Danger
Millions of people who were already struggling against enormous obstacles just to survive are now resorting to desperate measures to cope with this crisis:
- Poor families are now eating just one small insufficient meal of rice per day
- People in drought-stricken areas have been forced to sell their land, tools, and livestock to buy food, with no money left for health care or school fees.
- Numbers of sick and malnourished children are rising, and children are dropping out of school.
- The poorest are being forced to beg for money or borrow from loan sharks
- Out of sheer desperation, some communities have had to eat the store of seeds they were saving to plant next season.
Did You Know?
- Globally, food prices have soared 40 percent in the past year
- Many people living in extreme poverty already spend up to 80 percent of their income on food alone—even the slightest increase in prices brings devastating consequences
- In Kenya, the price of corn has risen 100 percent, the cost of cooking oil has increased by 112 percent, and the price of beans has risen 250 percent
- In Sierra Leone, the price of rice has risen 300 percent—a one-month supply of rice (110 lb bag) now costs 75 percent of what most people earn in a month
- In Ethiopia, 4.6 million people are in need of immediate emergency food aid—at least 75,000 children are suffering from severe malnutrition
- In Afghanistan, an estimated 8.5 million people are experiencing severe food shortages
- Those most at risk are children and mothers, refugees and internally displaced persons, poor farmers, and the urban poor
|
