By Gary Cleland
The Telegraph (UK)
Rising food prices could threaten political stability around the world, the UN's leading humanitarian official said yesterday.
Sir John Holmes, the undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs and the UN's emergency relief co-ordinator, was speaking after two days of rioting in Egypt over the soaring cost of basic foodstuffs.
He told a conference in Dubai that rising prices would spark unrest across vulnerable nations. Average prices have risen 40 per cent across the world in less than a year.
Sir John said: "The security implications should also not be underestimated as food riots are already being reported across the globe.
"Current food price trends are likely to increase sharply both the incidence and depth of food insecurity."
As well as the riots in Egypt, rising food costs have been blamed for violent unrest in Haiti, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Mauritania, Mozambique and Senegal. Protests have also occurred in Uzbekistan, Yemen, Bolivia and Indonesia.
China, India, Pakistan, Cambodia and Vietnam have curbed rice exports to ensure there is enough for their own people.
Experts believe food insecurity should be treated as seriously as climate change.
Sir John Holmes, the undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs and the UN's emergency relief co-ordinator, was speaking after two days of rioting in Egypt over the soaring cost of basic foodstuffs.
He told a conference in Dubai that rising prices would spark unrest across vulnerable nations. Average prices have risen 40 per cent across the world in less than a year.
Sir John said: "The security implications should also not be underestimated as food riots are already being reported across the globe.
"Current food price trends are likely to increase sharply both the incidence and depth of food insecurity."
As well as the riots in Egypt, rising food costs have been blamed for violent unrest in Haiti, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Mauritania, Mozambique and Senegal. Protests have also occurred in Uzbekistan, Yemen, Bolivia and Indonesia.
China, India, Pakistan, Cambodia and Vietnam have curbed rice exports to ensure there is enough for their own people.
Experts believe food insecurity should be treated as seriously as climate change.
6 comments:
People Power! Farmers' Revolution! Now all very possible, rich/powerful have to give the stolen land back to the people.
Yeah!
Take Haiti and Zimbabwe as the role model. Dictator no more!
Wrong, 10:02, are you kidding? Farmers love this stuff, dude. This is one of their good year that they have been waiting for a long time.
Cambodia - Discuss economic policy:
In front of the increase of the costs of raw materials, what solutions, which economic policies?
The crisis of the liberalism, the speculation and the world finance touch now almost all the countries.
The world speculators who lost money in front of the decline of American's dollars and financial products try now to get back their losses on the raw materials market (rice, wheat, the gold.......)
The only effective economic policy in reply to fight against the fatal effects of this crisis of the unbridled liberalism and the wild capitalism is the control and the take-over by the authorities of all the strategic branches of industry and the reduction of the role of the private economic agents.
The solutions proposed by the World Bank and IMF are only protecting the interests of the capitalists and that to deteriorate the difficulties and the poverty of the poor populations.
The government also has to limit and reduce the role of the political parties of oppositions which try especially to take advantage of the situation without bringing real and concrete solutions of the liberalism's crisis by pushing people to the demonstration and to the social riots.
The government can also take an initiative and asks all the countries concerned by this problem of the increase of raw materials or the regional countries to organize an emergency meeting to find together solutions of this food urgency.
It is here that we appreciate to belong in a set of countries. Because the effective solution to face this problem of the food urgency been born the world speculation can be only coordinated and collective.
From : CPPP’s economic committee.
That was what HUN SEN said, the farmers riot will be happening soon. He said that. Better fix the farmers or land reform soon!
Yeah, but that was before the surge of price of rice. I don't think they feel that way anymore.
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