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Poor Haitians resort to eating dirt
Jonathan M. Katz, Associated Press
It was lunchtime in one of Haiti’s worst slums, and Charlene Dumas was eating mud. With food prices rising, Haiti’s poorest can’t afford even a daily plate of rice, and some take desperate measures to fill their bellies. Charlene, 16 with a 1-month-old son, has come to rely on a traditional Haitian remedy for hunger pangs: cookies made of dried yellow dirt from the country’s central plateau.
The mud has long been prized by pregnant women and children here as an antacid and source of calcium. But in places like Cite Soleil, the oceanside slum where Charlene shares a two-room house with her baby, five siblings and two unemployed parents, cookies made of dirt, salt and vegetable shortening have become a regular meal.
“When my mother does not cook anything, I have to eat them three times a day,” Charlene said. Her baby, named Woodson, lay still across her lap, looking even thinner than the slim 6 pounds 3 ounces he weighed at birth.
Though she likes their buttery, salty taste, Charlene said the cookies also give her stomach pains. “When I nurse, the baby sometimes seems colicky too,” she said.
Food prices around the world have spiked because of higher oil prices, needed for fertilizer, irrigation and transportation. Prices for basic ingredients such as corn and wheat are also up sharply, and the increasing global demand for biofuels is pressuring food markets as well.
The problem is particularly dire in the Caribbean, where island nations depend on imports and food prices are up 40 percent in places.
… “When my mother does not cook anything, I have to eat them three times a day,” Charlene said. Her baby, named Woodson, lay still across her lap, looking even thinner than the slim 6 pounds 3 ounces he weighed at birth.”
… “I’m hoping one day I’ll have enough food to eat, so I can stop eating these,” she said. “I know it’s not good for me.”
(29 January 2008)
Photos at original.
Comment by Sharon Astyk: Haitians Eat Dirt, Cars Eat Corn
Study: Global warming will lead to crop losses
Don Kazak, Palo Alto Times
Global warming will result in “severe crop losses” in Asia and Africa over the next two decades, affecting some of the world’s poorest regions, according to a new study by researchers in Stanford University’s Program on Food Security and the Environment (FSE).
The study will be published Feb. 1 in the journal Science.
“The majority of the world’s 1 billion poor depend on agriculture for their livelihoods,” said lead author David Lobell, senior research scholar at FSE.
“Unfortunately, agriculture is also the human enterprise most vulnerable to changes in climate,” he added. “Understanding where these climate threats will be greatest, for what crops and on what time scales, will be central to our efforts at fighting hunger and poverty over the coming decades.”
The study looked at crop harvests, temperature and rainfall in 12 regions, including much of Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, the Caribbean, and Central and South America.
Affects on crop yield look especially dire in Southern Africa and South Asia, according to the study.
In some areas, average temperatures could rise 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit by 2030 and seasonal precipitation is expected to decrease in South Asia, Southern Africa, Central America and Brazil.
“We were surprised by how much and how soon these regions could suffer if we don’t adapt,” co-author Marshall Burke of FSE said. “For example, our study suggests that Southern Africa could lose more than 30 percent of its main crop, maize, in the next two decades, with possibly devastating implications for hunger in the region.”
(29 January 2008)
World Economic Forum report warns of food shortage (PDF)
World Economic Forum Global Risk Report 2008
According to the report global food security may be an emerging risk of the 21st century. As a result, world food supply is vulnerable to an international crisis or natural disaster. The editors exspect food insecurity with a likelihood of 5-10%. The drivers are population growth, the use of biofuels and climate change.
The report also mentions possible shortages for poor people due to high prices and a steep rise (“spike”) of oil or gas prices due to a major supply disruption (decreased global supply of 10% for several months) (10-20% likelihood).
Furthermore the report warns of vulnerabilities to global supply chains.
In the 2006 and 2007 Global Risk Network Report an oil price shock was expected with the same probability, but there were no fears of food scarcety.
(January 2008)
Contributor driller writes:
The report turned out to be less concrete than I expected (e. g. no definition how scarce is “scarce”). (Anyway these guys don’t seem to be very “green” as they called the climate initiatives of California “populist” in one of the former reports ;->)
