Global food prices rise
to dangerous levels.
Stating that prices
are 29% higher
than one year ago, with
increases of 15% over
the past four months alone,
the World Bank
has issued an alarm
as it notes that food costs
currently are only
3% lower than the peak
prices of June 2008,
when food riots
had erupted across
the developing world.
The largest recent
increases have been seen
in global wheat prices,
which doubled from
June 2010
to January 2011,
while the price of maize
jumped a sharp 73%,
and higher prices placed
on sugar and cooking oils,
as well as vegetables
in China and India,
and beans in some
African nations.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala - Managing Director, World Bank Group (M):
According to our
research at the World Bank,
the recent food price
hikes have thrown
another 44 million people
into extreme poverty.
I feel we've now
entered a danger zone.
VOICE:
The UN Food and
Agriculture Organization
has indicated that the recent
upward direction
in prices has come from
a combination of factors,
including increased
consumption of meat
and dairy products,
speculative trading,
soil erosion, food crops
used for biofuels,
and decreased or
failed harvests due to
climate change effects
such as water scarcity.
Prolonged
widespread drought
in northern China,
for instance, caused
wheat crop failures that
recently sparked
concerns about the impact
on global food prices.
If China were ever
to have to import a large
amount of wheat,
global prices for the grain
would surge and add
to the strain already
being felt worldwide.
Shanghai-based
agriculture analyst
Lief Chiang of Rabobank
noted that not only
China's drought, but also
other disasters in late 2010
have driven up
global wheat prices,
such as floods in Australia,
drought in Russia
and an unusually
early frost in Canada.
Our thanks,
World Bank and
United Nations for
these reports alerting us
to the potential crisis
of escalating food prices
and global food security.
Let us work together
to implement solutions
that ensure sustainable
food supplies
for all who are in need.
During an October 2009
videoconference
in Hong Kong,
Supreme Master Ching Hai
addressed the interrelated
issues of food production
and climate change,
explaining
the cost-saving solution
for both areas.
A lot of the news
today is not very good
due to the effects
of global warming.
We hear about
glaciers melting, water
becoming more scarce,
rising food shortages,
rising food prices with
over one billion people
going hungry every day,
and so forth.
The food prices are
getting higher and higher
nowadays.
Supreme Master Ching Hai : As it has already been
mentioned,
recent research shows
that more than 50% of
emissions, which
heat up our planet, which
put our lives in danger,
are from
the livestock industry.
Now, the meat industry
is not a very
lucrative business, with
very high production costs
for electricity, water,
and grains that
have to be wasted to
produce the same amount
of so-called “food,”
which is
replaceable and better.
We have
better food than meat.
I don't know
how difficult can it be to
replace a piece of meat
with a piece of tofu,
or a piece of
vegetable protein.
It looks the same,
it tastes even better,
is cheaper any way,
and good for your health.
The solution is at hand
for each and every one
of us, which is simply to
forego animal products
and become vegan -
one small change;
it's no big deal.
http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,contentMDK:22833625~pagePK:64257043~piPK:437376~theSitePK:4607,00.html
http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,contentMDK:22833439~pagePK:64257043~piPK:437376~theSitePK:4607,00.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1hhQGc78WsExtra News
To help protect
the country's future,
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Nguyễn Tấn Dũng of
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including
building sea levees,
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and developing
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http://english.vovnews.vn/Home/Government-gives-priority-to-dealing-with-climate-change/20112/123918.vov
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http://blogs.houstonpress.com/hairballs/2011/02/cold_turtles_gulf_mexico.php,
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Arctic cold wave
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/11/russias-fish-fight-for-ai_n_822101.html#s238893&title=Russia_Winter_Fish,
http://www.accuweather.com/blogs/news/story/45568/cold_wave_set_to_jolt_russian_1.asp