Feed the world? We are fighting a losing battle, UN admits

[Kelly4C]

The United Nations warned yesterday that it no longer has enough money to keep global malnutrition at bay this year in the face of a dramatic upward surge in world commodity prices, which have created a "new face of hunger".

"We will have a problem in coming months," said Josette Sheeran, the head of the UN's World Food Programme (WFP). "We will have a significant gap if commodity prices remain this high, and we will need an extra half billion dollars just to meet existing assessed needs."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/feb/26/food.unitednations

[Nova]

I've always thought the UN should have invested more money in helping people grow food vs just sending them food. That wouldn't help the famines caused by war or drought. But it would help people be more self sufficient. And the cost of transporting food has gotten very high (as fuel prices increase.)

At this point, poor countries are being priced out of the grain market. And some people are going to starve because of it. Grain supplies haven't kept up with demand. And even if more land goes back into growing crops, there will still be a lag when food is unavailable.

[fishersofmen]

whelp time for the Hollywood gazillionaires and all their liberal buddies to put their money where their mouth is and start donating large sums of money to food banks to feed the hungry.

I think next time one of them opens their mouth to say anything about world circumstance and how stingy Americans are, someone should mention that to them