The Global Food Crisis

The global food crisis"The world's 200 wealthiest people have as much

money as about 40% of the global population, and yet 850 million people have to go to bed hungry every night."

Rising food prices have sparked violent protests around the world. Five people were killed and hundreds injured during recent riots in Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti.

Food riots in 2008• Egypt Thousands of demonstrators in Mahalla el-Kobra loot shops and throw bricks

at police during protests at rising food prices and low salaries, as part of nationwide strike

• Haiti At least four people killed in the southern city of Les Cayes after food prices rise 50 per cent in the past year

• Côte d’Ivoire Police injure more than ten protesters as several hundred demonstrators demand government action to curb food prices

• Cameroon Riots last four days and result in at least 40 deaths. Unrest is due to high fuel and food prices. Worst riots in country for 15 years

• Mozambique At least four people killed and 100 injured following fuel price rises

• Senegal Violent demonstrations in Dakar as prices of rice, milk and oil soar. Senegal imports almost all its food

• Yemen Five days of rioting and a hundred arrests after the price of wheat doubled over two months. Protesters set up roadblocks in Sana’a and Aden

• ...and in Mauritania, Bolivia, Indonesia, Mexico, India, Burkina Faso, and Uzbekistan- New Statesman, April 17, 2008

Unrest in Haiti: A UN peacekeeper from Nigeria was shot dead in Port-au-Price during the recent riots. Around 9,000 peacekeepers and civilian police have been stationed in the country since former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted in an armed rebellion in 2004.

Food prices in Haiti are reported to have risen by 50 to 100 per cent in the last year, hitting the vast majority of the population -- who live on less than $2 a day -- particularly hard.

Food as proportion of household budget

• While Australian households spend only 17% of their budget on food, Nigerian families spend 73% of their budgets to eat, Vietnamese 65%, Indonesians half. - NY Times

• In Bangladesh, food consumes more than half most people’s earnings and rent takes up almost all the rest. -UK Guardian

Haiti food riot, April 2008

Haiti food riot, April 2008

Pakistani women buy subsidized flour in Lahore. The price of staple foods and fuel has risen drastically in the country in the last few months. Many people in Pakistan are now dependent on state subsidies.

In Manila, the capital of the Philippines, soldiers stand guard during the sale of government rice. With the price of rice soaring, the government is looking at ways to ensure none of its citizens starve.

Bangladesh: Food queues have become longer as prices have gone up. Fights over food frequently break out in the queues.

• US President George W Bush has ordered the release of $200 million in emergency aid to alleviate food shortages in Africa and other parts of the world… but just a month ago the US threw $200 billion to bail out failing US banks.

• The International Monetary Fund estimates that corn ethanol production in the United States accounted for at least half the rise in world corn demand in each of the past three years. This elevated corn prices. Feed prices rose. So did prices of other crops — mainly soybeans — as farmers switched their fields to corn.

Filipinos wearing rice sacks protest on a street in Manila, the Philippines, April 16, 2008. The protestors are calling for stronger

measures from the National Food Authority to increase the proportion of home-produced rice in its food reserve.

Protest over rising food prices in Indonesia.

Haiti food riot, April 2008

"The world's 200 wealthiest people have as much money as about 40% of the global population, and yet

850 million people have to go to bed hungry every night."

‘a massacre of the world’s poor’Hugo Chavez, Venezuela’s

socialist president:

“The problem is not the production of food …

it is the economic, social and political model of the world.

The capitalist model is in crisis.”

Indonesia: Poor and workers call for Venezuela-style nationalisation of oil multinationals to feed , educate and house

the people – Berdikari April 29, 2008