Skip to: Content
Skip to: Site Navigation
Skip to: Search

September 5, 2008 6:11:00 PM CDT

Learn about Newser Points »

« Back to the grid | Next story »

Food Crisis Is 'Mass Murder': UN Envoy

Posted Apr 20, 08 4:02 PM CDT in Business,  Science & Health,  World 

(Newser) – A UN envoy called the world's food crisis "silent mass murder" today and blamed multinationals for "monopolizing the riches of the Earth," Reuters reports. Jean Ziegler, UN food rapporteur, chalked up surging food prices in poorer nations to biofuels, commodities markets, and EU subsidies—meaning the West is responsible for this "horror."

"Market traders, speculators, and financial bandits have turned wild and constructed a world of inequality and horror," Ziegler told an Austrian daily. "We have to put a stop to this." He also warned that the hungry may one day rebel. "It's just as possible as the French Revolution was," he said.

Source Reuters

0 comments | Print E-mail | Digg Seed this on Newsvine Add this link to Del.icio.us StumbleUpon

Related Newser Stories

  • Indian State Recommends Eating Rats

    Aug 18, 08 12:47 PM CDT
    Indian State Recommends Eating Rats Faced with high food prices and ebbing grain reserves, officials in the Indian state of Bihar have endorsed the consumption of rats, Reuters reports. The state government sees the strategy as a way to reduce the pest population as well as curb the demand for grain, and has even proposed that restaurants start offering the rodents. More »

  • Biofuel Caused Food Crisis: Secret Report

    Jul 4, 08 3:45 PM CDT
    Biofuel Caused Food Crisis: Secret Report Biofuel production has been the driving force behind the growing food crisis, pushing prices up 75%, according to a confidential World Bank report obtained by the Guardian. The most detailed research ever conducted on the issue emphatically contradicts the US position that biofuels are responsible for a mere 3% price bump. It hasn’t been published, sources say, for fear of embarrassing President Bush. More »

  • Food vs. Fuel Battle Flares at UN Summit

    Jun 4, 08 10:57 AM CDT
    Food vs. Fuel Battle Flares at UN Summit The battle over biofuels is raging at the UN’s food summit in Rome, with nations bitterly divided over whether growing corn and sugar cane for ethanol production is pushing food prices up and helping create disastrous global food shortages. On one side: Food experts who call diversion of crops to fill the fuel tanks of wealthy nations immoral. On the other: the US, Brazil, and the EU, the main players on the biofuel stage. More »

  • UN Chief Urges 50% Boost in Food Production

    Jun 3, 08 7:23 AM CDT
    UN Chief Urges 50% Boost in Food Production UN chief Ban Ki-Moon today called for a 50% rise in world food production by 2030 to fight starvation and civil unrest as the population grows. He spoke at the World Food Security conference in Rome, where world leaders are working to address the highest commodity prices in decades. Such high prices have prompted global riots. “The threats are obvious to us all,” Ban said. More »

  • UN Head: Drop Policies That Up Food Prices

    Jun 2, 08 8:44 AM CDT
    UN Head: Drop Policies That Up Food Prices UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will plead with world leaders at a food summit in Rome tomorrow to suspend trade restrictions, agricultural taxes, and other price controls that have helped create the highest food prices in 30 years, reports the Washington Post. Ban will also urge the US and other countries to phase out subsidies for food-based biofuels, such as ethanol, which have added to the spike in food costs. More »

An Egyptian girl buys government subsidized bread from a bakery in Cairo, Egypt Wednesday, April 16, 2008.   (Associated Press)
A vendor sorts potatoes at the Piata Centrala market in Chisinau, Moldova, Wednesday, April 16, 2008. The World Bank this week said that food prices had risen 20 percent in the region.   (Associated Press)
An unidentified child carrying an empty plate stands outside a house at the Ruga area of Abuja, Nigeria, in this file photo.   (Associated Press)
A Bosnian Serb man walks through a field of young wheat, south of Sarajevo, on Saturday, April 12, 2008. Due to deep economic crisis and increasing food prices in the country more and more Bosnia-Herzegovina's...   (Associated Press)
An Indonesian man sells rice and eggs at his stall next to train tracks at a market in Jakarta, Indonesia, Tuesday, April 15, 2008. Rapidly rising food prices have caused international crisis.   (Associated Press)
Workers sweep around sacks of grain at a U.N. World Food Program warehouse in Port-au-Prince, Friday, April 11, 2008.   (Associated Press)
« Prev« Prev | Next »Next » Slideshow
Our editors also recommend:

Threads (1 of 2)

Tags

United Nations  • food  • food prices  • biofuel  • hunger  • starvation


Loading...

Premium Articles from HighBeam

Find more articles like this

Today's Most Popular


Other World Stories

What is Newser?

2008 Codie Finalist

Newser gives you more news in less time. We search for the best and most important stories all over the web, read them for you, and deliver concise and sharp summaries—along with links to the full text. Newser provides a way to stay on top of an ever-expanding horizon of news and opinion—politics, sports, business, trends, technology, personalities, crimes, and controversies. Newser keeps you not just better informed, but, with our signature graphic interface and smart condensed format, more enjoyably informed.

Learn more »