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High Food Prices Hurt World's Poor

Relief groups find resources, ability to help stretched thin

By Heather McPherson,  Newser User

Posted Jul 24, 2007 5:36 PM CDT
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(Newser) – For the world's poorest people, the quantity and quality of food are increasingly at risk. Wholesale prices of  basic foods are 21% higher now than in 2005, with grain surging more than 30%. What's more, the total volume of food delivered by US-funded groups has declined 52% in the last 5 years, reports the Christian Science Monitor.

The sharp rise in costs has numerous causes: the increasing use of grains as biofuels; the demand for higher-value food as millions of Chinese and Indians emerge from poverty; low inventories worldwide, and climbing oil prices, which make fertilizer, refrigeration, and transportation more costly. Aid groups also say they have shrinking cushions to allow for natural disasters such as earthquakes.

Somali displaced children wait for the World Food Program (WFP), distribution of food on the outskirt of Mogadishu, Sunday, May 20, 2007. At least two civilians died in an explosion on Sunday in a northern district of the Somali capital after a bomb was detonated as the mayor's convoy approached...
Somali displaced children wait for the World Food Program (WFP), distribution of food on the outskirt of Mogadishu, Sunday, May 20, 2007. At least two civilians died in an explosion on Sunday in a northern...   (Associated Press)
A Palestinian boy sits on bags of flour at a United Nations food aid distribution center in Gaza City, Wednesday, July 11, 2007. As food prices rise, aid organizations struggle to stretch their resources. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)
A Palestinian boy sits on bags of flour at a United Nations food aid distribution center in Gaza City, Wednesday, July 11, 2007. As food prices rise, aid organizations struggle to stretch their resources....   (Associated Press)
South Korean aid workers check rice for North Korea in Sokcho, northeast of Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, July 19, 2007. The United Nations estimates that chronic hunger or malnutrition affects 850 million people worldwide. (AP Photo/Yonhap, Lee Jong-kyun)
South Korean aid workers check rice for North Korea in Sokcho, northeast of Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, July 19, 2007. The United Nations estimates that chronic hunger or malnutrition affects 850 million...   (Associated Press)
This photo made available Thursday, May 10, 2007 by the United Nations World Food Program shows WFP ambassador against hunger Drew Barrymore, left, with Sudanese refugee Rebecca Ajar in Kakuma, Kenya, March 17, 2007. Barrymore was announced as an ambassador against hunger by the agency on Wednesday, May 9. (AP...
This photo made available Thursday, May 10, 2007 by the United Nations World Food Program shows WFP ambassador against hunger Drew Barrymore, left, with Sudanese refugee Rebecca Ajar in Kakuma, Kenya,...   (Associated Press)
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Telegraph (UK)

 
China • food • India • livestock • biofuel • charity • poverty • fertilizer • poor • aid programs • food prices

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