Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

livingontheland - [Livingontheland] Ht Summer Sparks Global Food Crisis

livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "GlobalCirclenet" <webmaster@globalcircle.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Ht Summer Sparks Global Food Crisis
  • Date: Fri, 05 Sep 2003 16:15:19 -0000


Ht Summer Sparks Global Food Crisis
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/environment/story.jsp?story=438726
By GEOFFREY LEAN Environment Editor
Thursday, September 04, 2003 The Independent (U.K.)

This summer's heatwave has drastically cut harvests across Europe,
plunging the world into an unprecedented food crisis, startling new
official figures show.

Separate calculations by two leading institutions monitoring the
global harvest show that the scorching weather has severely reduced
European grain production, ensuring that the world will not produce enough
to feed itself for the fourth year in succession, and plunging stocks to
the lowest level on record. And experts predict that the damage to crops
will be found to be even greater when the full cost of the heat is known.

They say that, as a result, food prices will rise worldwide, and
hunger will increase in the world's poorest countries. And they warn that
this is just a foretaste of what will happen as global warming takes hold.

Sunshine and warmth are, of course, good for plants and there were
hopes that this year's good summer would produce a bumper harvest. But
excessive heat and low rainfall damage crops, and the heatwave - which
brought temperatures of more than 100F to Britain for the first time, and
gave France 11 consecutive days above 95F, killing more than 1,000 people -
has done enormous damage.

The US Department of Agriculture has cut its forecast for this year's
grain harvest by 32 million tons, mainly because of the European crop
reductions. On Thursday, the International Grains Council - an
intergovernmental body - reduced its own prediction even further, by 36
million tons, as a result of "heat and drought, particularly in Europe."





  • [Livingontheland] Ht Summer Sparks Global Food Crisis, GlobalCirclenet, 09/05/2003

Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page