Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[su do <speakingbeareturns@yahoo.com>]

Hopefully these food banks will turn into seed banks
where people are growing their own food!
--- Tradingpost <tradingpost@lobo.net> wrote:

> 
> World Food Program Issues ‘Emergency Appeal’ For
> Funds
> by Tracy Wilkinson
>  Published on Tuesday, March 25, 2008 by The Los
> Angeles Times
> http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/03/25/7869/
> 
> ROME — With food and fuel prices soaring, the United
> Nations agency charged with feeding the worldÂ’s
> hungry has launched an “extraordinary emergency
> appeal” to cover costs and avoid having to cut aid,
> a senior official said Monday.0325 01 1
> 
> The World Food Program called on donor nations for
> urgent help in closing a funding gap of more than
> $500 million by May 1. If money doesnÂ’t arrive by
> then, Executive Director Josette Sheeran said in a
> letter to donors, the WFP may be forced to cut food
> rations “for those who rely on the world to stand by
> them during times of abject need.”
> 
> The poorest face hunger as people around the world
> are being “priced out of the food market,” Sheeran
> told reporters Monday in a conference call.
> 
> Citing food prices that had ballooned 55% since
> June, the WFP disclosed a $500-million shortfall
> Feb. 25, and the gap has continued to grow ever
> since, Sheeran said.
> 
> WFP officials declined to put a figure on the
> current shortfall, saying it was a moving target,
> but experts estimated it in the range of $650
> million.
> 
> The Rome-based WFP feeds at least 73 million people
> in nearly 80 nations with an annual operating budget
> of $2.9 billion.
> 
> “We’ve never quite had a situation where aggressive
> rises in food prices keep pricing operations out of
> our reach,” Sheeran said.
> 
> The WFP has issued emergency appeals in the past for
> natural disasters or wars, but never for a
> market-generated crisis, she said.
> 
> Letters to donors containing the new appeal for an
> “emergency allocation” were dated March 20 and sent
> over the weekend. Copies were made available to
> journalists.
> 
> Although the WFP has been sounding an alarm for a
> couple of months, the appeal to the donors made the
> warning a stark reality.
> 
> In the letter, Sheeran noted that the WFP had
> attempted to reduce its costs by turning to local
> and regional markets to buy up to 80% of the food it
> disburses, a share that grew by 30% over the
> previous year.
> 
> “This not only saves on food and transport costs but
> is a win for local farmers, helping to break the
> cycle of hunger at its root,” she wrote. “But even
> with our mitigation efforts, the cost of our food
> purchases has risen 55% since June 2007? and an
> additional 20% since Feb. 25. “Such increases show
> no sign of abating any time soon.”
> 
> In addition to being hit by spiraling costs of
> grains and other staples, WFP operations have been
> hurt by record-high fuel prices and other transport
> costs.
> 
> Food commodities are becoming more expensive because
> of rising demand in developing countries, natural
> disasters and climate change, and the shift of
> millions of tons of grains to the production of
> biofuels.
> 
> The United States is the largest single contributor
> to the WFP, accounting for about 40% of the agencyÂ’s
> food and money donations, followed by the European
> Union. U.S. officials have already warned that it is
> likely they will be cutting donations to global
> humanitarian organizations because of higher costs.
> 
> Sheeran said that the people at greatest risk are
> those who live on $1 a day or less, but that
> officials are also bracing for what the U.N. is
> calling the “new face of hunger.” These are people
> who may have access to food but can no longer afford
> to buy it.
> 
> The shortfall does not take into account the
> anticipated swelling in the number of people in
> need. Eventually, if prices continue their ascent,
> the WFP crisis will grow even more critical.
> 
> Thus far, only one nation, Afghanistan, has made a
> formal request for additional assistance.
> 
> President Hamid Karzai in January asked the WFP to
> help feed an additional 2.5 million people.
> 
> Numerous countries, however, have inquired, Sheeran
> said.
> 
> “We have yet to speak to any country that does not
> have concerns,” she said.
> 
> 
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