Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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Food Riots Return as Global Food Prices Reach Record High
2011-01-07
http://blogs.worldwatch.org/nourishingtheplanet/food-riots-return-as-global-food-prices-reach-record-high/
   This week the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) announced that 
global food prices had reached record highs last month, surpassing  those of 
2007 and 2008. Yesterday, The Financial Times reported that in Algeria 
increasing demonstrations about the lack of jobs, housing shortages, and the 
cost of food over the past few weeks have exploded into riots. Local news 
outlets have reported hundreds of rioters in the capital and beyond.  In the 
north-western city of Oran, rioters broke into a food warehouse and stole 
sacks of flour.
   These riots follow the similar riots in Tunisia last month. One young man 
set himself on fire after he was prevented by police from selling fruits and 
vegetables.  The Middle East and North Africa are the two largest importers 
of cereal and countries in the area have been hit especially hard by the 
harvest shortages in Russia and the Ukraine this year.
   In India, The Financial Times also reported yesterday, food prices have 
hit their highest point in more than a year. Food prices are by at least 18 
percent from last year in a country where millions are spending more than 50 
percent of their total income on food.
   Surging global food prices are just one of the many challenges that people 
face throughout the Middle East, Africa, and around the world. Climate 
change, growing population, and water sources are also affecting the overall 
food production and availability. And as many countries grow increasingly 
dependent on food imports, they grow more vulnerable to natural disasters and 
market fluctuations taking place half-way around the world from them.
   Innovations in sustainable agriculture—such as the cultivation of 
indigenous crops, affordable irrigation techniques that conserve water 
resources, and improved storage to reduce food waste—can go a long way to 
improve local food security worldwide. The forthcoming State of the World 
2011 features innovations like these that are already working on the ground 
throughout sub-Saharan Africa, in order to help the global food community 
direct resources to solutions that reflect the complexity and 
interconnectedness of the current agricultural system.