permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lflj@intrex.net>]

http://money.cnn.com/2008/03/25/news/international/food_prices.ap/index.htm

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [SANET-MG] LA Times/ starving the poor
Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2008 14:54:13 -0700
From: Michele Gale-Sinex <mgs2369@COMCAST.NET>
To: SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU

Published on Tuesday, March 25, 2008 by The Los Angeles Times

World Food Program Issues ‘Emergency Appeal’ For Funds

by Tracy Wilkinson

ROME — With food and fuel prices soaring, the United Nations agency
charged with feeding the world’s hungry has launched an “extraordinary
emergency appeal” to cover costs and avoid having to cut aid, a senior
official said Monday.

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 doesn’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.