Posted by feww on November 24, 2008
Could When Will Food Riots Break Out Across the U.S.?
40,000 hungry people in 11,000 vehicles harvest 300 tons of free crops at Platteville, Colorado
Joe and Chris Miller were in for a big surprise when they allowed people to pick up free vegetables left over after the harvest —40,000 people showed up.
“Overwhelmed is putting it mildly … People obviously need food.” Chris Miller said.
The couple had expected up to 10,000 people to show up Saturday to pick free crops including carrots, leeks and potatoes. Instead, 40,000 people arrived in an estimated 11,000 vehicles turning some 30 acres of the 600-acre farm 37 miles north of Denver into a parking lot.
“Everybody is so depressed about the economy … This was a pure party. Everybody having a great time getting something for free.” Said Sandra Justice of Greeley who works at a technology company. She, her mother and son picked 10 bags of vegetables. Denver Post reported.
The hungry guests picked an estimated some 300 tons of produce Saturday. “Joe and Chris Miller’s fields were picked so clean Saturday that a second day of gleaning—the old practice of picking up leftover food in farm fields—was canceled Sunday.” The Post said.
Whereas the Millers had previously allowed schoolchildren and some church groups to harvest their own food, they opened the farm to the free public harvest this year after learning that food was stolen from churches.
Let’s hope the party spirit doesn’t deteriorate too quickly into pitch battles between competing crowds as the harvests start shrinking!
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Posted in collapse, food production, Food Security, land erosion, topsoil | Tagged: Food Crisis, food riots, food scarcity, Land of Plenty, People need food | 3 Comments »
Posted by msrb on June 2, 2008
Food Riots Break Out in Bangladesh Again
Thousands of Bangladeshi garment workers protesting over low wages and soaring food prices clashed with the police on Sunday during fresh protests over low wages and soaring food prices.
“They smashed dozens of vehicles, attacked nearby factories and pelted stones and bricks at our officers. Police fired shotguns to disperse the unruly workers,” police chief said.
Four protestors, including two with bullet wounds, were admitted to Chittagong Medical College Hospital A nurse said.
Bangladesh’s garment industry employls about 2.5 million workers, or 40 percent of the industrial workforce, and accounts for about 80 percent of the country’s export earnings. The average garment worker earn a basic minimum wage of about 25 dollars a month.
Bangladeshi households spend nearly 70 percent of their income on food. Prices for rice, the country’s staple food have doubled in the past 12 months mainly because of floods last summer and a major cyclone that caused severe damage to the crops in November.
Unions have demanded a major increase in salaries, saying the existing basic payment fixed in late 2006 has become redundant due to rocketing prices of food and other commodities over the past year.
In April, at least 20,000 protesting garment workers clashed with police and 50 were injured.
Bangladeshi demonstrators protesting against rising food and fuel prices on the outskirts of Dhaka in April, 2008. Police clashed with thousands of garment workers in southwest Bangladesh Sunday during fresh protests over low wages and soaring food prices. (Image may be subject to copyright. see MSRB Fair Use Notice.
Food Riot in Kenya
About a thousand Kenyan demonstrators protesting against rising food prices were assaulted by the riot police who fired teargas to disperse them on Saturday.
Widespread food shortages have led to skyrocketing food prices amid political corruption. Annual inflation rose by an average 24.2 percent in April and May.
“The government must subsidize the cost of food, it is not fair for the poor to be suffering with high food prices yet the government has not increased salaries,” said one of the organizers.
Disputed presidential election has also triggered violent clashes across Kenya killing 1,600 people and displacing about one half of a million people since December 2007.
Food and fuel riots, protests and strikes have erupted this year throughout the “third world” countries in Africa Asia and the Americas including Bangladesh, Bolivia, Cameroon, Egypt, El Salvador, Haiti, India, Indonesia, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Malaysia, Mauritania, Mozambique, Pakistan, Philippines Senegal, Singapore, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, and Yemen (other countries may have been omitted inadvertently).
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Posted in Africa, against nature, agriculture, Americas, asia, basic needs, biocapacity, China, collapse, ecosystems, Energy, environment, Food, Global Warming, government, money, politics, staple diet, war | Tagged: Bangladesh, Bolivia, Bonn, Buffett the Poor, Cameroon, demonstrations, Egypt, El Salvador, Emerging Food Crisis, Fao, food riots, food shortages, Fueling Food Shortages, garment workers, Haiti, India, Indonesia, Italy, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Malaysia, Mauritania, Mozambique, Oil Chaos, Pakistan, Philippines Senegal, Poverty Index, protests, Singapore, Somalia, strikes, UN, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Yemen | 6 Comments »
Posted by msrb on April 23, 2008
Delivering Climate Security: International Security Responses to a Climate-Changed World
According to the above-titled report written for Britain’s Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), governments around the world have hugely underestimated the potential conflicts resulting from climate change. The highlights of the report are:
- If climate change is not slowed and critical environmental thresholds are exceeded, then it will become a primary driver of conflicts between and within states
- In the next decades, climate change will drive as significant a change in the strategic security environment as the end of the Cold War,” said Mabey.
- If uncontrolled, climate change will have security implications of similar magnitude to the World Wars, but which will last for centuries
- A failure to acknowledge and prepare for the worst case scenario is as dangerous in the case of climate change as it is for managing the risks of terrorism or nuclear weapons proliferation
- Unless achieving climate security is seen as a vital and existential national interest it will be too easy to delay action on the basis of avoiding immediate costs and perceived threats to economic competitiveness
Source
Can the world elite brand the poor and starving masses as “terrorists” in order to eliminate them?
Major retailers in New York, in areas of New England, and on the West Coast are limiting purchases of flour, rice, and cooking oil as demand outstrips supply. There are also anecdotal reports that some consumers are hoarding grain stocks.” According to a report by New York Sun.
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Posted in Bush, collapse, ecosystems, Energy, environment, Global Warming, government, money, politics, war | Tagged: collapse, Costco, Food, food rationing, food riots, food shortages, Future Scenarios, government, human impact, new england, New York, poor, poverty, Root Cause Matrix, RUSI, Sam’s Club, Security, terrorists, walmart, west coast | Leave a Comment »
Posted by msrb on April 9, 2008
“We are hungry!”
Food riots have broken out in Port Au Prince, Haiti, due to soaring food prices. The violent clashes that have paralyzed the city left 5 people dead.
In El Salvador, sky-high food prices, especially corn, the staple diet of South America, led to protests. Women took to the streets banging their pots and pans, shouting “we are hungry!” Video report
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Poverty, Hunger, Disease
Image based on CIA world map showing percentage of population living below their national poverty line. Right click on the image, then click on View Image to see original. (Image Credit: user:Sbw01f via Wikimedia; GNU Free Documentation License)
Country In Focus
India: A soul-sick nation with a diseased psyche that spends billions of dollars on its military and nuclear armament, instead of her people!
Democracy and Freedom [sic.] Indian Style: Women washing clothes in a filthy ditch alongside a main road in Mumbai, India. This file is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Brazil License Este arquivo está licenciado sob a Licença Creative Commons Atribuição licença 2.5 Brasil. This photograph was produced by Agência Brasil, a public Brazilian news agency. Their site states: O conteúdo deste site é publicado sob a licença Creative Commons Atribuição 2.5 Brasil (Content of this site is published under the Creative Commons License Attribution 2.5 Brazil)
Posted in Egypt, El Salvador, food prices, Haiti, Port Au Prince, we are hungry! | Tagged: Africa, corn, ethanol, food riots, hunger, India, poverty | 7 Comments »
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