The News Review:
- UN food chief urges crisis action
- Dee tastes victory at 55th attempt
- Roots of Asia’s rice crisis
- Parreira quits as South African coach
- Tata Steel to hold prices for 2-3 months
- Leaders warn on biofuels and food
- Food shortages: how will we feed the world?
UN food chief urges crisis action
BBC News – Apr 22, 2008
Food riots earlier this month in Haiti which is highly reliant on imports of food and fuel led to the deaths of at least six people including a UN peacekeeper. There has also been unrest in Burkina Faso Cameroon Egypt Indonesia Ivory Coast Mauritania Mozambique and Senegal. Mr Brown said he feared the use of agricultural land to produce biofuels which he said were known to be “frequently energy-inefficient” might have been a factor in driving up food prices. “We need to look closely at the impact on food prices and the environment of different production methods and to ensure we are more selective in our support” he added. “If our UK review shows that we need to change our approach we will also push for change in EU biofuels targets. ” The EU has come under criticism for its target of getting 10% of road transport fuel from crops by 2020 while ethanol production is on course to account for some 30% of the US maize crop by 2010.
Dee tastes victory at 55th attempt
International Herald Tribune – Apr 22, 2008
Unfortunately his winning run stopped at one as he was beaten 6-3 6-1 by Artur Romanowski of Poland in the following round but the scent of success has given him fresh heart. “Now I have my first win I just need to push on and get a second one” he said. “This is only a small step on a very long journey. I am very determined.
Roots of Asia’s rice crisis
Christian Science Monitor – Apr 22, 2008
But because global rice supplies are so tight ? causing India China Cambodia and Vietnam to restrict exports ? the Philippines is having a hard time fulfilling an import order of around one million tons. The country is paying exorbitant prices for whatever rice it can get its hands on driving up prices around the world to double last year’s. A shortfall of 10 percent is expected for 2008 causing fears that food riots could erupt here as they have in countries such as Haiti Egypt Mexico Burkina Faso and Senegal. Those are just concerns so far in the Philippines but the government of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo ? like the governments of Haiti and Malaysia among others ? has been shaken by the growing crisis and faced with public calls for her ouster. At the center of the storm lies a simple question: Why can’t the Philippines and other countries in Asia produce enough rice to feed themselves? Some reasons are beyond the direct control of the Philippines and other Asian archipelagos like Indonesia and Malaysia. Because their farmland is spread over thousands of miles and different islands production maintenance and transportation make rice cultivation expensive and difficult.
Parreira quits as South African coach
The Australian – Apr 22, 2008
It was the first time in 10 attempts that Bafana Bafana (The Boys) defeated South American opposition since being readmitted to international football in 1992 after three decades of isolation. South Africa won nine matches drew six and lost six since Parreira assumed control in February last year with compatriot Jairo Leal and South African Pitso Mosimane his assistants. Victory over in-form Paraguay came soon after South Africa made a lacklustre first round exit from the African Nations Cup in Ghana following draws with Angola and Senegal and a heavy loss to Tunisia. Bafana Bafana are guaranteed a place at the first World Cup to be staged in Africa as hosts but must compete in the 2010 qualifiers because they double as elimination matches for the African Nations Cup in Angola the same year. The first fixture is away to bogey team Nigeria on May 31 followed by Equatorial Guinea (home) and Sierra Leone (away and home) on the following three weekends. Local media reports have linked a number of high profile coaches with the 225000-dollar-a-month post including Brazilian Luiz Scolari and Swede Sven Goran Eriksson whose son helps coach a South African Premiership club. The contract of Scolari with Portugal ends after the Euro 2008 tournament in Austria and Switzerland while former England manager Eriksson has visited South Africa several times since taking over Manchester City.
Tata Steel to hold prices for 2-3 months
Economic Times – Apr 22, 2008
While steel makers say risingprices of inputs have increased their costs and forced them to raise prices thegovernment says that there is room for them to curb prices. “I would advise our steelindustry therefore to take a long term view and not fall prey to thetemptation of seeking windfall gains from market manipulation in a period ofexcess demand” Singh said at Tata Steel’s centenary celebrations. The Tata group is also lookingto expand and acquire raw materials in countries such as Mozambique CongoSenegal Brazil Ivory Coast and Angola. Before pledging to refrainfrom raising prices of its product Tata Steel’s managing director said the bestway to contain steel prices was to manage the demand-supply situation. “In a scenario like thisapart from exercising self-restraint on steel prices amidst rising inputcosts.
Leaders warn on biofuels and food
BBC News – Apr 22, 2008
The global prices of wheat rice and maize have nearly doubled in the past year while milk and meat have more than doubled in price in some countries. Such rises combined with high oil prices are causing increasing political instability in less developed countries across the world. Food riots earlier this month in Haiti which is highly reliant on imports of food and fuel led to the deaths of at least six people including a UN peacekeeper. There has also been unrest in Burkina Faso Cameroon Egypt Indonesia Ivory Coast Mauritania Mozambique and Senegal.
Food shortages: how will we feed the world?
Telegraph.co.uk – Apr 22, 2008
But steep rises in the price of staples such as wheat and rice are having an even bigger impact on poor countries. In Cameroon 24 people have been killed in food riots since February while in Haiti protesters chanting “We’re hungry” forced the prime minister to resign this month. In the past month there have been food riots in Egypt Cote d’Ivoire Senegal Burkina Faso Ethiopia Indonesia Bangladesh and Madagascar. The World Bank now believes that some 33 countries are in danger of being destabilised by food price inflation while Ban Ki-Moon the UN secretary-general said that higher food prices risked wiping out progress towards reducing poverty and could harm global growth and security. Why has this happened so quickly? Can science and technology get us out of the hole we appear to be in. WHAT CAUSED THE PRICE RISES? Bob Watson the chief scientist at the Department for the Environment Food and Rural Affairs puts the rise in the price of commodity crops such as wheat down to a number of factors: higher demand for grain to feed livestock in China where increasing affluence means more people want to eat meat; drought in Australia for three years meaning it has had to import wheat; market jitters brought on by the sight of several countries stopping exporting grain; speculators seeing a chance to make money; and of course the sudden extra demand for food crops such as maize for use in biofuels in both Europe and the United States. A few years ago he points out no one could have predicted that we would be aiming to produce five to 10 per cent of our petrol and diesel from crops.