Not war, overpopulation
The headline on the April 14 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer—IMF chief warns of war over food— based on the published statement of the head of the International Monetary Fund as reported by the Associated Press and Agence France-Presse wire services, is unduly alarming.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn said last Saturday that if the spike in food prices continued, “thousands, hundreds of thousands of people will be starving. Children will be suffering from malnutrition, with consequences for all their lives. As we know, learning from the past, those kinds of questions sometimes end in war.”
That is probable only when poor starving countries are located right next to a country with food surpluses. But in the present situation, countries with food deficiencies are located right next to each other. What can they possibly gain by warring on each other for food, considering that no one in the neighborhood will likely have enough of it?
The wire services quote the Food and Agriculture Organization that 37 countries face serious food crises. But the news stories did not identify these countries. A visit to the FAO Web site— www.fao.org—supplies this information, which combined with other reports from other sources, gives a picture of who are having food problems where.
More than 24 of these countries are in Africa, eight are in Asia, five in Latin America, and only one in Europe.
With the exceptions of Lesotho and Swaziland, with population growth rates of 0.22 and 0.34 percent respectively, Black Africans are multiplying like wildebeests: Central African Republic 1.51 percent; Ivory Coast 2.00; Ghana 2.03; Sudan 2.05; Guinea-Bissau 2.05; Liberia 2.15; Cameroon 2.24; Ethiopia 2.27; Sierra Leone 2.28; Eritrea 2.46; Guinea 2.62; Senegal 2.64; Kenya 2.80; Somalia 2.83; Mauritania 2.87; Burundi 2.88; Democratic Republic of Congo 2.96; Burkina Faso 3.00; Madagascar 3.01; Republic of Congo 3.26; and Uganda 3.55. Egypt (1.74) is included in this list.
The Asian countries with serious food problems, according to the FAO, are Iraq 2.62; Afghanistan 2.63; Bangladesh 2.12; Nepal 2.13; Tajikistan 2.03; Timor Leste 2.06; Pakistan 1.95; the Philippines 1.91; Indonesia 1.30; Sri Lanka 1.10; and North Korea 0.79 (which has been suffering droughts and floods, probably deliberately induced by the CIA, for the past decade.)
China (0.65), Vietnam (1.04) and Thailand (0.66) are also mentioned because of recent weather disturbances: severe winter in the first, floods in the other two.
In Latin America, the following are listed as having serious food problems: Bolivia 1.54; Ecuador 1.77; Dominican Republic 1.79; Nicaragua 1.97; and Haiti (2.55) which has the distinction of being the first country in 2008 whose government was brought down by food riots, last week.
Moldova (.003)is the only European country which faces a severe food problem. Despite its almost zero population growth rate, Moldova, a former Soviet socialist republic, faces not just a food shortage but a general economic meltdown. A recent BBC video feature showed scenes in Moldova familiar to many Filipinos: entire villages with only grandparents and grandchildren left; the parents are all working in Western Europe.
(The statistics above are from the 2008 World Almanac and Book of Facts.)
But Moldova is the exception that proves the rule. And the rule is that countries with rapid population growth rates are also the ones faced with severe food problems. Both are symptoms of the same malaise: an inability of their governments to anticipate problems, and a corresponding inability to organize their societies to cope with those problems.
Food prices have dramatically gone up in recent months because of a) increased demand, especially among recently prosperous people, especially in India and China, who now eat twice or thrice a day, compared to only once or twice in the recent past; b) severe weather conditions which ruined crops: abnormally heavy snowfall in China, floods in Southeast Asia; and c) an increase in the use of farm lands to grow bio-fuel crops.
In the past 12 months, the price of wheat has gone up 130 percent; soy beans 87 percent; rice 74 percent; and corn 31 percent. According to BBC News, per capita meat consumption in China has gone up from 20 kg in 1980 to 50 kg in 2007. And an indication of another looming global crisis: water. It takes 1,000-2,000 liters of water to produce one kg of wheat, but 10,000 to 13,000 liters to produce one kg of beef.
Another disturbing statistics from BBC News: The global population was 2.5 billion in 1950; 4.1 billion in 1975; and 6.l billion in 2000. The forecast is 8.0 billion in 2025 and 9.2 billion in 2050. And judging from the population growth rates in 2007, most of those additional two to three billion earthlings in the next 17 to 42 years will be impoverished Black Africans and possibly jihadist Muslims, with tens of millions of additional Roman Catholics, especially Filipinos, to contribute to the Standing Room Only scenario.
In my article titled Philippines 3000—Ready for 305 billion Pinoys? which appeared in the Feb. 17, 1997 issue of the Philippine Star, I wrote that “even if our population growth rate were to decline from 2.3 to 2.0 percent, there would still be 122.9 million Filipinos by 2025 (only 17 years from now), and 201.7 million by 2050 (only 42 years from now…)”
Impoverished Black Africans do not have the means to wage war on Europe and North America for food. But they can flood Europe with illegal immigrants. Would that they just drastically reduce their galloping population growth rates and use their vast and fertile lands to grow the food that they need. But, of course, that is easier said than done.
As for jihadist Muslims, they are already at war with the Crusaders and the Zionists, not for food, but for world domination. Islam is not just a religion, it is also a political system. Its ideal is that all countries are governed under sharia law. Islam is also a global ideology that urges its followers to use all means to work for the conversion of the rest of the world to its embrace.
So by the year 2025—which is only 17 years from now and most people now living will still be alive by then—there will be 1.9 billion more people on the planet, counting from 2000, and most of them will be impoverished Black Africans and possibly jihadist Muslims, together with some 30 million more Filipinos on top of our present 90 million. (Our president then will probably be Mikey Arroyo, after succeeding his aging mother in 2020.)
What was the title of that Broadway comedy hit in the 1960s? “Stop the World. I Want to Get Off!” It should enjoy a revival.
Filed under: agriculture, climate change, environment, famine, farming, food, food crisis, food shortage, globalisation, news, politics, prices | Tagged: food crisis, food shortage, overpopulation
Dummcopfs!
A patch on the knee is not a cure for headache.
To avert starvation – reduce the overpopulation.
Germans or French are not responsible for sexual hyperactivity of the Egyptians or Haitians or whoever!
One of the disturbing things I noted is the author doesn’t mention we grow enough food to feed eveyone in the world today. Yes the food exists but the distribution isn’t happening.
Starvation is happening today, but not because there isn’t enough food to avoid it. Of course, knowing there is enough food to go around makes one question if problems really are due to overpopulation. Perhaps a thought that should be followed.
Over population is absolutely, absolutely, the cause of most of our world’s problems affecting humans. This is obvious and logical, but human beings are far from logical or consistent in their logic. What is shocking is how seldom the issue is ever mentioned, as if there is some “taboo” about bringing it up. Only view some Star Trek episodes to see what possibilities for a brighter future for the human race might exist without the superstition of religion and without unbridled human breeding.
This is simply an issue of supply and demand, and it is a purely a matter of physics that only a limited amount of space exists on our planet.
this sucks
wow………this is a really big problem in our world today and an even bigger problem in years to come!!!!!!!!
Overpopulation and food shortages are horrible travesty in many poorer nations. What is troubling to me is that there is a supply of food to feed the world, and how much of it is wasted within our own nation everyday…