Archive

Posts Tagged ‘droughts’

NATO Warns of Food Crisis and More Unrest, Prices Increase 15% in Four Months

February 21, 2011 Comments off
The potential of high food prices to act as a trigger for social and political changes has been evident across North Africa and the Middle East in 2011. Higher food prices, coupled with a financial downturn, have impacted hard on the region’s people. Those hit hardest are the poor, who spend a higher percentage of their money on food. 

The World Food Program’s representative in one of the countries which has seen protests, Yemen, recently stated: ‘There is an obvious link between high food prices and unrest.’

Credit: NATO

The 2008 food crisis was a warning of things to come. More recently, food prices rose by 15% in just the period October 2010 to January 2011, according to the World Bank’s Food Price Watch.

This time, the impacts have been felt more keenly in political and security circles. The President of Read more…

Farmers Deposit Seeds in Arctic Doomsday Vault, Patrolled by Polar Bears

February 18, 2011 Comments off

Matthew Hall

Farmers from Australia are the latest donors to a polar bear-patrolled Arctic doomsday vault that stores seeds as insurance against an international food emergency.

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, a converted mine, is located about 800 miles from the North Pole in Arctic Norway.

An Australian delegation of farmers and scientists next week will deposit 301 samples of peas and 42 rare chickpeas in the vault, intending to protect the plant species from extinction by climatic or man-made events.

Snow blows off the Svalbard Global Seed Vault at sunrise, Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2008. 

John McConnico, AP
Australian farmers and scientists next week will deposit 301 samples of peas and 42 rare chickpeas in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, shown here in 2008.

“It’s a very robust structure, concrete, made into the Read more…

Fresh produce prices to double or triple following freak freezes – is Earth in a magnetic pole shift?

February 15, 2011 Comments off

In an article posted on January 3 of this year, I predicted a rise in food prices resulting from freak weather events (http://www.naturalnews.com/030903_p…). Here’s what I said in that article:

By the end of 2012, I predict significant food supply disruptions in North America, brought about either by radical weather affecting crop yields or perhaps the invasion of disease indirectly caused by the over-use of pesticides or GMOs. The number of people in America struggling to feed themselves and their families will rise along with food prices. …Expect to see food prices climb with alarming speed over the next two years. While food won’t disappear, it will become significantly more expensive, causing more people to shift to subsidized foods (corn, sugar, etc.) which also happen to be some of the worst foods for your health.

Now there’s news from Mexico that the fresh produce normally shipped to U.S. grocery stores has been largely destroyed by the freak cold weather snap that struck the continental United States over the past 10 days. As a result, prices on cucumbers, zucchini, peppers, tomatoes and asparagus are set to double or triple starting right now.

Even worse, it looks like the supply of many of these items will be completely wiped out. You won’t be able to buy them, in other words, at any price!

This is the fallout from the worst freeze event recorded in Read more…