The global food crisis

"The world's 200 wealthiest people have as much

money as about 40% of the global population, and yet
850 million people have to go
to bed hungry every night."
Rising food prices have sparked violent protests around the
world. Five people were killed and hundreds injured during
recent riots in Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti.
 Food riots in 2008
• Egypt Thousands of demonstrators in Mahalla el-Kobra loot shops and throw bricks at
police during protests at rising food prices and low salaries, as part of nationwide
strike

• Haiti At least four people killed in the southern city of Les Cayes after food prices rise
50 per cent in the past year

• Côte d’Ivoire Police injure more than ten protesters as several hundred
demonstrators demand government action to curb food prices

• Cameroon Riots last four days and result in at least 40 deaths. Unrest is due to high
fuel and food prices. Worst riots in country for 15 years

• Mozambique At least four people killed and 100 injured following fuel price rises

• Senegal Violent demonstrations in Dakar as prices of rice, milk and oil soar. Senegal
imports almost all its food

• Yemen Five days of rioting and a hundred arrests after the price of wheat doubled
over two months. Protesters set up roadblocks in Sana’a and Aden

• ...and in Mauritania, Bolivia, Indonesia, Mexico, India, Burkina Faso, and Uzbekistan
- New Statesman, April 17, 2008
Unrest in Haiti: A UN peacekeeper from Nigeria was shot dead in Port-au-Price
during the recent riots. Around 9,000 peacekeepers and civilian police have been
stationed in the country since former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted
in an armed rebellion in 2004.
Food prices in Haiti are reported to have risen by 50 to 100 per cent in the last
year, hitting the vast majority of the population -- who live on less than $2 a day --
particularly hard.
Food as proportion of household budget

• While Australian households spend only

17% of their budget on food, Nigerian
families spend 73% of their budgets to eat,
Vietnamese 65%, Indonesians half.
- NY Times
• In Bangladesh, food consumes more than
half most people’s earnings and rent takes
up almost all the rest. -UK Guardian
Haiti food riot, April 2008
Haiti food riot, April 2008
Pakistani women buy subsidized flour in Lahore. The price of staple foods
and fuel has risen drastically in the country in the last few months. Many
people in Pakistan are now dependent on state subsidies.
In Manila, the capital of the Philippines, soldiers stand guard during
the sale of government rice. With the price of rice soaring, the
government is looking at ways to ensure none of its citizens starve.
Bangladesh: Food queues have
become longer as prices have gone
up. Fights over food frequently break
out in the queues.
• US President George W Bush has ordered the
release of $200 million in emergency aid to
alleviate food shortages in Africa and other parts
of the world… but just a month ago the US threw
$200 billion to bail out failing US banks.

• The International Monetary Fund estimates that

corn ethanol production in the United States
accounted for at least half the rise in world corn
demand in each of the past three years. This
elevated corn prices. Feed prices rose. So did
prices of other crops — mainly soybeans — as
farmers switched their fields to corn.
 Filipinos wearing rice sacks protest on a street in Manila, the
Philippines, April 16, 2008. The protestors are calling for stronger
measures from the National Food Authority to increase the proportion
of home-produced rice in its food reserve.
Protest over rising food prices in Indonesia.
Haiti food riot, April 2008
 "The world's 200 wealthiest people have as much
money as about 40% of the global population, and yet
850 million people have to go
to bed hungry every night."
‘a massacre of the world’s poor’
Hugo Chavez, Venezuela’s
socialist president:
“The problem is not the
production of food …
it is the economic,
social and political
model of the world.
The capitalist model is
in crisis.”
 Indonesia: Poor and workers call for Venezuela-style
nationalisation of oil multinationals to feed , educate and house
the people – Berdikari April 29, 2008