famine

In February 2008, airline Virgin Atlantic conducted a test flight using a biofuel made from coconut and babassu oil... During Virgin’s test flight from London to Amsterdam, the Boeing 747 consumed 22 tonnes of fuel, of which only 5 per cent was neat biofuel. Producing even that much required the equivalent of 150,000 coconuts... Had this single flight been run entirely on biofuel, it would have consumed 3 million coconuts

According to a March 3, 2010 Save the Children report, “The world is ignoring the daily deaths of more than 850 Afghan children from treatable diseases like diarrhea and pneumonia, focusing on fighting the insurgency rather than providing humanitarian aid.” The report notes that a quarter of all children born in the country die before the age of five, while nearly 60 percent of children are malnourished and suffer physical or mental problems. The UN Human Development Index in 2009 says that Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries in the world, second only to Niger in sub-Saharan Africa.

The proposed US defense budget will cost the U.S. public two billion dollars per day. President Obama’s administration is seeking a 33 billion dollar supplemental to fund wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Climate change will compound existing food insecurity. Before the current food crisis, more than 800 million people had calorie-deficient diets, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia. After the rise in food prices in 2008, millions more—estimates range from 100 million to 850 million—might suffer hunger or food insecurity. According to the UN World Food Programme, the number of food emergencies every year has increased from an average of 15 during the 1980s to more than 30.

Another study suggests that half of the world's population could face severe food shortages by the end of the century because rising temperatures take their toll on farmers' crops. Harvests of staple food crops, such as rice and maize, could fall between 20% and 40% as a result of increased temperatures during the growing season in tropical and subtropical regions.

It is the trading giants like Pepsi and Cargill who have benefited from withdrawal of food subsidies to the poor and redirection of subsidies for exports. Pepsi is exporting 100,000 tonnes of rice from India during 2002 with Rs. 12.2 million profits, while people in India face starvation. Cargill has exported 1m.t. tonnes of wheat during the past year, and plans to procure 20,000 m.t. during the 2002 harvest. Trade liberalization is a recipe for starving the poor to feed the corporations.

While the World Bank and IMF remove subsidies from food reaching the poor, they encourage subsidies to grain giants like Cargill and Pepsi for exporting food grain.

While people have been forced to buy wheat and rice at [Indian] Rs. 11.30/Kg., because of the withdrawal of subsidies, export corporations such as Cargill are getting wheat and rice at highly subsidized prices. Using the artificially created surpluses as justification for exports the government will be exporting 5 million tonnes of wheat and 3 million tonnes of rice during 2001 while people pay Rs. 7000 per tonne for wheat, exporters are getting it at Rs. 4,300 per tonne, a subsidy of Rs. 13.5 billion. While people pay Rs. 11,300/Ton for rice, exporters are getting at Rs. 5,650 per tonne, a subsidy of Rs. 60 billion. Exports increase while people starve. Corporations are subsidized while people's food subsidies are withdrawn. This is how globalization is causing hunger and starvation in the Third World.