This is a sad story but becoming ever more true as the days go by.

There are something like 800,000,000 million people going hungry at the present time around the globe.

The number of homeless families rose 9% in 2008, from 473,00 to 517,000. And the number of people in shelters jumped from 23% to 32% in the United States alone.An economic depression. 

We don't have enough food to feed them and they are starting to riot amongst themselves,killing and maiming themselves.

Here are some interesting facts I have mustered up.

I found this food bank in California for all interested in buying good food at a discount!!!!

A local organization that provides groceries for half price is being overwhelmed by consumers interested in the new program. Our customers are not homeless,'' Compassion Christian Center. ''They are everyday working people that are trying to save money so they can spend money where they want. For just $30, consumers get $60 to $70 worth of groceries through a program called Angel Food Ministries. On the fourth Saturday of each month the food is delivered to the Compassion Christian Center for pick up. The program is able to keep the prices low by cutting out the middle man. If you would like more information about Angel Food Ministries you can call the Compassion Christian Center 325-4407. The deadline to order for this month has already passed, but orders are being taken for February. Anyone can participate, no matter what your income level.

In America we have cut the fishing of Salmon because of a major shortage in spawning fish.The price of a pound of Salmon will soon cost $25.00.

The cost of fuel is sky rocketing,because of the manufacture of Bio Fuel from Corn.

A baker throwing one extra into your bag of a dozen croissants is a good thing. But you may find yourself suffering from a mild case of triskaidekaphobia after checking out our list of 13 factors that are converging to push the world towards a food crisis.

In the United States and other western countries, food shortages seem remote, except for the occasional bare supermarket shelves the night before a major snowstorm. But there are many problems threatening our Business As Usual system, and a food crisis is going to be a serious possibility in the coming years.

Even though the risk remains highest in poorer countries and those already dealing with marginal agricultural conditions, consumers in the West are going to see higher food prices at a minimum, with occasional food shortages quite possible.

FOOD CRISIS ...Indian Muslims in the Murshidabad district, West Bengals, are starving to death, while the provisional and central governments are playing blind, fact-finding missions revealed.

Due to the erosion of lifeline Ganga river in the area, which devastated vast swathes of fertile land, about 1000 families in six villages are facing starvation, according to missions sent by the two Muslim organizations, Zakat Foundation of India and Markazul Maarif.

The English-language newspaper has decided to file a public interest litigation (PIL) case in the Supreme Court of India to force the central and state authorities to work for the long-term rehabilitation of the affected population.

PIL is a revolutionary legal prevision which allows citizens to go directly to the highest court in matters of public interest.

Murshidabad used to be the capital of Muslim Bengal before the advent of the British colonial rule.

It was so prosperous and rich that Lord Clive, the commander of the British invasion troops, described it as bigger than Londonand had more rich people.

Two centuries of British loot and half a century of local misrule, including two and a half decades of communist rule, have impoverished the state.

Deafening Silence

The government inaction has drawn string criticism from local newspapers, which accused authorities of papering over the reported catastrophe.

“Starvation Deaths: Dubious Games Marxists Play,” read an editorial published by the Statesman of Kolkata earlier in the month.

The paper accused the Marxist party, which has been ruling West Bangals over the last 28 years, of intimidating media and journalists.

“It is a matter of shame that the government in power in West Bengal for the last 28 years is moving heaven and earth to adopt dubious and coercive tactics, including lies and terror, to deny starvation deaths,” it wrote.

The party attributed the deaths to old age and chronic diseases.

But the paper rejected the claims as a bid to hide the truth to save its prestige ahead of the crucial municipal election.

“Even the march undertaken by the starving to the [government] BDO office failed to evoke the expected response underlining heartlessness and hypocrisy. But, they did not forget to collect party levies, running into thousands.”

Introduction

What factors may contribute to a food crisis-that is, sharply higher prices at a minimum, with actual food shortages possible? Here's a quick list of our baker's dozen:

• Energy shortages and prices
• Biofuels
• Global warming
• Fresh water shortages
• Economic chaos
• Higher population levels
• Bad agricultural policy
• Soil degradation
• The honeybee problem and loss of native pollinators
• Loss of crop varieties and genetic contamination
• Farmer shortages
• Fish declines
• General ignorance of food

Today's article will discuss the first six of these topics (blue font). Topics 7-12 (teal font) are discussed in the second article in the series: Crisis affecting agriculture.Part 3 discusses the lamentable item 13 (lavender font) and offers a cornucopia of strategies you can implement to limit the impact of any food crisis on you and your family: Food Security.

FOOD CRISIS FACTOR #...

1. Energy Shortages and Prices

Modern agriculture is a highly industrialized, highly distributed, petroleum-dependent affair. Farmers are very reliant on tractors and other diesel-powered farm machinery. Most of the food we eat was grown in a place distant from us, processed at some other distant place, and shipped to our local store shelves via 18-wheeler (and sometimes by plane). Our local store refrigerates, freezes, or otherwise stores the food and presents it to shoppers in a well lighted, heated and cooled space. Shoppers drive their petro-powered cars to the market and make their purchases, then store their food at home in refrigerators and freezers.

All of this requires huge amounts of fuel and electricity, and makes our food supply very dependent on steady supplies of affordable energy. So, where's the problem?

Global petroleum production appears to be peaking, which means tighter oil supplies and higher prices in the future. Higher fuel prices will be reflected in food prices. Similarly, spot shortages of fuel could result in spot shortages of food on store shelves. Few households maintain significant food stocks, so shortages would lead to hoarding (which also usually increases food waste factors), which would further exacerbate the situation.

In North America, production of natural gas has peaked. Much of the remaining supply is used to run power plants and, increasingly, to turn Canada's tar sands into vehicle fuel. But natural gas is also a critical ingredient in synthetic fertilizer, a critical component of industrial agriculture. Farmers can expect ever-increasing prices for fertilizer, and these cost hikes will continue finding their way to the price of food.

Besides transportation fuel, petroleum is also the base ingredient in chemical pesticides and a main ingredient in food packaging. Higher oil prices will mean higher pesticide and packaging prices and will contribute to higher food prices.

The final energy component in our food supply is electricity. In the US, we are fortunate that the grid is relatively reliable. But multi-day outages do occur, and such events usually leave those affected with fridges and freezers full of spoiled food. As demand for electricity continues to rise and global warming's pressure to phase out coal-fired power plants increases, our electricity system may be increasingly strained to keep up with demand-a situation that will make grid failures occur more frequently.

FOOD CRISIS FACTOR #...

2. Biofuels

Oil prices have risen into the painful range. Social unrest is now standard in many of the oil producing regions of the world. Everyone is looking for global warming solutions. With these and other factors in mind, US and European policymakers all seem to be gung-ho on biofuels as a home-grown, climate-friendly energy solution. Ah, if it were only that easy.

Proper coverage of the potential benefits and obvious problems of biofuels would require a multi-part series all its own, and the overall pros and cons of biofuels are not really the point here. The question is, what effect will biofuels have on the food supply?

Diversion of corn and soybeans from the food stream into biofuels production has already begun to put upward pressure on food prices. US farm land currently devoted to other crops will also be diverted to corn and soybean production in the future to increase the availability of biofuels feed stocks. The voracious biofuels push will also cause marginal, fallow cropland and unplanted buffer zones to be put into production, increasing soil erosion and water pollution.

Cellulosic ethanol, which can use the inedible part of the corn plant (or other plants that are entirely inedible), is championed as a double-barreled solution that will make the ethanol process more efficient and eliminate the need to use food crops as feed stocks. But that technology is still being worked out, and even if it does come to maturity, unsustainable "clear cut" harvesting of plants from farm fields, range lands, and "scrub" areas could degrade these lands to the point where we end up causing the next great Dust Bowl.

You may note that biofuels proponents never discuss soil health, the Achilles heel of biofuels (and industrial agriculture in general). One sustainable-agriculture advocate in the US put it this way: "The ethanol craze means that we're going to burn up the Midwest's last six inches of topsoil in our gas-tanks."

This is not to say that biofuels have no role to play-they clearly do. Local production of biofuels based on sustainable agriculture practices is a fine idea. But that won't scale up to a nationwide supply that can replace the current amounts of gasoline and petroleum diesel. Of course, that doesn't mean "they" won't try, impacts on food and soil health be damned.

LET'S NOT BE BIO-FOOLS

Peter Melchett, Policy Director at the Soil Association in the UK, summed up the biofuels limitations in Europe clearly: "The OECD estimates that the EU would need to use 72% of arable land to provide 10% of fuel used in the EU. Using 18% of the EU's arable land would cut greenhouse gas emissions from EU transport by 1-2%. This sacrifices food security for an illusion of energy security."

FOOD CRISIS FACTOR #...

3. Global Warming

One of the standard arguments from the anti-global-warming crowd goes something like this: Plants eat carbon dioxide, so CO2-driven global warming will be good for farming. Further, colder climates will warm, making a longer, more productive growing season possible. Um, not so fast there, Slicko.

First, the "CO2 as fertilizer" argument is only correct if other required nutrients are also available in increasing quantities. Even where that is partly true, it worth pointing out that weeds tend to out-compete crops in higher-CO2 environments.

Colder agricultural areas like Canada and northern Europe may see warmer weather and increased growing seasons, which be a positive in the yield equation. But other factors, like increased pest and disease problems, which are predicted to be spurred on by warming, would push back the other way.

Other areas will get unwanted increases in average temperatures. USDA studies have shown that for every 1 degree increase in temperature you get a 10% drop in yield. A study in India found a slightly different relationship: A 1 degree C rise had little effect on wheat yields, but a 2 degree C rise was shown to reduce yields by as much as 38%---even after adjusting for the offsetting effects of higher CO2 levels. Neither scenario bodes well for the future of grain yields.

Finally, one of the most prominent predictions associated with global climate change is increased bad weather-droughts, floods, wind, hail-all of which have a negative effect on farming.

FOOD CRISIS FACTOR #...

4. Fresh Water Shortages

Also associated with global warming will be lower availability of fresh water in some areas. With use of river water in key farming regions already at or near full exploitation, any decrease will not only reduce farm output, it will also make living there more of a challenge.

Another fresh water problem is the over-pumping of groundwater; that is, pumping groundwater resources at a rate greater than their recharge rate. The 20th century saw a vast expansion of the use of groundwater for agricultural and residential purposes (such as in the US Midwest and Southwest). Globally, up to 80% of potable water is used for irrigation.

But now water tables are falling in many countries, including China, India, and the United States, which together account for nearly half of the global grain harvest. Worse, the rate of depletion is accelerating. Not all food production relies on irrigation, of course, but enough does that the situation is of concern.

FARMING IN OGALLALA-LAND

The effects of aquifer depletion vary, depending on whether it is a replenishable aquifer or a fossil aquifer.

If the aquifer is replenishable, as most are, once depletion occurs, the amount of water that can be pumped is necessarily reduced to the level of the recharge rate. If, for example, an aquifer is currently being pumped at twice the recharge rate, when the point of depletion is reached, the rate of pumping will be cut in half.

In a fossil aquifer-that is, a non-replenishable aquifer-depletion means the end of pumping. Fossil aquifers include the giant Ogallala Aquifer under the US Great Plains.

Source: Lester Brown, author of Plan B, v3.0

Also troublesome is contamination of groundwater from polluted surface water and land; leaking underground storage tanks; and, believe it or not, intentional "deep injection" of toxic waste that can eventually find its way to usable groundwater.

FOOD CRISIS FACTOR #...

5. Economic Chaos

We certainly hope that the global financial system does not go "boom." But the sharpies we appointed to run things and those who manipulate money for a living have created very dangerous conditions in the money system.

The effect on food of a financial crash or a depression are obvious enough-many people will lack enough money to buy food. Also possible are disruptions in the global supply chain as the "liquidity crisis" curtails loan-dependent agricultural activities or as supply-chain companies go bankrupt.

If serious economic chaos occurs, it will be bad for all sectors, and food will not be an exception. The impact on food is noteworthy, however, since food is one of the few truly essential things in our lives. We can live almost indefinitely without a new VCR or even a new car. We can't go long at all without food.

You can start keeping abreast of the real story on global financial problems-forget about relying on corporate media for the truth on this-at the LATOC Breaking News page.

FOOD CRISIS FACTOR #...

6. Higher Population Levels

Population levels are a main driver in many environment and resource problems. Populations in Western countries have stabilized-with the notable exception of the United States, which just passed the 300 million mark. Populations in many developing nations are still exploding. Overall, more mouths to feed means more pressure on food supplies. Even though total global grain production has managed to continue growing, the amount of grain per person has declined since its high in the 1980s, and total grain reserves are at their lowest point in decades.

At this point in agricultural history, we have a fixed amount of arable land. Further increases in population will smack up against limits in land availability and stagnating yield gains, thus further reducing the amount of grain per person.

Another trend that fits somewhat into this category is the demand for more meat. US consumers' love of extra-meaty meals is well known. As average incomes in developing countries rise, there is a tendency for eaters in those countries to add more meat to their diets too. The amount of meat that can be raised per acre is far less than the amount of vegetable protein that can be raised per acre; thus, the more-meat trend will put further pressure on grain and soybean prices, supplies, and reserves.

BEATING LAWNMOWERS

INTO PLOWSHARES

The great Sprawl Experiment that the US undertook in the second half of the 20th century may be about to suffer a one-two death punch:

-- The first threat is from the financial time-bomb whose fuse was lit by the sub-prime mortgage crisis. There are going to be so many foreclosures that home prices will being going down for a long time. A ubiquity of vacant homes is already leading to suburban blight in some neighborhoods.

-- The second threat is from ever-rising gas prices in the future, which will make living in the "exurbs" (and perhaps even some suburbs) untenable.

Will some of the millions of acres of prime farm land that were chewed up by sprawl find their way back to the plow? Probably. And we're going to need them.

Related article: Farm Land Preservation

FOOD CRISIS ...

That's All For Now

For the next six food-crisis factors, see the second article in this series, Crisis in Agriculture, which covers serious problems in the world of farming, agribusiness, and regulation:

• Bad agricultural policy
• Soil degradation
• The honeybee problem and loss of native pollinators
• Loss of crop varieties and genetic contamination
• Farmer shortages
• Fish declines

Part 3 of the series offers strategies you can implement to limit the impact of any food crisis on you and your family. Get it here: Food Security

Who will pay the BILL??

WASHINGTON - Facing growing criticism of his economic recovery plan, President-elect Barack Obama made public Saturday a detailed analysis by his economic advisers that estimates the $775 billion plan of tax cuts and new spending would create 3.5 million jobs over the next two years.

With an eye on Obama having immediate access to bailout money already approved by Congress when he becomes president, his economic team and the Bush administration have discussed having Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson ask lawmakers for access to the $350 billion remaining in the fund.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said the Bush administration has not decided whether to make such a request before Bush's term ends on Jan. 20. Under the terms of the legislation creating the bailout fund, Congress would have 15 days to reject the request. 

The Obama transition team also has asked Neel Kashkari, the head of the rescue program at the Treasury Department, to remain in that position for a short time after the inauguration to help assure a smooth transition, according to an Obama official.

Analysis concedes 'margins of error' The 14-page analysis of Obama's $775 billion plan, which was posted on the Internet, concedes that the estimates are "subject to significant margins of error," both because of the assumptions that went into their economic models and because no one knows the final outlines of the package that will emerge from Congress.

"These numbers are a stark reminder that we simply cannot continue on our current path," Obama said Saturday in his weekly radio and YouTube broadcast address.

"If nothing is done, economists from across the spectrum tell us that this recession could linger for years and the unemployment rate could reach double digits — and they warn that our nation could lose the competitive edge that has served as a foundation for our strength and standing in the world," he said.

Obama, who previously has provided few details of the massive spending and tax cut plan, released the report one day after the unemployment rate jumped to 7.2 percent, the highest in 16 years. The nation lost 524,000 jobs in December, bringing the total job loss for last year to 2.6 million, the largest since World War II.

If Congress fails to enact a big economic stimulus plan, Obama's advisers estimated that another 3 million to 4 million jobs will disappear before the recession ends.

Obama agrees to changes As lawmaker criticisms of parts of his plan grew during the week, Obama agreed Friday to modest changes in his proposed tax cuts. Democratic congressional officials said his aides came under pressure in closed-door talks to jettison or significantly alter a proposed tax credit for creating jobs, and to include relief for upper middle-class families hit by the alternative minimum tax.