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04/12/2008: "Refugees from food wars to flood the West"

Rising food prices could threaten political stability around the world, the UN's leading humanitarian official said yesterday.

Sir John Holmes, the undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs and the UN's emergency relief co-ordinator, told a conference in Dubai that rising prices would spark unrest across vulnerable nations. Average prices have risen 40 per cent across the world in less than a year.

Sir John said: "The security implications should also not be underestimated as food riots are already being reported across the globe.

As well as the riots in Egypt, rising food costs have been blamed for violent unrest in Haiti, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Mauritania, Mozambique and Senegal. Protests have also occurred in Uzbekistan, Yemen, Bolivia and Indonesia.

Experts believe food insecurity should be treated as seriously as climate change.

[ Cheap oil allows cheap food, and Western aid agencies spread it around. More people are bred to take advantage of this. Then the oil gets less cheap. Sudden crisis. Good planning, idiots. ]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/09/wriots109.xml