Thursday, May 1, 2008

May Day 08 - The Food Crisis

It is May Day. The day we celebrate the social and economic accomplishments of international labor. Well, this year the focus of the day is on food. That's right. In our incredibly modern and advanced world we are facing an international food crisis. Today, there were demonstrations and riots around food and income inequalities across the globe. And you thought Gas prices were high.

Sadly, workers and children will be the hardest hit, as 100 million more people worldwide sink into poverty. Read the Washington Post article on the subject here. Poverty already affects much of the third world, with over a billion people existing on less than $2 US per day. Just think about that. Then contemplate that number getting much bigger, because that's where this is all headed. We're already fighting wars over oil. Now, it appears, we may be faced with conflict over food. Just peachy.

Analysts tell us that schools will be especially hard hit, as many schools now feed their students. Indeed, some of the students in the third world attend school just for the meals. Now those will be gone, and children will be relegated to labor to try and close the poverty gap. Read about some of the reasons why we're facing this crisis here and the negative effects of our rush to Ethanol here. And read about its effects on Africa here.

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