The battle to feed all of humanity is over. In the 1970s and 1980s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death... Paul Ehrlich The road to the future leads us smack into the wall.... Our survival is no more than a question of 25, 50 or perhaps 100 years. -- Jacques Cousteau

Famine 1975!...or 2005! 16/7/2004 Hunger Drives Darfur's Locals To Take Food Aid Meant For Displaced Sudanese 18/6/2004 Annan Urges Tougher Action Against Creeping Desertification 11/6/2004 Food Airlift Gets Under Way To Troubled Darfur 4/6/2004 Drought-Hit Northern Somalia Faces Looming Disaster, UN Warns 14/5/2004 Escalating Food Crisis In Uganda Future Food Aid To Zimbabwe Jeopardized By Cancellation Of Food Assessment Mission 7/5/2004 Angolans Return Home To Peace – And Hunger Hunger Drives Darfur's Locals To Take Food Aid Meant For Displaced Sudanese Annan Urges Tougher Action Against Creeping Desertification Food Airlift Gets Under Way To Troubled Darfur Drought-Hit Northern Somalia Faces Looming Disaster, UN Warns Escalating Food Crisis In Uganda Future Food Aid To Zimbabwe Jeopardized By Cancellation Of Food Assessment Mission Angolans Return Home To Peace – And Hunger 13/2/2004 Despite UN Efforts Spectre Of Famine Looms Over Korea Despite UN Efforts Spectre Of Famine Looms Over Korea

24/9/2004 World Cereal Production Up But Locusts Pose Threat In Africa UN said this week that the 2004 harvest will be much improved and is unlikely to require any supplementing from long term cereal stocks. But there remains a black cloud on the horizon in the shape of a potential locust plague in sub-Saharan Africa that could have a devastating effect on crops there. In a favourable update on global cereal production this week, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) raised its forecast for the year by 29 million tons, sufficient to meet projected overall consumption needs. "This is essentially good news ….we expect cereal production to be close to total levels of utilization." said the head of FAO's Global Information and Early Warning System, Henri Josserand. Cereal output for 2004 is now forecast at 1,985 million tons, 29 million tons more than predictions made in June of this year. The wheat crop in Europe was much larger than had been expected while favourable growing conditions in the United States have boosted maize production there. North Africa can expect a record wheat harvest since the region has avoided the potential threat from locusts by undertaking large-scale control operations. The 2004 wheat crop is estimated at a record 17.3 million tons, up 38 per cent on the average of the previous five years.

The politics of food? Joint FAO/WFP: UN agencies warn of massive southern Africa food crisis: 10 million people threatened by famine “...Two successive years of poor harvests caused by natural calamities, coupled with economic crises and disruption of farming activities in parts, have slashed food production and availability across the region, resulting in one of southern Africa's worst agricultural disasters in a decade....”

“... Since March 2000, agricultural output [in Zimbabwe] has severely dropped and violent clashes have ensued between government supporters and white farmers. Nearly all of the 4,000 white farmers who own portions of Zimbabwe's best agricultural land have had their farms listed for seizure...”

“...Mugabe and his government cannot fail to understand the consequence of redistribution of the country's most productive land to subsistence level farmers. At best, Zimbabwe will be able to feed itself. But the tobacco industry has already said that it will shut down if 3,000 farms are seized. Then there will be little hard currency to pay for fuel and electricity, and so little incentive for industry to stay around...”

...”We reached rock bottom by December [2002]...economically and politically. There was no fuel for most of December and inflation went up to about 180%! I can barely support Mom and Dad and myself any more on my salary and Mom and Dad have decided to go back to Sri Lanka later this month as it's much easier there than here. I knew we had hit rock bottom when on X'mas day after the family lunch I dropped my X'mas pudding and raced out to join a 3 km long petro, queue for which I spent the nite in to get a few litres. Such is life...”