Gwynne Dyer | End of a Cheap-Food Era

http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/071307HB.shtml

Writing in The North Bay Nugget, Gwynne Dyer says that while the global middle class has had the benefit of lower food prices, three converging factors are driving food prices up with no relief in sight. Dyer says the reasons are an increasing population, biofuels and increased consumption of meat.

Climate change threatens China's food supply

http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/climate-change-threatens-chinas-food- supply/2007/08/23/1187462441067.html

GLOBAL warming will cut China's annual grain harvest by up to 10 per cent, placing extra demands on the country's shrinking farmland and threatening its notion of food security, an official has warned. This would mean China would have to find another 10 million hectares of farmland by 2030, when its population is expected to peak at 1.5 billion.

Scientists Seek New Ways to Feed the World Amid Global Warming

Agency France-Presse Friday 17 August 2007

http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/082007EA.shtml

Meat is murder on the environment

New Scientist 18 July 2007 - Daniele Fanelli

http://environment.newscientist.com/article/mg19526134.500-meat-is-murder-on-the- environment.html

A kilogram of beef is responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions and other pollution than driving for 3 hours while leaving all the lights on back home.

This is among the conclusions of a study by Akifumi Ogino of the National Institute of Livestock and Grassland Science in Tsukuba, Japan, and colleagues, which has assessed the effects of beef production on global warming, water acidification and eutrophication, and energy consumption. The team looked at calf production, focusing on animal management and the effects of producing and transporting feed. By combining this information with data from their earlier studies on the impact of beef fattening systems, the researchers were able to calculate the total environmental load of a portion of beef.

LOWEST FOOD SUPPLIES IN 50 OR 100 YEARS: GLOBAL FOOD CRISIS EMERGING

SASKATOON, Sask.-Today, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) released its first projections of world grain supply and demand for the coming crop year: 2007/08. USDA predicts supplies will plunge to a 53-day equivalent-their lowest level in the 47-year period for which data exists.

For More Information: Darrin Qualman, Director of Research: 652-9465 Stewart Wells, NFU President: 773-6852

http://www.nfu.ca/

Backgrounder to the NFU's May 11, 2007 news release

The United States Department of Agriculture reports recent grain supply and demand numbers on its World Agriculture Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) website at http://usda.mannlib.cornell. edu/MannUsda?/viewDocumentInfo.do?documentID=1194

The longer-term data on world grains supply and demand is at Production, Supply, and Demand Online (PSD) at http://www.fas.usda.gov/psdonline/psdhome.aspx