food news

food news
Farmers face climate challenge in quest for more food - guardian.co.uk If farmers think they have a tough time producing enough rice, wheat and other grain crops, global warming is going to present a whole new world of challenges in the race to produce more food, scientists say.	4th May 2008
UN chiefs hold food crisis summit - BBC News UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is due to announce details of new measures to tackle the global food crisis. "In the long term we need to address the challenges caused by climate change," UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon	29th April 2008
Corn-fuel bill will worsen hunger, critics say - CNews Canada: Food will be turned into fuel and people will go hungry if Parliament passes a new bill demanding greater use of corn-fuels like ethanol, critics say.	29th April 2008
Focus: Hunger. Strikes. Riots. The food crisis bites - Guardian Unlimited In less than a year, the price of wheat has risen 130 per cent, soya by 87 per cent and rice by 74 per cent. According to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation, there are only eight to 12 weeks of cereal stocks in the world, while grain supplies are at their lowest since the 1980s. Not surprisingly, these swiftly rising prices have unleashed serious political unrest in many places. In Dhaka yesterday 10,000 Bangladeshi textile workers clashed with police. Dozens were injured, including 20 policemen, in a protest triggered by food costs that was eventually quelled by baton charges and teargas. In Haiti, demonstrators recently tried to storm the presidential palace after prices of staple foods leaped 50 per cent. In Egypt, Indonesia, Ivory Coast, Mauritania, Mozambique, Senegal and Cameroon there have been demonstrations, sometimes involving fatalities, as starving, desperate people have taken to the streets. And in Vietnam the new crime of rice rustling - in which crops are stripped at night from fields by raiders - has led to the banning of all harvesting machines from roads after sunset and to farmers, armed with shotguns, camping around their fields 24 hours a day.	13th April 2008
Food price rises threaten global security - UN - Guardian Rising food prices could spark worldwide unrest and threaten political stability, the UN's top humanitarian official warned yesterday after two days of rioting in Egypt over the doubling of prices of basic foods in a year and protests in other parts of the world. See also: Hungry mob attacks Haiti palace - BBC	9th April 2008
World food balance tips toward crisis - Seattle Post Intelligencer The subsidized conversion of crops into fuel was supposed to promote energy independence and help limit global warming. But this promise was, as Time magazine bluntly put it, a "scam."	9th April 2008
Scientist warns climate change will impact beer production - CNews WELLINGTON, New Zealand - The price of beer is likely to rise in coming decades because climate change will hamper the production of a key grain needed for the brew - especially in Australia, a scientist warned Tuesday.	9th April 2008
Riots fear after rice price hits a high - Guardian Unlimited Shortages of the staple crop of half the world's people could bring unrest across Asia and Africa	6th April 2008
Crop switch worsens global food price crisis - Guardian Unlimited UN secretary general raises doubt over policy encouraging farmers to produce biofuels amid signs of worst food crisis in a generation	5th April 2008
Go for an 'Edible Estate': The Case Against Lawns - AlterNet Why do we dedicate so much property to something that requires precious resources, endless hours and contaminates our air and water?	5th April 2008
Wheat future surge on worries that bad weather will damage crops - Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune NEW YORK - Wheat prices shot up Friday as investors bet that a mix of wet and dry weather in wheat-growing U.S. states will damage crops and tighten supplies of the grain used to make bread, pasta and other foods.	5th April 2008
Ted Turner Says Global Warming Will Increase Cannibalism - Ecorazzi In an interview Tuesday for Charlie Rose’s PBS show, the CNN founder said that one of the consequences of Global Warming will be mass cannibalism. From the interview, “Not doing it will be catastrophic. We’ll be eight degrees hotter in ten, not ten but 30 or 40 years and basically none of the crops will grow. Most of the people will have died and the rest of us will be cannibals. Civilization will have broken down. The few people left will be living in a failed state — like Somalia or Sudan — and living conditions will be intolerable. The droughts will be so bad there’ll be no more corn grown. Not doing it is suicide.”	4th April 2008
Hungry Crowds Spell Trouble For World Leaders - Planet Ark YAOUNDE - "Is it not said 'A hungry man is an angry man'?" commented Simon Nkwenti, head of a teachers' union in Cameroon, after riots that killed dozens of people in the central African country.	3rd April 2008
Thai farmers fall prey to rice rustlers as price of staple crop rockets - Guardian Unlimited Asian countries curb exports to avoid shortfalls as 'perfect storm' nearly doubles price in three months	31st March 2008
The new global menace: food inflation - The Globe and Mail Staple prices have doubled, fanning social, political unrest	30th March 2008
EXPERTS SOUND ALARM ON FUTURE AVAILABILITY OF RICE - The Manila Times LOS BAÑOS: It is the staple food of half of humanity but only a handful of countries have large rice surpluses, leaving even some of the biggest producers scrambling to grow enough to feed their own people.	29th March 2008
Rosie Boycott: Only a radical change of diet can halt looming food crises - Guardian Unlimited Rosie Boycott: Costs are high now, but rising oil prices will bring enormous problems for a world with appetites that it simply can't sustain	29th March 2008
NOAA: Ocean acidity threatening Pacific Ocean fisheries - Alaska Journal of Commerce KODIAK Ñ A federal fisheries scientist says a major threat to fisheries in the North Pacific Ocean in this century is coming from ocean acidity due to rising levels of carbon dioxide in the ocean.	29th March 2008
Major food source threatened by climate change - New Scientist Rice yields will be hit hard by predicted changes in climate, with the potential to cause widespread food shortages	24th March 2008
Severe drought threatens wheat and rapeseed production - China Daily Wheat and rapeseed production in north China are under threat from severe drought.	23rd March 2008
How food miles myth hurts the planet - Guardian Unlimited Science environment: Robin McKie and Caroline Davies report on how the concept of food miles became oversimplified [Let's re-simplify it then... Eating Local Strengthens Commmunity]	23rd March 2008
Melting glaciers will trigger food shortages - New Scientist The glaciers that feed Asia's mightiest rivers are disappearing, and with them irrigation water that feeds millions	21st March 2008
Uganda: 1.5 Million People Face Starvation Due to Foods, Drought - AllAfrica.com Some 1.5 million people are in need of food aid in parts of the country hit by last year's floods and now experiencing drought since January.	14th March 2008
Australia's food bowl lies empty - BBC After America, Australia is normally the second largest exporter of grain, and in a good year it would hope to harvest about 25 million tonnes. But the country remains in the grip of the worst drought in a century, which is why the 2006 crop yielded only 9.8m tonnes. Last year saw one of the best starts to a growing season for years, but dry weather in recent weeks has forced the Australian government to slash its crop forecasts by 30%.	14th March 2008
Early spring thaw could affect your groceries - MSNBC NASA scientists have recorded an earlier regional thawing trend across northern high latitudes, advancing almost one day a year, since 1988. This trend, a likely result of global warming, leads to a longer growing season and supplies more time to harvest, which on the surface can be seen as positive. Some new studies, though, warn that this situation could actually increase the effects of climate change in the long term. Why? Early thaw has the potential to alter the cycle of atmospheric carbon dioxide intake and release. A longer growing season promotes more carbon uptake, which is then stored in seasonally frozen and permafrost soils. But when permafrost soils thaw and dry out, higher temperatures in the fall promote release of the stored carbon back into the atmosphere. This process is projected to increase over time at an accelerated rate, sending carbon dioxide levels soaring and further warming the planet.	13th March 2008
World warned on high food costs - BBC The UN secretary general tells the BBC he is "deeply concerned" about the sharp rise in global food prices. See also: Grain traders buzz as prices soar - BBC News Grain prices are pushed higher by a combination of soaring global demand from new consumers and failed crops restricting their supply.	12th March 2008
Wheat-a-fix? - BBC News Global stocks of wheat are plummeting and people are starting to worry about the price of staples like bread. But can you beat the commodity by growing it in your own back garden?	11th March 2008
Warnings over future food crisis - BBC News A world food crisis can be expected in the coming decades as our demand for food outstrips our ability to produce it, a UK government adviser has warned. Climate change is expected to worsen the food shortage	7th March 2008
Wheat Rises as Investors Bet Crops Will Face Adverse Weather - Bloomberg.com March 3 (Bloomberg) -- Wheat surged the most allowed by the Chicago Board of Trade on speculation adverse weather will hurt crops for the third straight year.	4th March 2008
Abnormally dry and mild winter hampers growth of crops in food-starved NKorea - CNews SEOUL, South Korea - State media reported today North Korea has experienced an abnormally mild and dry winter that has hampered the growth of some crops, threatening to exacerbate the impoverished country's chronic food shortages.	4th March 2008
Climate change's most deadly threat: drought - The Christian Science Monitor Anthropologist Brian Fagan uses Earth's distant past to predict the crises that may lie in its future.	4th March 2008
Will global warming increase plant frost damage? Widespread damage to plants from a sudden freeze that occurred across the Eastern United States from 5 April to 9 April 2007 was made worse because it had been preceded by two weeks of unusual warmth, according to an analysis published in the March 2008 issue of BioScience.	4th March 2008
UN warns climate change in Mideast could lead to food, water shortages - CNews CAIRO, Egypt - Climate change is likely to reduce agricultural production and exacerbate water shortages in the Middle East, threatening the region's poor, the UN Food and Agricultural Organization warned Monday.	4th March 2008
In Highland Peru, a Culture Faces Blight - NPR Nothing is more important than the potato in the highland villages of Peru. Thousands of varieties abound here, cultivated over time as insurance against unpredictable conditions. But Peru's potato culture confronts its biggest threat yet: Global warming has opened the door to the disease that caused the Irish potato famine.	4th March 2008
The World's Growing Food-Price Crisis - TIME Soaring prices of staples — which have risen about 75% since 2005, driven by growing demand, rising oil prices and the effects of global warming — have sparked riots in several countries, as people reel from sticker shock and governments scramble to feed their people.	28th February 2008
Fresh records for price of wheat- BBC News Wheat prices have hit record levels as supplies dwindle, raising concerns about growing food inflation. Reports of a drought in Northern China, where most of the country's wheat is grown, also pushed prices higher. Extreme weather has already damaged crops in other parts of the world and US wheat inventories are expected to fall to their lowest level for 60 years.	27th February 2008
Promised green revolution still seems a long way off - Guardian Unlimited Climate change to have profound impact on agriculture in coming decades	26th February 2008
UN: World Fisheries Face Collapse Within Decades - Planet Ar k MONACO - A deadly combination of climate change, over-fishing and pollution could cause the collapse of commercial fish stocks worldwide within decades, said Achim Steiner, head of the United Nations Environment Programme. "You overlap all of this and you see you're potentially putting a death nail in the coffin of world fisheries," Steiner told reporters on Friday on the fringes of a climate conference involving more than 150 nations and 100 environment ministers.	26th February 2008
Wheat prices surge to new high - FT Prices for top-quality spring wheat have jumped by 90 per cent in the past month and a half, boosted by a scramble by corporate consumers to secure scarce grain and speculative buying by investors. A surge on Friday in prices for wheat used in bread to an all-time high of $19.88 a bushel – the highest yet paid for any wheat contract and a three-fold increase from a year ago – prompted the US baking industry to call for wheat exports to be curtailed.	23rd February 2008
Cameron warns farmers of global food shortages - Guardian Unlimited David Cameron told British farmers today that the nation could feel the impact of a global "food crunch" because of changes in people's diets and the effects of climate change. The Conservative leader told the National Farmers' Union's centenary conference that food security was vital for "every family in the country" as he called for a new approach to create a level playing field for British farming produce.	19th February 2008
Environment: Who Needs Meat When You've Got Bugs? We may find the idea of insects as livestock disgusting, but could a bug farm possibly be any more foul than our fetid feedlots?	15th February 2008
Drought cuts 10 percent off Australian agricultural production - AFP via Yahoo! News Drought cut 10 percent off the value of Australia's agricultural production in 2006-07, official figures showed Tuesday.	13th February 2008
Insect explosion 'a threat to food crops' - Independent Food crops could be ravaged this century by an explosion in the numbers of insect pests caused by rising global temperatures, according to scientists who have carried out an exhaustive survey of plant damage when the earth last experienced major climate change.	12th February 2008
SOUTHERN AFRICA: Thirty percent less maize by 2030 - AlertNet Source: IRIN As global warming pushes temperatures up and droughts become more intense, the production of maize, southern Africa's staple food, could drop by as much as 30 percent in another two decades, according to a new study.	9th February 2008
Why the price of 'peak oil' is famine - Daily Telegraph Vulnerable regions of the world face the risk of famine over the next three years as rising energy costs spill over into a food crunch, according to US investment bank Goldman Sachs.	8th February 2008
Canadian Wheat Inventories Decline as Weather Hurts Production - Bloomberg.com Feb. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Canada's wheat inventories at the end of 2007 dropped 30 percent from a year earlier after drought hurt crops in southern growing areas and cool, wet weather damaged plants in the north, a government survey showed.	6th February 2008
Climate 'could devastate crops' - BBC News South Asia and southern Africa may be hardest hit by climate change-related food shortages by 2030.	1st February 2008
Calif. Farmers Sell Water Instead Of Growing Crops - CBS 5 Bay Area In a state where water has become an increasingly scarce commodity, a growing number of farmers are betting they can make more money selling their water supplies to thirsty cities and farms to the south than by growing crops.	24th January 2008
ZIMBABWE: No middle ground for crops between drought and deluge - AlertNet Source: IRIN After six years of drought, the forecast was that Zimbabwe was set for good rains and a decent harvest this season - and then came the deluge.	17th January 2008
Food cost increase adds £750 to annual bill - Telegraph.co.uk Food prices are accelerating at their fastest rate since records began, fuelling a rise in the average family's shopping bill of £750 a year. Customers at supermarket; Food cost increase adds £750 to annual bill The rate of food price inflation is making life increasingly difficult for the millions of families Official figures showed wholesale food prices rose by 7.4 per cent in the past 12 months - more than three times the headline rate of inflation. Global warming also plays a part. The failure of Australia's wheat harvest last year was blamed on climate change and many big grain-producing areas of the world are predicted to become arid and unusable in the years ahead.	15th January 2008
South Asia hit by food shortages - BBC People across South Asia are struggling to cope with a severe shortage of affordable wheat and rice. There have been queues outside Pakistani shops in towns around the country, and flour prices have shot up. Wheat flour is a staple foodstuff in Pakistan, where rotis or unleavened bread are eaten with almost every meal. Last week Afghanistan appealed for foreign help to combat a wheat shortage while Bangladesh recently warned it faced a crisis over rice supplies. Global wheat prices are at record highs. Problems have been compounded by crop failures in the northern hemisphere and an increase in demand from developing countries.	10th January 2008
Food ... and how it's going to change the world - Sunday Herald Scotland: Many economists are now predicting the end of a golden era when the vast buying power of the leading UK supermarket chains was able to deliver economies of scale and cheap food to millions in Britain. From 1974 until 2005 food prices on world markets fell by three-quarters in real terms, with obesity and gluttony exploding simultaneously. But the days of the great grain mountains appear to have come to an end. Food output will also come under pressure from changing weather patterns. Far from going upwards, output in developing countries is projected to decline by 20%, while output in industrial countries is projected to decline by 6%, according to Professor William Cline of the Centre for Global Development. Most alarmingly, temperature increases of more than 3C may cause prices to increase by up to 40%, says a 2007 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate	6th January 2008
Bangladesh facing 'rice catastrophe' - BBC News The chief of the Bangladesh army says the country is facing a catastrophe over rice supplies. Rice is the staple diet of most Bangladeshis, but this year crops have been damaged by heavy monsoon rain.	4th January 2008
Why the era of cheap food is over - The Christian Science Monitor via Yahoo! News Food prices worldwide hit record highs in 2006, and all the signs are that they will go on rising this year, and for the foreseeable future.	31st December 2007
Food security hobbles SA biofuel strategy - Mail and Guardian Worried that it may be seen as insensitive to the food needs of Africa, the South African government, which is facing a general election in 2009, has chosen food security in framing a biofuel policy.	31st December 2007
The climate threat to Japanese rice - BBC News In Japan government scientists are trying to find ways to reduce the impact of global warming on the country's rice crop. There are fears that the extremes of temperature that some researchers are predicting could affect both the yield and the quality of rice, a staple of the Japanese diet. .	29th December 2007
Fruit, vegie price up as heat burns crops - The West Australian Australia: Shoppers looking forward to cheaper fresh fruit and vegetables following the Christmas buying frenzy face disappointment after temperatures of up to 45C this week damaged crops from Bunbury to Lancelin.	28th December 2007
Cereal crop halved by drought - ABC via Yahoo!7 News Australia: Sheep and lamb numbers have fallen to an 80-year low in Victoria and the national cereal crop was halved by the impacts of drought last financial year.	24th December 2007
Grow More Food in Cities, UN Agency Tells Asia - Planet Ark GENEVA - Asian nations, many at risk from climate change, must invest more in urban and indoor farming to help feed the hundreds of millions of people in their growing cities, the World Meteorological Organisation said on Wednesday.	20th December 2007
UN warns on soaring food prices - BBC News Dramatic increases in international food prices are threatening millions of people in poor countries, the UN warns.	18th December 2007
A worrisome forecast for the world's crops - The Christian Science Monitor Studies on rising ozone pollution, shorter winters, and an expanding tropical belt do not bode well for agriculture.	13th December 2007
Drought taking toll on Florida's agriculture - Sarasota Herald-Tribune A slow hurricane season left farmers facing a crippling drought and fearing the worst for the growing season. The drought is costing Florida agriculture $100 million a month and, if it persists, next year's losses will mount to more than $1 billion.	9th December 2007
Statscan trims Canada '07 wheat and barley crops - Reuters via Yahoo! News Canadian farmers harvested slightly less grain than earlier projected because hot, dry weather slashed yields in the south and wet conditions hurt crops in the north, Statistics Canada said on Thursday.	7th December 2007
Soil carbon, climate among global changes impacting agriculture - Seattle Times More carbon in the air means less in the ground, and for farmers, that's bad news, said a local researcher studying how climate change is impacting agriculture.	6th December 2007
Toll of climate change on world food supply could be worse than thought - Physorg Global agriculture, already predicted to be stressed by climate change in coming decades, could go into steep, unanticipated declines in some regions due to complications that scientists have so far inadequately considered, say three new scientific reports. Progressive changes predicted to stem from 1- to 5-degree C temperature rises in coming decades fail to account for seasonal extremes of heat, drought or rain, multiplier effects of spreading diseases or weeds, and other ecological upsets. All are believed more likely in the future. See also: Riots and hunger feared as demand for grain sends food costs soaring - Guardian Unlimited The risks of food riots and malnutrition will surge in the next two years as the global supply of grain comes under more pressure than at any time in 50 years, according to one of the world's leading agricultural researchers. What will we eat as the oil runs out? - Energy Bulletin Our global food system faces a crisis of unprecedented scope. This crisis, which threatens to imperil the lives of hundreds of millions and possibly billions of human beings, consists of four simultaneously colliding dilemmas, all arising from our relatively recent pattern of dependence on depleting fossil fuels. The first dilemma consists of the direct impacts on agriculture of higher oil prices: increased costs for tractor fuel, agricultural chemicals, and the transport of farm inputs and outputs. The second is an indirect consequence of high oil prices - the increased demand for biofuels, which is resulting in farmland being turned from food production to fuel production, thus making food more costly. The third dilemma consists of the impacts of climate change and extreme weather events caused by fuel-based greenhouse gas emissions. Climate change is the greatest environmental crisis of our time; however, fossil fuel depletion complicates the situation enormously, and if we fail to address either problem properly the consequences will be dire. Finally comes the degradation or loss of basic natural resources (principally, topsoil and fresh water supplies) as a result of high rates, and unsustainable methods, of production stimulated by decades of cheap energy.	4th December 2007
BANGLADESH: Fear of Famine Follows Cyclone Havoc - IPS DHAKA, Nov 30 (IPS) - With its grain crops wiped out, Bangladesh has appealed to the world community for half a million tonnes of rice or wheat to immediately feed thousands of starving survivors of the Nov. 15 cyclone and stave of a possible famine.	1st December 2007
Australia GrainCorp posts A$20 mln loss on drought - Reuters via Yahoo! Singapore News SYDNEY, Nov 29 - Eastern Australian grain handler and trader GrainCorp Ltd on Thursday reported a loss of A$19.8 million for the year to Sept. 30 due to a drought which cut grain volumes.	29th November 2007
Indonesia losing crops, fish stocks to global warming - AlertNet Source: Reuters JAKARTA, Nov 27 (Reuters) - Indonesia is losing tonnes of crop production each year and its fish stock is dwindling as a result of global warming, a UN report said on Tuesday, putting the greatest pressure on the nation's poor.	28th November 2007
Climate change leads to decline in wheat production - Livemint	27th November 2007
China's Hunger - Australasian Investment Review via Yahoo!7 Finance AA couple of weeks ago we looked at the forecasts from the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation's latest commentary on the outlook for food. It made gloomy reading. "As has become evident in recent months, high international prices for food crops such as grains continue to ripple through the food value/supply chain, contributing to a rise in retail prices of such basic foods as bread or pasta, meat and milk," The FAO said. Rarely has the world witnessed such a widespread and commonly shared concern on food price inflation, a fear which is fuelling debates about the future direction of agricultural commodity prices in importing as well as exporting countries, be they rich or poor.	26th November 2007
Scientists warn of agrarian - rice – crisis due to climate change - Sunday Times.lk Scientists warn of agrarian - rice – crisis due to climate changeSunday Times.lk, Sri Lanka. Rice, the staple for billions of people, is most vulnerable to global warming, said Dyno Keatinge, deputy director general of research at the International ...	25th November 2007
Meat, poultry, vegetables feel heat from global warming - AFP via Yahoo! News From meat, poultry and milk to potatoes, onions and leafy greens, everything consumed on the world's dining tables is feeling the heat from climate change, scientists say.	25th November 2007
All About: Food and the environment - CNN.com According to the UK's Soil Association, 50 percent of the increase in global CO2 emissions between 1850 and 1990 has been tied to changes in land use --mainly because of farming practices. Today, the Food Climate Research Network (FCRN) estimates that as much as 31 percent of the EU's greenhouse gas emissions come from the food chain. More than half of that amount -- 18 percent of total emissions -- comes from meat production, leading to growing calls for people to cut back on their meat consumption, or to eliminate meat from their diets completely. (The "average burger man...emits the equivalent of 1.5 tons more CO2 every year than the standard vegan," reports The Guardian, for example).	23rd November 2007
Scientists warn of agrarian crisis from climate change - TODAYonline A farmer inspects a cob of maize in his flooded field in Nasia, northern Ghana. Scientists have warned that an agrarian crisis is brewing because of climate change that could jeopardise global food supplies and increase the risk of hunger for a billion poorest of the poor.	23rd November 2007
Environment: Giving Thanks For Oil and OPEC We should acknowledge that our food production system and every other aspect of our lives are utterly dependent on fossil fuels.	22nd November 2007
Food bowl dries, prices stay high - Melbourne Herald Sun Australia. IGHER food prices will stay because of more frequent and severe drought due to global warming, a report has found. Prices for fresh fruit and vegetables will rise sharply every two to four years instead of once a decade if greenhouse gas emissions are not reduced, it says.	22nd November 2007
Autumn Rain Down 90 Percent in China Rice Belt - Planet Ark BEIJING - Large areas of south China are suffering from serious drought, with water levels on two major rivers in rice-growing provinces dropping to historic lows, state media said on Tuesday.	21st November 2007
Food & agriculture - Nov 19 - Energy Bulletin Staff, . More will be asked of us: Revisiting 100 million farmers Forbes: Food vs fuel Fuel costs give ag a chill Farmer of the Year candidate doesn't use muck Climate a threat to farming and food supply Africa: Food production to halve by 2020	20th November 2007
CO2 emissions may affect flowering plants - University Daily Kansan It's basic, junior-high science. Carbon dioxide plus water, plus sunlight equals healthy, happy plants. So theoretically, increased amounts of CO2 in the air would yield super plants. Researchers in the department of geography are concerned now. Nate Brunsell, assistant professor of geography, said that plants would have to take in more water to counter the increased amounts of CO2. “You also have a food security issue. If we heat things up and lose more water, what are farmers going to do?” Brunsell said. “Change crops? Use more water? When you use more water for agriculture, then there is less for municipal and recreation uses.”	17th November 2007
Sowing the seeds of farming's future - BBC News Global food stocks are running low and rich nations should not take security of supplies for granted.	14th November 2007
Drought bites hard at Aussie rice crop - UPI Drought has all but ruined the Australian rice crop in the main growing area of New South Wales. "We expect about 15,000 metric tons to be grown this year, against the usual 1.2 million tons," said Gary Helou, chief executive of the Sunrice company.	13th November 2007
Mexico Flood Wipes Out Crops - AP via Yahoo! Finance Massive flooding in the southern state of Tabasco practically wiped agricultural crops from citrus to chocolate, threatening the main source of income for about one-third of the state's 2 million people, officials said on Thursday.	10th November 2007
Israeli researchers say desalinated water harms crops: report - AFP via Yahoo! News Desalinated water can adversely affect crops because of its low mineral content, Israeli researchers were quoted as finding by the Haaretz newspaper on Friday.	9th November 2007
Farming losses near $1 billion, with no end to drought on way - Miami Herald Florida's record drought has led to nearly $1 billion in agricultural losses, wiping out jobs and diminishing the food supply from Florida to Canada, state Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson said Monday.	9th November 2007
Drought adds to pressure on beer price - The West Australian The drought and world barley prices are adding further pressure on the cost of beer, as breweries brace for further production cost increases early next year.	7th November 2007
Spectre of Global Warming Haunts Japanese Rice Farms - Planet Ark MINAMI-UONUMA, Japan - It produces the most prized rice in a country that prides itself on its rice. But summer heat waves have sent temperatures soaring in Japan's Uonuma region, resulting in lower quality rice grains, and making farmers worried that global warming might have reached their rice fields in northwestern Japan.	6th November 2007
Drought a $1 billion drain on agriculture - Miami Herald Drought a $1 billion drain on agriculture Florida's record drought has led to nearly $1 billion in agricultural losses, wiping out jobs and diminishing the food supply from Florida to Canada, state Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson said Monday. What's worse, Bronson's economist warned, the numbers are going to get more bleak next year because the dry spell is expected to continue. ''We are beginning to see some of the initial signs of collapse,'' Nelson Mongiovi, director of the division of marketing at the Florida Department of Agriculture, told a state legislative committee. "If you're a farmer, you're going into the spring season with a greater than 50 percent chance you're not going to have enough water to make a crop."	6th November 2007
Govt trying to offset drought: Vaile - The West Australian Deputy Prime Minister Mark Vaile says the government is doing all it can to offset the effect of the drought on consumer prices. He says a scarcity of some items due to the severe drought in many parts of Australia means food prices are on the rise.	4th November 2007
Climate-induced food crisis looms - Guardian Unlimited Soaring crop prices and demand for biofuels raise fears of political instability.	3rd November 2007
Environment: The Nation's Breadbasket Is Poisoning Its Own Water Supply - AlterNet There are many threats to drinking water in the Heartland, but the biggest one is agriculture.	3rd November 2007
Drought May Force Australian Livestock Industry To Import Grain - Asia Pulse via Yahoo!7 News Australia's livestock industry will be forced for the first time to import grain from overseas if local supplies continue to dwindle in the crippling drought, producers have warned.	1st November 2007
Drought slashes Australian wheat crop - TODAYonline Australia's wheat, barley and canola winter crops were again revised lower Tuesday due to the severity of the long-running drought, the country's official forecaster said.	31st October 2007
Human-generated Ozone Will Damage Crops, Reduce Production - Science Daily Increasing levels of ozone due to the growing use of fossil fuels will damage global vegetation, resulting in serious costs to the world's economy. The analysis focused on how three environmental changes (increases in temperature, carbon dioxide and ozone) associated with human activity will affect crops, pastures and forests.	29th October 2007
The Tar Sands and Canada's Food System - The Dominion North American agriculture is deeply dependent on natural gas. Nitrogen fertilizer is chemically produced using a process that -- currently -- cannot be conducted efficiently without large amounts of natural gas. This fertilizer, in turn, is an essential nutrient in North America's food production system. "In a fairly direct way," says Darrin Qualman, Director of Research at the National Farmers Union, "natural gas is a primary feedstock for our food supply." While "peak oil," the point at which global production of oil begins to decline, is subject to speculation, natural gas peaked in North America in 2003. Since then, more wells have been added, but production has declined slowly, while prices have increased sharply.	22nd October 2007
Food set to become the next big global news story - Winnipeg Free Press Food set to become the next big global news storyWinnipeg Free Press, Canada. Climate change may exacerbate grain shortages. Global warming has been largely associated with drier conditions in grain-growing areas, but that is far from ...	12th October 2007
Global warming hits Cereal production hard - Commodity Online CHENNAI: Global warming is taking a heavy toll on cereal crops. A new study on the impact of global warming on global food production by researchers of a US university says that in 20 years since 1981, there had been an annual loss of about $5 billion for the major cereal crops in the world.	8th October 2007
New South Wales Wheat Crop to Fall Further on Hot, Dry Weather - Bloomberg.com Oct. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Wheat production in New South Wales state may be less than previously forecast after hot, dry and windy weather further damaged crops struggling to survive Australia's worst drought. See also: ABB Grain Shares Plummet as Profit Falls on Australian Drought - Bloomberg.com S.E. Australia: Expert predicts dry Spring - The West Australian Climate, not terror most worries Aussies - The West Australian	4th October 2007
Commonwealth declared national disaster area due to drought - The Ledger Independent Area farmers who have felt the sting of the summer's dry weather were glad to hear the news that the U.S. Department of Agriculture had declared Kentucky a natural disaster area because of the ongoing drought conditions.	4th October 2007
High cereal prices may fuel problems in poor areas: FAO chief - Eu Business (BRUSSELS ) - UN Food and Agriculture Organization chief Jacques Diouf on Wednesday warned that the global rise in cereal prices could lead to "social and political troubles" in developing nations.	4th October 2007
Global warming to hit rice production hard - Commodity Online The heat is on and will take a heavy toll on your rice bowl in the coming years. The reason: Global Warming. Global warming, which will increase the temperatures up to 4.5 degree Celsius by the end of the century, will hit rice cultivation hard by reducing production by 7 to 60 per cent this century. In fact, the scientific world views the threat of increasingly high temperatures to rice - now the principal crop for the country's food security with 44.6 million hectare area and 89 million tonnes in production - as a huge problem.According to scientists, temperature is a major determinant of crop development and growth of rice. Rice yields would dip 10% for every 1 degree Celsius increase in minimum temperature during the growing season.	1st October 2007
Drought hikes food prices in Australia - UPI Australians, suffering through the worst drought in history, have been warned they will be paying more for everyday foodstuffs.	28th September 2007
Drought puts Australia's food bowl at risk: PM - AFP via Yahoo! News Australia's once-in-a-century drought has tightened its grip on the country's major food growing zone and could kill off the region's orchards and vineyards, Prime Minister John Howard said Friday.	22nd September 2007
Australia slashes wheat crop forecast - Financial Times Australia slashed nearly a third off its official wheat crop forecast on Tuesday as a persistent drought ravaged crops, adding to a grim picture for world supply and pushing domestic wheat futures to a record high.	19th September 2007
Inflationary spiral could spell an end to era of cheap food - The Observer Parisians are bemoaning the price of a baguette, Italians have organised a pasta boycott and the Mexican public have held street protests about the cost of tortillas. Rocketing food prices are infuriating consumers and pressurising politicians worldwide. But is this a temporary blip, or has the era of cheap food come to an end?	16th September 2007
Farmers Hit Hard By Brutal Drought - Washington Post Most of Tommy Bowles's corn and soybeans shriveled under this summer's long and dry heat wave. But the St. Mary's County farmer fears the worst effects of this year's drought are still to come: Because the soil is bone-dry, he doesn't think he will be able to grow any wheat or barley this fall.	14th September 2007
Drought Threatens Australia Crops - Nasdaq (RTTNews) - Dry weather is having what is being described as a devastating effect on Australia's massive crop planting.	14th September 2007
Global warming may cause world crop decline - Reuters UK Global warming could send world agriculture into serious decline by 2080 with productivity collapsing in some developing countries while it improves in a few rich nations, a study reported on Wednesday. India, Pakistan, most of Africa and most of Latin America would be hit hardest, said economist William Cline, the study's author. The United States, most of Europe, Russia and Canada would probably see agricultural gains if climate change continues on its current course, the study found. Overall, the world's agricultural productivity was forecast to decline by between 3 percent and 16 percent by 2080, according to the study published by the Washington-based Center for Global Development and the Peterson Institute for International Economics.	13th September 2007
World needs a 10% meat diet to fight global warming - Mongabay.com Cutting world meat consumption by 10 percent would have a substantial impact on greenhouse emissions, say doctors writing in the health journal The Lancet.	13th September 2007
Wheat tops $9 mark for first time - BBC Wheat prices have surged to a record, breaking through the $9 a bushel mark for the first time, fanning fears that the cost of bread will also increase. Prices have been driven higher because droughts in key crop regions including Australia have led to smaller harvests. See also: FAO Warns Climate Change Could be Major Threat to Food Security - VOA	12th September 2007
Leading article: Rising food prices... the low-cost chicken is coming home to roost - The Independent If anyone remains to be convinced that food prices are on the way up, this week provided evidence aplenty. Premier Foods, Britain's biggest food producer, warned that the days of cheap food were ending, citing the almost doubling of wheat prices in 12 months. It was among several companies announcing a steep rise in bread prices. Then Tesco, our biggest supermarket chain, responded to a rival's rock-bottom chicken price by actually raising prices for similar chickens on the grounds that a further cut could only jeopardise quality. And the UN's most senior agriculture official said that soaring prices for wheat, corn and milk globally could cause serious social unrest in developing countries.	8th September 2007
Days of cheap food are over, say suppliers - Guardian Unlimited Superstore groups prepare to stomach higher prices because of far east demand and biofuel incentives.	5th September 2007
ECONOMY-CHINA: Global Warming Fuels Inflation - IPS As food prices continue to soar ahead of an all-important Communist party meeting in October, the country's leaders fear that runaway inflation that has been rankling Chinese consumers in recent months could ignite social unrest. Efforts to combat price hikes though by increasing grain supply are hampered by climate change, which has posed a severe threat to this year's harvest. "We're facing a grave situation," the country's top planner, Ma Kai, said of the annual harvest last week, warning that global warming is taking its toll on China's already shrinking farming land and its sacrosanct policy of food security.	5th September 2007
Global food crisis looms as fertile land stripped by climate change - Guardian Unlimited Science environment: . 'Ignorance, need and greed' depleting soil . Experts warn competition will lead to conflict. See also: Global Warming's Next Victim: Wheat - Time Magazine	31st August 2007
Indian Ocean Sees Smallest Tuna Catch in 11 Years - Planet Ark PORT LOUIS - Tuna fishermen in the Indian Ocean have landed their smallest catch for 11 years, a report and industry sources said on Monday, with possible explanations ranging from over-fishing to global warming.	28th August 2007
Villagers Eat Raw Food, Toll Rises in S.Asia Floods - Planet Ark PATNA, India - Flood victims in eastern India were eating raw wheat flour to survive as devastating monsoon flooding in South Asia continued to spread misery among millions.	28th August 2007
Wheat prices reach record level - BBC News Wheat prices surge to record levels on international markets, triggering the threat of rising bread prices.	25th August 2007
Warming trends alarm farmers - Contra Costa Times FRESNO -- Steve Johnson scans the hot, translucent sky. He wants to make rain -- needs to make rain -- for the parched farms and desperate hydro companies in this California valley.	22nd August 2007
Warming may change the nature of the food we eat - CNews Canadians are a well-fed bunch. We do not generally have to worry about our food supply. For most of us, it's just a matter of heading to the nearest grocery store.	15th August 2007
Fraser summer fishery at risk of closing - The Globe and Mail Unexpectedly low numbers of fish in earlier runs pointing to one of the worst seasons in decades. "There's a pattern developing here that suggest a large-scale survival issue," he said. Warmer ocean waters two years ago, possibly linked to climate change, seems to have hurt the population of sockeye, he said, with those warmer oceans reducing food sources for the species and increasing the prevalence of southern predators.	9th August 2007
Climate change ups hunger risks in poor states - FAO - Reuters India Climate change with frequent droughts and floods is likely to cut food output and increase hunger risk in developing countries, the U.N food agency said on Tuesday, adding its voice to global warming concerns.	8th August 2007
Dry conditions stressing crops - UPI Dry conditions persisted from California to the northern Rockies, stressing crops, keeping irrigation demands high and feeding into the wildfire threat.	8th August 2007
Worry about bread, not oil - Telegraph.co.uk Some people worry about peak oil. I worry more about peak grain. The real question is whether we could now be approaching a new era of misery. Even at an arithmetic rate, the United Nations expects the world's population to pass the 9 billion mark by 2050. But can world food production keep pace? Plant physiologist Lloyd T Evans has estimated that "we must reach an average yield of four tons per hectare... to support a population of 8 billion". But yields right now are, as we have seen, just three tons per hectare. And a world of eight billion people may be less than 20 years away. Meanwhile, man-made forces are conspiring to put a ceiling on food production. Global warming and the resulting climate change may well be increasing the incidence of extreme weather events as well as inflicting permanent damage on some farming regions. It is not just British crops that are suffering this year. At the same time, our effort to slow global warming by switching from fossil fuels to bio-fuels is taking large tracts of land out of food production.	29th July 2007
We have to accept that the era of cheap food is coming to an end - The Independent We are so used to our ultra-competitive supermarket sector keeping down prices that it comes as rather a shock to discover that the same item we bought a few weeks ago has become more expensive. But the shock value is beginning to wear off. Food prices are now rising at 6 per cent a year, twice as quickly as the general cost of living. And it is not just in the UK that we are witnessing this trend. In India the overall food price index is 10 per cent higher than last year. In China, prices are up 20 per cent for some staples.	23rd June 2007
Morocco's '07 Growth Seen Falling Sharply on Drought - Planet Ark RABAT - Morocco's economic growth is expected to slump to 1.6 percent this year from 8.1 percent in 2006 after drought slashed cereal crops to 2.0 million tonnes from 9.3 million last year, an official body said on Thursday.	15th June 2007
Milk price soars as drought hits dairy industry - Times Online Sunday The price of milk is soaring worldwide as a drought-stricken dairy industry struggles to meet surging demand for milk products in China and the Middle East.	11th June 2007
The wrath of 2007: America's great drought - Independent America is facing its worst summer drought since the Dust Bowl years of the Great Depression. Or perhaps worse still. [most read item]	11th June 2007
Drought hits Aussie wheat profits - BBC News The severe drought in Australia dents profits at the country's troubled wheat exporting business.	24th May 2007
Growers warned to be vigilant as UK wheat pests threaten crops - Food Production Daily 14/05/2007 - Wheat growers in the UK have been warned their crops are at risk from a number of destructive pests, flourishing in the current weather conditions.	14th May 2007
Technology: Rice Farmer's Take On Climate Change - Sin Chew Daily Most rice farmers currently still plant the hybrid varieties which are greedy for water and chemical fertilisers. Once we did have many different varieties of dry land rice called pari gaga but since the 1970s many of our indigenous rice varieties have become extinct. Unfortunately the available rice seeds now are of the water-guzzling varieties.	14th May 2007
Italy declares drought emergency - CNN.com ROME, Italy (Reuters) -- Italy declared a state of emergency in northern and central regions on Friday due to fears of drought following unusually warm and dry weather.	4th May 2007
Alarm grows in European farming over drought - EARTHtimes.org Berlin - A spring drought affecting parts of Europe north of the Alps is worrying farmers, who say they need rain within the next couple of weeks or crops will fail. Helmut Born of the German Farmers Federation said this week: "We are hearing from the meteorologists that the drought area stretches from northern France through to Poland." Affected farmers say the soil is as dry as it usually is in August.	4th May 2007
Experts fear global warming may hit world's rice bowl - The Brunei Times Environmentalists and scientists say that as the world gets hotter, floods, droughts and rising sea levels could push Thailand's rice yields down significantly with a huge impact on rural communities.	3rd May 2007
German Farmers Face Crop Failure as Drought Drags On - Deutsche Welle Germany experienced the driest and warmest April in more than 200 years -- good news for a frequently sun-starved population, but bad news for farmers, who may face devastating crop losses.	3rd May 2007
As drought worsens, Australian cattle scour roadsides for food - AFP via Yahoo! News As Australian farmer Philip Bell coaxed his cattle along the road, a bystander nodded toward a straggler ambling behind the rest of the herd searching for an overlooked tussock of grass.	3rd May 2007
Summer in April! German farmers pray for rain - IANS via Yahoo! India News With cherry trees and fields of rapeseed in full bloom and the ground dry and dusty, farmers in Germany are worrying about their crop. Midsummer has turned up in mid-April and it's taking its toll on farmers. Because of the hot weather in Germany, more and more farmers are resorting to southern European plants because these can endure hot temperatures and need less water.	24th April 2007
Easter freeze damaged state's grape, pecan crops - The Brownsville Herald Farmers still recovering from the devastating drought conditions of 2006 are now sizing up their losses from the latest weather calamity to hit Texas: freezing temperatures.	24th April 2007
MALAWI: Small farmers hit by changes in the climate - AlertNet Source: IRIN JOHANNESBURG, 20 April 2007 (IRIN) - Small-scale farmers in Malawi are becoming aware that they are bearing the brunt of climate change, which has been adversely affecting productivity, according to a new study by an international aid agency.	21st April 2007
Leading Article: A global warning from the dust bowl of Australia - Independent Australia is in the midst of a crippling drought, the country's worst on record. Many towns and cities have been forced to enact drastic water restrictions as reservoirs have run dry. Rivers have been reduced to a trickle. The drought has severely damaged the agricultural sector. Farmers are raising emaciated cattle and sheep. Cotton-lint production has plummeted. Wine grape and rice output has collapsed. Agricultural production has fallen by almost one-quarter in a year. And it is estimated that the drought has knocked three-quarters to 1 per cent off the country's growth as a whole. See also: Australian drought threatens crop catastrophe - Guardian Unlimited	20th April 2007
YEMEN-HORN OF AFRICA: Government combats wheat killer disease - AlertNet Source: IRIN SANAA, 18 April 2007 (IRIN) - Yemen's government has launched a campaign to combat a virulent and potentially devastating wheat disease after the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) recently warned of its spread to the Arabian Peninsular from east Africa.	19th April 2007
Drought in Australia by Matt Taylor - BBC News Australia's worst drought on record got tougher on Thursday when the prime minister announced there won't be enough water to allow irrigation along the country's largest river system, unless there's significant rainfall over the next month.	19th April 2007
Out of Africa: diseases could hit animals and crops - The Herald Many different species are relocating their habitats in response to global warming, and diseases are doing much the same. Blue-tongue is one such disease that now poses an imminent threat to the UK. It was first described in South Africa and then spread through the tropics and sub-tropics.	17th April 2007
Falling rice yields viewed as an early sign global warming in Japan - Columbus Ledger-Enquirer Rice harvests in the Kyushu region have been poor for the past four years, while the quality of much of this rice also has fallen. An increasing number of rice harvests are being rated second- and third-grade, which is worth 1,000 to 2,000 yen less per 60 kilograms than first-grade rice. Harvesting first-grade rice of Hinohikari is almost impossible when temperatures exceed 26.5 C during the period. In recent years it had not been unusual for temperatures in the city to exceed this level at that time of year.	8th April 2007
Climate change 'raising crop risks' - ic Lanarkshire Farmers will have to deal with previously unknown plant diseases and an increase in crop pests as a result of climate change, new research has found.	6th April 2007
Farmers Warming Warning - RedNova GLOBAL warming has been blamed for a breeding boom among snowgeese that is causing havoc for US farmers.	4th April 2007
Food, Water Security Threatened by Warming, UN Panel Chief Says - Bloomberg.com March 28 (Bloomberg) -- The loss of food and water security is one of the most immediate threats posed by global warming, the head of a United Nations panel said before publication of the most detailed report ever on the subject.	29th March 2007
Tiny island with a global warning - BBC News In the first of a series of reports, BBC World Affairs Correspondent Mark Doyle analyses the state of food production and consumption across the globe. "This island and that piece of land over there used to be separated by just a narrow channel of water", says Mr Patra. "All the land which is now underwater used to be rice paddies". Experts in food production say Ghoramara is a symbol of the dramatic combination of factors which mean the world is heading for extreme food shortages in the coming decades.	28th March 2007
SA begins to import maize after drought ravages crops - Independent Online South Africa, generally a net exporter of maize, had started to import the staple grain as the worst drought in 15 years had devastated crops, John Purchase, the general manager of Grain SA, said yesterday.	27th March 2007
Biofuel demand makes food expensive - BBC News Demand for biofuel, which is made from plants, is sending global food commodity prices soaring.	23rd March 2007
Drought helps cut Hunter grape tonnage - Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Hunter Valley Vineyard Association says this year's grape tonnage is down an estimated 40 per cent on previous years, mainly due to the drought.	20th March 2007
Ivorian Cocoa Growers Say Drought Worst in Memory - Planet Ark A harsh spell of dry weather in Ivory Coast's central Daloa region which has lasted several months is the worst in living memory and is killing off young cocoa trees, farmers and cooperatives said on Friday.	19th March 2007
World may get greener, then wilt, due warming - AlertNet Source: Reuters By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent OSLO, March 15 (Reuters) - Global warming is expected to turn the planet a bit greener by spurring plant growth but crops and forests may wilt beyond mid- ...	15th March
Wheat crop worth billions destroyed in rains in Punjab, Haryana - New Kerala India: Wheat crop in thousands of acres in Punjab and Haryana has been destroyed in untimely rains. Agriculture ministry officials Tuesday said the losses to farmers could run into billions of rupees. Wheat crop in over 50,000 acres of land has been flattened in Punjab itself, the officials said.	14th March 2007
Prognosis looks increasingly grim for the health of nations - The Times Threats to the water supply, crop failure and mass migration are all looming	10th March 2007
Ethanol-driven feed costs cut US meat output-USDA - Reuters High feed costs, created by the explosive growth of the fuel ethanol industry, will lower U.S. beef and broiler chicken output this year by a quarter billion lbs from earlier forecasts, the U.S. government said on Friday. The Agriculture Department also said freeze damage would cut the Florida orange crop by 6 percent and California's by 20 percent from a month ago. A drop-off in cotton exports will create the largest year-end surplus in 21 years, 8.8 million bales weighing 480 lbs each.	10th March 2007
Summer crops scorched by drought - iafrica.com South Africa's summer crops in many areas have literally been scorched to death and even good rains in the near future would no longer benefit yields, a senior official at Grain SA said on Wednesday. "Of major concern is however the fact that there are areas and individual producers that are facing a total crop failure, and this will certainly have a hugely negative effect on the ability of these producers to survive financially," said Ferreira.	28th February 2007
Global Warming Could Kill Uganda Coffee - Planet Ark A rise in average temperatures of just two degrees centigrade would wipe out coffee in Uganda and other east African countries that depend on the crop as a key export, a climate expert said on Monday.	27th February 2007
How global warming goes against the grain - Globe and Mail The place where most of the world's people could first begin to feel the consequences of global warming may come as a surprise: in the stomach, via the supper plate. Researchers using computer models to simulate the weather patterns likely to exist around 2050 found that the best wheat-growing land in the wide arc of fertile farmland stretching from Pakistan through Northern India and Nepal to Bangladesh would be decimated. Much of the area would become too hot and dry for the crop, placing the food supply of 200 million people at risk.	25th February 2007
Drought to slash summer crop production - West Australian The drought will slash Australia's summer crop production to its lowest level in more than 20 years. After running a scythe through the winter grain harvest, the big dry is set to take a huge toll on water-intensive summer crops like cotton and rice. The federal government's rural economic forecaster, the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ABARE), says summer crop production will fall 59 per cent in 2006-07 to 1.9 million tonnes - the smallest haul since 1982-83. Rice production will plummet 90 per cent to just 106,000 tonnes, and cotton production will be down 42 per cent at 250,000 tonnes. ABARE is tipping grain sorghum production to fall 51 per cent to 996,000 tonnes.	20th February 2007
Global warming eats into wheat output in Haryana - The Economic Times India: For policymakers turning a blind eye to the dangers of global warming, here is some food for thought. Wheat productivity has been steadily declining in the country during the past few years owing to the effects of global warming. According to data complied by CCS Haryana Agricultural University, wheat productivity in the state has declined from 4,106 kg/ha in 2000-01 to 3,937 kg/ha in 2003-04, with maximum temperature rising by about 3°C during Feb- March in the past 7 years.	21st February 2007
Ethanol's Boom Holds Hidden Costs: Higher Food Prices - Bloomberg Arturo Esquivel shakes his head as he pays 10 pesos (90 cents) for tortillas in Mexico City, two- thirds more than a year ago. He'd be even angrier to learn that Chicago bond analyst Philip Adams's SUV may be to blame. The General Motors Corp. Yukon XL sport-utility vehicle runs on ethanol, a fuel made from the corn that also influences the cost of Esquivel's tortilla, feeds the chickens, pigs and cows raised for consumption worldwide and sweetens soft drinks. Demand for corn as the raw material for an alternative vehicle fuel is creating unintended consequences throughout the global food chain. Midwest corn growers are commanding prices not seen in a decade: the crop surpassed $4.20 a bushel Jan. 17, almost double its September price. Yet farmers who raise livestock are seeing feed costs soar, and companies from Tyson Foods Inc. to Coca-Cola Co. are warning of higher prices.	10th February 2007
Alan Dupont: Scorched earth an insecure place - The Australian Australia: Unless carefully handled, tensions between the developed and developing worlds over responsibility for a deteriorating climate, already in evidence, may escalate. Climate change will also raise anxieties about food and energy, and increase the likelihood of destabilising competition for scarce resources that could be a particular problem for our region because of Asia's high levels of energy dependence and growing demand for food and water. Supply of key agricultural products such as wheat, rice and corn is set to drop by one-third in China because of forecast temperature rises. Although these sobering statistics should be a wake-up call for action, complacency should not be replaced by alarmism or defeatism.	5th February 2007
Climate change raises drought threat for EU crops - Reuters Global warming may boost farm output in northern Europe, but more frequent blisteringly hot summers could ravage crops across the continent and the battle for water will heat up in the south, experts said on Friday.	4th February 2007
Dozens Dead, Crops Ruined in Southern African Floods - Planet Ark Authorities in Angola, Zambia and Mozambique on Wednesday warned of a humanitarian crisis after deadly floods submerged towns, devastated crops and left thousands of villagers without shelter, food or water.	25th January 2007
Warming Could Cut China Grain Crops by over a Third - Planet Ark Rising temperatures in China could slash grain production in the world's most populous country by over a third in the second half of this century, imperilling food security, the official Xinhua agency reported on Wednesday.	18th January 2007
Winter's blast costs millions of dollars - Los Angeles Times USA, California: Growers expect even greater losses as the forecast calls for more freezing temperatures. Citrus and avocadoes among the worst effected crops.	13th January 2007
Why is the price of bread important? - BBC News The price of bread could soon rise to £1 a loaf, bakers are warning. But why is the cost of bread so important? "The price hike has been blamed on poor wheat harvests overseas increasing the cost of flour by 15%. The finger has also been pointed at rising energy prices." ["poor wheat harvests overseas" is a probable reference to the Australian drought => rising bread prices is another canary. See also 'Why wheat is luring the breadwinners - Guardian Unlimited']	10th January 2007
Why wheat is luring the breadwinners - Guardian Unlimited Wheat, according to the commodity dealers, is the new gold. After making millions from pumping up the price of copper, zinc and other metals to record levels last year, speculators are piling into "soft" commodities such as wheat and corn amid drought warnings and global shortages. [Who cares about the ski industry? It's food we need and here's evidence that climate change is here and investors are ready to make a profit on the inevitable rise in food prices.]	6th January 2007
Range for wheat is creeping northward - Anchorage Daily News Study shows by 2050 wheat could be a cash crop across Alaska Interior. [Somehow this article thinks that wheat growing in Alsaka is a 'good' thing - another example of the pernicious 'them %26 us' mentality that pervades the media]	2nd January 2007
China fears disasters, grain cut from global warming - AlertNet Global warming threatens to intensify natural disasters and water shortages across China, driving down the country's food output, the Chinese government has warned, even as its seeks to tame energy consumption	27th December 2006
Climate change making Christmas fare a real turkey - The Age Australia: Food price rises due to extreme weather events, however, are transforming the climate-change battleground and may leave Prime Minister John Howard vulnerable to those Aussie battlers who have been crucial to his electoral success. In the past year food prices have soared 10 per cent. Lamb and beef prices could leap by up to 25 per cent in the next few months, while bread becomes 10 per cent more expensive due to a 40 per cent surge in flour prices. Australian citrus growers declared recently that orange prices had risen from $80 a tonne to $200, with inevitable price hikes on orange juice.	21st December 2006
America’s Breadbasket Moves to Canada? - The Lede '“A map . . . shows the belly of North America’s wheat bounty shifting to Canada by 2050.” What the map DOESN’T show is that the new wheat belt (a.k.a. the Canadian Shield) is a glaciated wilderness from which virtually all of the top soil was scraped in the last ice age. Ditto most of Siberia. If that’s where our daily bread is supposed to come from in the year 2050, we’d better lean to eat lichen and moss.'	6th December 2006
The politics of food - Davis Enterprise Ten calories of fossil fuel are now required to produce every one calorie of food. By eating over-processed food and lots of meat, each person adds 4 tons of carbon to the atmosphere every year.	4th December 2006
Search for crops that can survive global warming - Guardian Unlimited An unprecedented effort to protect the world's food supplies from the ravages of climate change will be launched today by an international consortium of scientists. The move marks a growing recognition that serious changes in weather patterns are inevitable over the coming decades, and that society must begin to adapt.	4th December 2006
Grain drain - Guardian Unlimited The world is increasingly turning to ethanol made from corn to power its cars. A good thing you might think, except when it means making a choice between providing green fuel and food. Lester R Brown investigates	29th November 2006
Thanksgiving’s Moveable Feast - New York Times USA: Global Warming is pushing foodcrops further north.	24th November 2006
Warm winters 'ruin' currant crop - BBC News No more Ribena for the kids of the future: A Herefordshire farmer is warning of a shortage of blackcurrant squash and jam claiming global warming has affected his crop. Click to watch the video.	11th November 2006
Oceans turning acidic, posing threat to sea life, Earth's fragile food chain - Canada.com The world's oceans are becoming more acidic, which poses a threat to sea life and Earth's fragile food chain, a climate expert said Thursday.	10th November 2006
Bee threat puts crops at risk - Sydney Morning Herald Climate change and pesticides could seriously damage global food production and wreck farming economies by playing havoc with honey bees, Australian scientists warned yesterday.	26th October 2006
The green gauge - Guardian Unlimited Energy generating dancefloors, wind-up laptop and hallowe'en horror as climate change induced pumpkin bight decimates crop.	22nd October 2006
Fires and Worst Drought in 100 Years Wake Australia Up to the Reality of Climate Change - Red Orbit Australia is confronting its worst drought in a century with rampant fires devastating agricultural areas, rivers drying up, crops failing, and farmers forced to sell off their livestock.	14th October 2006
GrainCorp Slashes Crop Delivery Forecasts on Drought - Bloomberg GrainCorp Ltd., eastern Australia's biggest grain handler, slashed its forecast for grain deliveries to its storage depots by as much as 78 percent on drought. Also: Drought forces revision of USDA wheat forecast	13th October 2006
Drought pushes wheat to 10-year high - FT US wheat futures struck a fresh 10-year high on Tuesday on fears of a further decline in the Australian wheat production due to the drought in much of the country’s grain-growing region.	10th October 2006
Drought in SW China Worsens as Temperatures Soar - Planet Ark Southwest China is suffering from its worst drought in 50 years and temperatures soared to 41 degrees Celsius (106 degrees Fahrenheit) on Wednesday with crops withering in the scorching heat, state media reported.	1st September 2006
Bangladesh Prays for Rain as Rice Crop Fears Grow - Planet Ark Bangladeshi farmers said on Sunday they might not be able to plant all their rice fields this season because of a lack of rain and weather forecasters could not hold out much hope of improvement.	28th August 2006
Millions of Tonnes of Grain Lost in China Drought -Planet Ark A drought in southwest China, the worst in 50 years, has led to the loss of five million tonnes of grain and damaged more than two million hectares (7,700 sq miles) of farmland, state media said on Thursday.	25th August 2006
Voting with their forks - Los Angeles Times 'Americans are starting to understand "just how important the food issue is — how it is linked to energy and global warming (17% of our fossil fuel use goes to feeding ourselves)'	16th August 2006
High Temperatures Could Leave Seed Crop Sterile - GrainNet Some crop plant like rice, kidney beans, soybeans and peanuts stop producing seeds when exposed to high temperatures.	11th August 2006
Bangladeshis Pray for Rain to Save Key Rice Crop - Planet Ark Bangladesh: A rare drought in the middle of the monsoon season is threatening crops that account for up to a third of the country's staple rice output, especially in the north.	3rd August 2006
Summer Heat Wave Sending Produce Prices On the Rise - News 10 Now USA: Area produce providers and wholesalers are seeing supplies of perishable fruits and vegetables withering under the blistering sun, sending prices for the surviving crops skyrocketing on their way to area buyers.	28th July 2006
Heatwave hits vegetable supplies - BBC News Europe: Supermarket vegetable aisles may be the latest victim of the hot summer.	28th July 2006
Grain drain: Get ready for Peak Grain - Infoshop News Brace yourself for crises at the cash register. Major price hikes for foo