True Discernment

from The Globe and Mail:

The recent outbreak of food riots is a warning sign that rising food prices could cause unrest and instability across the world, the UN’s top humanitarian official said yesterday.

Combined with the negative impact of climate change and soaring fuel prices, a “perfect storm” is brewing for much of the world’s population, said John Holmes, the United Nations undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief co-ordinator.

“The security implications [of the food crisis] should also not be underestimated as food riots are already being reported across the globe,” Mr. Holmes told a conference in Dubai, addressing challenges facing humanitarian work.

His comments were made after two days of rioting in Egypt, where the prices for many staples have doubled in the past year. And violent food protests were continuing for a second day in the capital of Haiti.

“Current food price trends are likely to increase sharply both the incidence and depth of food insecurity,” Mr. Holmes said, noting a 40-per-cent average rise in prices worldwide since the middle of last year.

Mr. Holmes said that the biggest challenge to humanitarian work is the effects of climate change and the resulting “extreme weather” that has doubled the number of recorded disasters from an average of 200 a year to 400 a year in the past two decades.

Adding food scarcity and expensive fuel to the mix have made for a very volatile situation, he said.

“Compounding the challenges of climate change in what some have labelled the perfect storm are the recent dramatic trends in soaring food and fuel prices,” he said.

One of the factors pushing food prices higher and sparking protests all over the world is more expensive diesel fuel, which is used to transport most of the world’s food.