US News
Bush seeks 770 million dollars in new food aid
May 2, 2008, 12:40 GMT
Washington - US President George W Bush on Thursday called on legislators to approve 770 million dollars to confront a growing food crisis in the developing world.
The new money would bring to nearly 1 billon dollars the amount of new aid pledged this year by the United States to address rising food costs, which have spread hunger and sparked riots in poorer countries.
'In some of the world's poorest nations, rising prices can mean the difference between getting a daily meal and going without food,' Bush said.
Most of the money would go to emergency food aid, while about 150 million dollars would go toward longer term projects to boost agricultural production in developing countries, White House officials said in a conference call following Bush's remarks.
The Bush administration last month made 200 million dollars available immediately to address the food crisis through a government agricultural programme.
The congressional money, by contrast, could only be released in October at the earliest. But Steve McMillin, deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, said its impact should not be 'minimized' because it would help aid agencies plan ahead.
The White House said most of the new assistance would go to Africa, where the World Bank has warned the food crisis threatens to roll back gains made in combatting poverty in the last seven years.
The United Nations World Food Programme and other international relief agencies have called for emergency donations to boost food stocks and avoid massive malnutrition and starvation among the world's poorest populations.
World Bank President Robert Zoellick prodded other countries to follow Bush's new pledge, saying the new funds would 'help put food in the mouths of millions of people who are struggling to survive as prices rise.'
Bush said that he was working with industrial nations to boost food aid and also called for restrictions on food exports to be lifted.
'Some countries are preventing needed food from getting to market in the first place, and we call upon them to end those restrictions to help ease suffering for those who aren't getting food,' Bush said.
Nepal on Wednesday became the latest country to ban grain exports in the face of rising food costs and shortages at home.
The World Bank last month said that food prices have risen 83 per cent in the last three years, including a 120-per-cent spike in wheat in the last year alone.
© Deutsche Presse-AgenturCOMMENT
blog comments powered by DisqusLatest Headlines in US
- 1. Mitt Romney Addresses Tea Party Summit Pictures
- 2. Seven injured as US Navy plane crashes into apartments
- 3. At least three injured in US Navy plane crash
- 4. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, others to face death penalty trial
- 5. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, four others to face death penalty trial
Older Talkback
page: 1
There are going to be more americans going hungry. The high oil prices, due to the failed Iraq take-over, are affecting everything. Higher fuel costs for farmers, transportation and processing. More corn going to alternative fuels will lead to higher prices for meat. Let's not forget the role of commodities speculators, who keep the price high to fatten their wallets, while everyone else gets lean. Mind you, this is good news for the 34% of americans who are classified as obese. They now have an opportunity to slim down.
Natural gas is the precursor for ntirogen based fertilizers. Watch the price of that go through the roof too. Everything from cigarette filters to plastics are made from natural gas. The whole economy is on shakey ground right now. For a lot of people the situation is now food or heat. They can't afford both.
Leave it to the GOP to discover the social issues (hunger, health care) that the Democrats have recognized for years. Of course Bush then makes his usual third-grade analysis to justify his awakening, making it all more embarrassing to have this lout for a President.
'In some of the world's poorest nations, rising prices can mean the difference between getting a daily meal and going without food,' Bush said, as millions of workers around the world made soaring food prices their May Day battle cry.
(Let me know when he also discovers that wars kill people; and badly run wars kill even MORE people)
www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/05/01/cbsnews_investigates/main4063822.sht ml
In closing arguments in a federal lawsuit against the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), plaintiff lawyers accusing the agency of failing to effectively take care of our nation’s military veterans said, “1,457 veterans died while their appeals were pending” in the last six months alone.
“More of these veterans are dying in the United States than out in combat,” attorney Arturo Gonzalez said.
Two veterans rights groups - Veterans for Common Sense and Veterans United for Truth - sued the VA hoping a federal judge could order the government agency to overhaul and improve its system. The trial took place in San Francisco with seven days of court testimony. Closing remarks were held Wednesday.
Plaintiff lawyers claimed the agency has dropped the ball in a number of ways and as a result has not provided proper access to health care and benefits to veterans. For example, they said the VA has yet to fully implement the Mental Health Strategic Plan that was introduced back in 2004. Gonzalez said, “there is no plan for dealing with all of these veterans who are returning and who are in need of help.” The argument was also made that veterans are waiting too long to get medical appointments and the benefits they deserve.
We have up to 2 million folks who qualify for food stamps in the USA who never apply.
There has never been a case of starvation related death, that I can find, not related to drug, alchohol, or some kind of parallel abuse or neglect on record in the USA.
Obesity is one of our most accute health issues. FAR more folks die from ailments related to OVEREATING.
Anytime you liberals want to lower the cost of food, drop subsidies like your 286 billion dollar, unfunded farm bill you just passed, close down money for NOT growing food, cut your ethanol subsidies and let the free market start producing, and quit blaming GW for everything.
More of this 'I'm never wrong' crap from the Crappola-in-Chief'. Much of the world lives in a subsistence state, particularly Africa. If Bush is suddenly growing a conscience and feeding people OVERSEAS, what does that have to do with starvation IN the United States???
DISEASE as a result of substandatd nutrition is easy to find in the United States.
From 2002:
www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/12/20021210-14.html
'The leaders called attention to the food crisis in the Horn of Africa, particularly in Ethiopia, where food shortages are affecting six million people and may eventually expose 14 million people to starvation. The United States will continue to provide food aid and other humanitarian assistance to alleviate the effects of the crisis and calls upon other donor nations to provide substantial emergency assistance. The leaders also agreed to take steps to prevent the recurrence of food emergencies in the region.'
afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hNr8wjH7ry1CA2ta7FFYAfQpy_ng
UN monitors warn of major famine crisis in Somalia
NAIROBI (AFP) — Record-high food prices and prolonged drought are leading to a major famine crisis in Somalia, UN monitors said Thursday, warning that half the population could need help by the year-end. Some 2.6 million Somalis now require help to feed themselves, an increase of 40 percent since January, according to figures compiled by the Food Security Analysis Unit, part of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation. 'This increase is mainly due to the addition of 600,000 urban poor, who now face conditions of acute food and livelihood crisis and humanitarian emergency,' said a statement from the monitoring team.
The dire situation has been exacerbated by relentless conflict, a sharp devaluation of the Somali shilling and hyper-inflation, as well as the delayed start to the April-June rainy season. The monitors said cereal prices had increased by between 110 and 375 percent in the last year just as central Somalia endured its worst drought in recent memory. 'The urban poor are struggling to cover their basic needs as the cost of a minimum food basket is now more than double what it was last year,' the UN monitors said.
They urged the world to prepare for a worse-case scenario in Somalia, where a weak government is battling a deadly insurgency and worsening insecurity has left humanitarian operations high and dry.
library.thinkquest.org/C002291/high/present/stats.htm
(excerpts)
In the Asian, African and Latin American countries, well over 500 million people are living in what the World Bank has called 'absolute poverty'
Every year 15 million children die of hunger
To satisfy the world's sanitation and food requirements would cost only US$13 billion- what the people of the United States and the European Union spend on perfume each year.
It is estimated that some 800 million people in the world suffer from hunger and malnutrition, about 100 times as many as those who actually die from it each year.
sp4 you idiot food stamps are no longer used .
you just make an ass out of yourself day in day out...
Ned, go to google and type in food stamp program 2008. Get a clue
Since our troops can't even get timely treatment for PTSD, I figure SP4 has a long wait for what ails him. He can begin by reading the last paragraph below:
ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5i0bQky4j0SZqu4244m79M3IHujBwD90DBLDO0
Rising global food prices have hit few places as hard as Afghanistan, where the cost of wheat flour has shot up 75 percent in three months, fueling anger against the U.S.-backed government of President Hamid Karzai. In the volatile south, officials fear it could boost recruitment for the Taliban insurgency.
'Karzai is the king and this is my life,' wailed the Pashtun woman, who declined to give her name because of her conservative social code. 'Since the Americans came here, nothing is cheap.'
The U.N. World Food Program, or WFP, warns that the situation for the poorest in Afghanistan is dire and deaths from malnutrition are likely to increase. Protests have broken out in at least one city. Even middle-income professionals are struggling.
'People are not dying of starvation, per se, but that's very rare these days. Usually people die from diseases they never should have died from but their bodies are weakened by hunger,' he said.
turn you back on america like you always do ... chimpy
Let the third world starve, forget the damn lot of them. They are nothing but a nuisance with their self-created problems and genocidal tendencies.
The proverbial WHITE MAN`S BURDEN.
The whole bunch of them are so busy massacring their own people, plus as many other innocents as they can to bother about food shortages.
In any case all that Western money only goes into weapons or luxurious life-styles for their despot leaders. Their people get nothing from Western generosity.
Keep your dollars America for your own needs and tell those grubby, semi-civilised savages to get lost.
amen to that
page: 1
Open theMay 2nd, 2008 - 14:49:10
back door to the white-house and have a look out;
scrutinize it closely;
you will see a lot of little things;
hungry people mostly.
WAKE UP GEORGE!
MLP
Report this comment