Friday, April 25, 2008

World food prices: ‘Standing Room Only’ scenario -- (Cebu Daily News)

apr 25, 2008

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: ven

'Standing Room Only' scenario

Cebu Daily News / Opinion
http://globalnation.inquirer.net/cebudailynews/opinion/view/20080423-132213/Standing-Room-Only-scenario


Food prices have dramatically gone up in recent months because of (a) increased demand, especially among recently prosperous people, especially in India and China who now eat twice or thrice a day compared to only once or twice in the recent past; (b) severe weather conditions which ruined crops: abnormally heavy snowfall in China, floods in Southeast Asia; and (c) an increase in the use of farm lands to grow bio-fuel crops.

In the past 12 months, the price of wheat has gone up 130 percent; soy beans 87 percent; rice 74 percent; and corn 31 percent. According to BBC News, per-capita meat consumption in China has gone up from 20 kilograms in 1980 to 50 kilograms in 2007. And an indication of another looming global crisis: water. It takes 1,000-2,000 liters of water to produce one kilogram of wheat, but 10,000 to 13,000 liters to produce one kilogram of beef.

Another disturbing statistics from BBC News: the global population was 2.5 billion in 1950; 4.1 billion in 1975; and 6.l billion in 2000. The forecast is 8.0 billion in 2025 and 9.2 billion in 2050. And judging from the population growth rates in 2007, most of those additional two to three billion earthlings in the next 17 to 42 years will be impoverished Black Africans and possibly jihadist Muslims, with tens of millions of additional Roman Catholics, notably Filipinos, to contribute to the "Standing Room Only" scenario.

Even if our population growth rate were to decline from 2.3 to 2.0 percent, there would still be 122.9 million Filipinos by 2025 (only 17 years from now), and 201.7 million by 2050 (only 42 years from now). In 2007, our population growth rate is said to have dropped to 1.91 percent. So our projected population can be scaled down to "only" 100.01 million by 2014, "only" 122.17 million by 2025, and "only" 194.5 million by 2050.

Impoverished Black Africans do not have the means to wage war on Europe and North America, for food or other reasons. But they can flood Europe with illegal immigrants. Would that they instead just drastically reduce their galloping population growth rates and use their vast and fertile lands to grow the food that they need. But, of course, that is easier said than done.

As for jihadist Muslims, they are already at war with the Crusaders and the Zionists, not over food, but for world domination. Islam is not just a religion, it is also a political system. Its ideal is that all countries are governed under Sharia law. Islam is also a global ideology that urges its followers to use all means to work for the conversion of the rest of the world to its embrace.

So by the year 2025, there will be 1.9 billion more people on the planet, counting from 2000, and most of them will be impoverished Black Africans and possibly jihadist Muslims, together with some 33 million more Filipinos on top of our present 90 million. What was the title of that Broadway comedy hit in the 1960s? "Stop the World. I Want to Get Off!" — Antonio C. Abaya, www.tapatt.org

1 comment:

truti said...

reminds me of a saying attributed to the patriot Satyamurthy - a veteran of the 1930s - that if all Indians spat together we could drown England! So if all Indians and Chinese eat well, the 1st world would starve - which is how it must have been around 1000 CE. Our birth spike happened around that time which is why our population soared through the next 800 years. The 1st world's birth spike cam much later in the 19th century because it took them a much longer time to become prosperous.

All traveller's accounts of the days gone by from before 500 BCE to 1700 BCE talk of India in wonder, at its riches. Some day we will return to those days.