Thursday, October 16, 2014

IN the NEWS - Could Ebola Trigger a Famine?

"West Africa’s Ebola outbreak has caused trade disruptions that are making food more expensive as labor shortages put upcoming harvests at risk, the UN’s Food & Agriculture Organization said.

Movement controls and quarantine zones created to stop the disease from spreading have curbed transport and sale of food, resulting in panic buying and “significant” price jumps for some commodities, the United Nations agency wrote in a report dated today on its website.
“With the main harvest now at risk and trade and movements of good severely restricted, food insecurity is poised to intensify in the weeks and months to come,” Bukar Tijani, the FAO’s regional representative for Africa, was cited as saying in the statement.
The main harvest season for rice and corn is “only weeks” away, and labor shortages on farms due to movement restrictions and migration to other areas will “seriously” impact production, the FAO said.
The price spikes have put food out of reach for some households in the affected area, which may have social repurcussions that could have a subsequent impact on disease containment, the FAO said."
Bloomberg


And great earthquakes shall be in divers places,
and famines,
and pestilences;
and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.
Luke 21:11