Dear friends,
| Rocketing prices threaten to starve millions and make us all less secure — sign the emergency petition for action to stop the world food crisis |
Have you noticed food costing more when you shop? Here’s why — we’re plunging headlong into a world food crisis. Rocketing prices are squeezing billions and triggering food riots from Bangladesh to South Africa. Aid agencies say 100 million more people are at risk of starvation right now[1]. In Sierra Leone alone the price of a bag of rice has doubled, becoming unaffordable for 90% of citizens[2]. Fears of inflation stalk the whole world, and the worst could be yet to come.
We need to act now — before it’s too late. As Ban Ki-Moon holds a high-level UN meeting on the crisis, we’re launching an urgent campaign with African foreign minister and human rights campaigner Zainab Bangura. Click below to see Zainab’s video message and add your name to the food crisis petition — we need to raise 200,000 signatures by the end of this week to deliver a massive global outcry to leaders at the UN, G8 and EU:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/world_food_crisis/9.php
The prices of staple foods like wheat, corn and rice have almost doubled, and the crisis is slipping out of control — so we’re calling for immediate action on emergency food aid, speculation and biofuels policy, while asking forthcoming summits to tackle deeper problems of investment and trade.[3]
The global food crisis touches and connects us all, creating a tsunami of hunger for the poor and damaging economies and squeezing citizens in the rich world too. But solutions are on the horizon if leaders act fast [4] — sign the petition at the link below now, then forward this email and ask friends and family to do the same:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/world_food_crisis/9.php
With hope,
Paul, Galit, Ricken, Graziela, Iain, Mark, Pascal and the whole Avaaz team
Sources:
1. BBC: “How to stop the global food crisis”: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7365798.stm
“The New Economics of Hunger”, Washington Post, 27 April 2008 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/26/AR2008042602041_pf.html
2. Zainab Bangura, Foreign Minister of Sierra Leone, video message to Avaaz members http://www.avaaz.org/en/world_food_crisis/9.php
3. Chinese news citing World Bank figures: http://www.cctv.com/english/20080426/102406.shtml
Reuters: “Rising food prices to top UN agenda” http://www.reuters.com/article/gc08/idUSL1890947220080424
4. See BBC article above, and “Rising Food Prices” by Alex Evans (Chatham House report) http://www.chathamhouse.org.uk/files/11422_bp0408food.pdf
UN scientific report on fixing the world food system: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7347239.stm
The Guardian: “Credit crunch? The real crisis is global hunger”, George Monbiot http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/apr/15/food.biofuels
