Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Help stop the food crisis now before it is too late

A message from April 29 2008: http://www.avaaz.org/en/

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/12.php

Sources
1. BBC: "How to stop the global food crisis":
http://news.bbc.co.uk
2. "The New Economics of Hunger"
http://www.washingtonpost.com
3. Zainab Bangura, Foreign Minister of Sierra Leone, video message to Avaaz members
http://www.avaaz.org
4. Chinese news citing World Bank figures:
http://www.cctv.com

5. Reuters: "Rising food prices to top UN agenda:
http://www.reuters.com
6. "Rising Food Prices" by Alex Evans (Chatham House report):
http://www.chathamhouse.org.uk
7. UN scientific report on fixing the world food system:
http://news.bbc.co.uk
8. The Guardian: "Credit crunch? The real crisis is global hunger", George Monbiot:
http://www.guardian.co.uk

ABOUT AVAAZ
Avaaz.org is an independent, not-for-profit global campaigning organization that works to ensure that the views and values of the world's people inform global decision-making. (Avaaz means "voice" in many languages.) Avaaz receives no money from governments or corporations, and is staffed by a global team based in London, Rio de Janeiro, New York, Paris, Washington DC, and Geneva.

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Crisis? What Crisis

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Sunday, April 13, 2008

Honey disappearing due to Colony Collapse Disorder

Reports of vanishing honey have been known for quite some time now. In England this week from Lincolnshire, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Welsh Assembly Government outlined their proposals. The British Beekeepers Association (BBKA) said it had “no confidence” that enough extra money would be provided for research.

From troubled Virginia to the West coast of the United States, there is a concern that bees are vanishing. Researchers say CCD Colony Collapse Disorder is caused by a combination of factors, including parasitic mites, low-level pesticide exposure, viruses or other pathogens, Pettis said. The US government is spending up to USD$100 million over the next five years researching CCD. Across the USA, the number of commercial bee keepers is dwindling due to shrinking profits, according to Jeff Pettis, research leader at the U.S. Department of Agriculture Bee Research Laboratory in Maryland.

The vanishingbees.com website blog reports CCD is currently killing approximately 30 per cent of beehives in the US every year and causing half the queen bees to supercede annually.