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November 03, 2003
When will the madness stop?
When is bad, really, really bad? According to BBC News, Thirsty Africa faces food crisis, the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) reckon that with "business as usual" policies and investments, the number of Africans without access to clean water will more than double to 401 million by 2025, with maybe as many as 523 million people being affected.
And why is this you ask ... Professor Frank Rijsberman of CGIAR says: "Agricultural subsidies in North America and Europe determine where food is grown, and policy decisions taken in the World Trade Organisation are possibly the single most dominant factor shaping the global demand for food and consequently the amount of water required to grow that food ... this is sharpening competition between farmers' needs and those of the natural world. In the last 50 years, 40% of the world's wetlands have been lost." Well why worry, we've still 60% left, right?
Posted by jeremy at November 3, 2003 12:48 PM
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