Heads Up! World food stocks dwindling rapidly, UN warns

[donsu]

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/12/17/europe/food.php


In an "unforeseen and unprecedented" shift, the world food supply is dwindling rapidly and food prices are soaring to historic levels, the top food and agriculture official of the United Nations warned Monday.

The changes created "a very serious risk that fewer people will be able to get food," particularly in the developing world, said Jacques Diouf, head of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.

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At the same time, reserves of cereals are severely depleted, FAO records show. World wheat stores declined 11 percent this year, to the lowest level since 1980. That corresponds to 12 weeks of the world's total consumption - much less than the average of 18 weeks consumption in storage during the period 2000-2005. There are only 8 weeks of corn left, down from 11 weeks in the earlier period.

-snip-

"We're concerned that we are facing the perfect storm for the world's hungry," said Josette Sheeran, executive director of the World Food Program, in a telephone interview. She said that her agency's food procurement costs had gone up 50 percent in the past 5 years and that some poor people are being "priced out of the food market."
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some poor people - "priced out of the food market"

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with the above in mind - the worst of times is upon us and I recommend learning how to grow food and medicinal herbs (even if a city dweller).

presenting Turkish parsley, even good for the vagina:

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IL20Ak01.html


Behold the power of parsley


Some newspaper headlines can't help but catch your eye and "Parsley in the Vagina" certainly rates as one. The story was run in the mainstream Hurriyet newspaper with the fright-inducing introductory paragraph that practices such as putting parsley and garlic in the vagina can lead to infections that may end in sterility.

The facts are the result of a study into alternative medical treatments tried by patients surveyed in the gynecological department of the Aegean Nursing School in Izmir. 143 women (mainly housewives) were questioned and 35.7% of them had used alternative medicines - most of which were herbal remedies.

Most of the women had used common ingredients such as nettles, mint, lemon and lindenflower for pain relief, soothing cramping muscles during periods and as cold treatments. Some saw herbal medicines as a way to provide them with extra energy and others took them in the hope of inducing a miscarriage or preventing cancer. They tried the remedies on the advice of family and friends without consulting medical personnel and 68% believed their home made treatments were effective.

Among the remedies collated by the doctors carrying out the survey were sitting naked above the steam coming off boiling milk or parsley in boiling water, putting parsley in the vagina, drinking water that has had parsley boiled in it, wrapping poultices of warm boiled rice around the waist and putting boiled garlic in the vagina. Like many practitioners of modern medicine the doctors were highly skeptical of the traditional herbal cures and issued a warning that rather than improve health some of the remedies could lead to infection spreading and infertility.

Parsley, which was mentioned often in the Aegean Nursing School survey seems a particular favorite in the world of herbal healing and is featured prominently on several alternative medicine Turkish websites. It is a concentrated source of provitamin A (beta karotene) and like carrots considered to be good for the eyesight, small vein system, adrenal glands and thyroid glands. It goes one step further than carrots though being rich in potassium, sulfur, calcium, magnesium and chlorine.
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read on and add parsley to your garden

(my German/Austrian maternal family always had a parsley bed - living 8 blocks from the Capitol in Wash. D.C.)

please pay attention and plan for the worst of the worst of times.

[donsu]

1. kicking because food in important - we can't look away

its time to look and do

[Libby2]

2. Interesting and frightening too........thanks n/t

[donsu]

3. kicking for another day's readers

nt

[Sugar Smack]

4. Kicked; too late to reccommend.