Category Archives: hunger
Occupy Sandy: Onetime protesters find new cause
Associated Press
Nov. 10, 2012
By MEGHAN BARR
NEW YORK (AP) — You might be surprised at what has become a lauded and effective relief organization for victims of Superstorm Sandy: Occupy Wall Street.
The social media savvy that helped Occupy protesters create a grass-roots global movement last year — one that ultimately collapsed under its leaderless format — is proving a strength as members fan out across New York to deliver aid including hot meals, medicine and blankets.
They’re the ones who took food and water to Glenn Nisall, a 53-year-old resident of Queens’ hard-hit and isolated Rockaway section who lost power and lives alone, with no family nearby.
“I said: ‘Occupy? You mean Occupy Wall Street?’” he said. “I said: ‘Awesome, man. I’m one of the 99 percent, you know?’”
Inequality ‘highest for 20 years’ – Save The Children
BBC News
Oct. 31, 2012
Global inequalities in wealth are at their highest level for 20 years and are growing, according to a new report by Save The Children.
While the charity acknowledges progress has been made in goals such as reducing child mortality, the report says this has been uneven across income groups.
Continuing inequality could hinder further progress in improving living standards, the charity says.
The report comes ahead of a meeting of a high-level UN panel on poverty.
“In recent decades the world has made dramatic progress in cutting child deaths and improving opportunities for children; we are now reaching a tipping point where preventable child deaths could be eradicated in our lifetime,” Save the Children’s chief executive, Justin Forsyth, said.
US corn ethanol cost poor nations $6.6 bln – study
Alertnet
Oct. 11, 2012
By Megan Rowling
LONDON (AlertNet) – Growing use of U.S.-produced corn for biofuel has added $6.6 billion to the food import bills of developing countries over the past six years, highlighting the need to rethink energy policies that are making food more expensive for poor people, says new research.
The amount of U.S. maize that goes into ethanol equals around 15 percent of global corn production, and in recent years this has contributed to rising food prices around the world, says the study from Tufts University in Massachusetts.
“Higher corn prices have had a direct impact on the food-import bills of developing countries, many of which have become heavily dependent on outside sources of basic food commodities in the last 25 years,” the paper explains.
