Food prices are high, blah blah, we all know. Not that that’s not important.
But this seems more important: Donors–who presumably (she says with typical glibness) apply the same sound business judgment to their philanthropy budgets as they do to the books of the corporations that made them all that money in the first place–have noticed that food prices are going up, too. So they’ve cut back on…buying food. This from the Financial Times (via the UN News service):
Soaring food prices, especially for wheat, corn and rice, prompted budget-minded donors last year to reduce the volume of total food aid to the lowest in almost 50 years, the World Food Programme warns in a new report. The total volume of food aid delivered in 2007 was 5.9 million metric tons, 15% below the amount in 2006 and the lowest since volume recording started in 1961, the WFP said.
As one major NGO rep put it:
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“We’re overwhelmed….There’s not enough food and everyone’s starving, and that’s all there is to it.”
This, somehow, has broken through the bubble I manage to keep between me and all the stuff I normally cover. I can think of little more depressing at the moment.
