IMF Head: Food Shortages Can Spark War

(CBS/AP)  The head of the International Monetary Fund warned Friday that soaring world food prices can have dire consequences, such as toppling governments and even triggering wars.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn told France's Europe-1 radio that the price rises that set off rioting in Haiti, Egypt and elsewhere were an "extremely serious" problem.

"The planet must tackle it," he said.

The IMF chief said the problem could also threaten democracies, even in countries where governments have done all they could to help the local population. Asked whether the crisis could lead to wars, Strauss-Kahn responded that it was possible.

"When the tension goes above and beyond putting democracy into question, there are risks of war," he said. "History is full of wars that started because of this kind of problem."

Strauss-Kahn was appointed last year to head the IMF. He was a finance minister in the late 1990s in France.

Also on Friday, French President Nicolas Sarkozy suggested a global partnership among financial institutions, governments and the private sector to tackle the reasons for rising food prices. He also said France is doubling its food aid budget this year to about $95 million because 37 countries are experiencing "serious food crises."

Globally, food prices have risen 40 percent since mid-2007. The increases hit poor people hardest, as food represents as much as 60-80 percent of consumer spending in developing nations, compared to about 10-20 percent in industrialized countries, the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization has said.

The World Food Program blames soaring food prices on a convergence of rising energy costs, natural disasters linked to climate change, and competition for grain used to make bio-fuels like ethanol.

Program spokesperson Benita Luescher told CBS News correspondent Michelle Miller, "What we're seeing is a perfect storm."

Meanwhile, officials said Thursday that United Nations programs will distribute 8,000 tons of food and other help for Haitians in coming days as part of efforts to confront unrest over rising prices that set off recent rioting.

U.N. spokeswoman Michele Montas said food provided by the World Food Program will focus on children, pregnant women and nursing mothers in the north, west and central regions of Haiti, the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere.

Anger over surging food prices has threatened stability in the Caribbean nation, which has long been haunted by chronic hunger. Haitian lawmakers fired Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis over the rioting.

Mamadou Bah, spokesman for the U.N. country team in Haiti, said the 8,000 tons are available stock and will be distributed over the next two months starting Thursday.

The U.N. Children's Fund will double its child feeding program to combat malnutrition and spend some $1.6 million on water and sanitation projects in the northwest and Artibonite regions, Montas said.

Globally, food prices have risen 40 percent since mid-2007.

Haiti is particularly affected because it imports nearly all of its food, including more than 80 percent of its rice. Once productive farmland has been abandoned as farmers struggle to grow crops in soil devastated by erosion, deforestation, flooding and tropical storms.

Protests and looting in Port-au-Prince left at least seven dead last week, including a Nigerian officer in the 9,000-member U.N. peacekeeping force who was pulled from a car and killed Saturday. Three Sri Lankan peacekeepers were injured by gunfire early last week.

Brazilian members of the U.N. peacekeeping force distributed 14 tons of rice, beans, sugar and cooking oil to 1,500 families in the capital's sprawling Cite Soleil slum Tuesday.

The World Food Program and the U.N. mission in Haiti continue to support various projects aimed at creating jobs, Montas said. Some 2,500 Haitians are already employed by these projects which have a combined budget of $2.3 million, she said.

[jasmine731]

It isn''t just the cost of food for humans that''s going up, it''s grain for livestock and pet foods also. The increase in grain for livestock is one reason beef has gotten so high. So it may get to the point that a rancher can''t afford to feed his livestock, so no pork, beef or chicken going to market and none to the consumer. Some fruits and vegetables are sky-high, so farmers are sticking it to the consumer at the stores. A lot of it has to do with there being more demand than there is supply of food, and man''s greed for more and more money.

[libsrweak]

Not alot of entertainment or activity in those areas, all the fun they can have is intercourse.

Posted by Klingon69 at 12:44 PM : Apr 20, 2008
+ report abuse
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well then let them die from ''fun''...

these people have a LOT TO DO to get themselves out of this sh*thole...now if we can only stop these bleeding heart liberals from thier ''crusade'' in making these people DEPENDENT on AID and HANDOUTS and finally rising from this bullsh*t and deal with the problem once and for all...then maybe

(but it does make a good cause for a good concert..dont it..Mr. Bono

[voidmaster-2009]

The leader of the IMF has a point about food shortages causing wars. Most people don%u2019t realize that the great depression of the 1930s is largely responsible for World War II; that it was world-wide and America, for a of its hard times had it much easier than most of the rest of the world. How else to you think someone like Hitler BS%u2019d his way into power.

[klingon69]

Sending free food into an area that can''''t support a population for the long haul simply delays the inevitable, and encouraging people in these areas to have more kids, either by the *be fruitful and multiply* reasoning or *people have the right to have children* camp is IMHO irresponsible.
Posted by cyberus at 05:14 PM : Apr 19, 2008
Not alot of entertainment or activity in those areas, all the fun they can have is intercourse.

[DDouville]

I wonder could the news be any better? All these developments sure are depressing. We will see a growing homeless population, increased crime to name a few. Can you imagine the choices of a young person just out of high school that can''t afford college? Don''t be surprised when they turn to crime to survive, especially when they realize they have little or no hope of a decent life with this high cost of living that is only getting worse. One things for sure, some fat cats are getting filthy rich while your average Joe gets more behind. i can''t wait for the next ''good news''.

[sharncedar]

Hey I have a great idea - let''s give away all our jobs and industrial secrets to China and India, then they''ll build up a middle class and adopt free open societies, sure they will eat MUCH MORE FOOD and consume more meat and waste food in many other ways, and also USE MUCH MORE OIL, but hey, somehow by the magic of the free market there will be more food and oil, right? I mean, don''t worry about that part, there won''t be any food shortages. I guarantee it, just like I guarantee that China and India will become good world citizens, they won''t use their new wealth to buy up all the world''s food and oil while supporting regimes like North Korea and Zimbabwe, they won''t do that. I guarantee it, just like I guarantee that less regulation in the financial markets is a good thing.

Sincerely, Alan Greasepan

[lindaredtail]

rudy654 I would say that you are probably right about the "man" I"m a moderate but I know that liberals like Angelina Jolie, Bono, ect do great work on behalf of the poor. I also believe that there is no excuse for world hunger and that the world could be fed. I wrote in an earlier posting that like you I think that it is about corporate greed. The world could be a far more prosperous place if it were not for the short term profit margin. No major corporation should receive any form of government subsidies. Farm subsidies primarily now go to the corporate type farms while our little farmers lose their farms. For generations those little farmers supplied Americans with food. We owe them something. I take no exception to those little farmers receiving aid. They are good hardworking people. But the big corporate farms not only make a profit but take funds from the government in what is nothing more than welfare fraud for the rich.

[rudy654-2009]

Oh, and be sure to thank ethanol for the food shortage, because we were all warned what the consequences were going to be back when this krap started.

[rudy654-2009]

Posted by lindaredtail at 03:59 PM

The "man" you are addressing is probably a fat azz that sits in front of a computer every day, 24 hrs a day to gripe and moan and groan about liberals, while he receives a disability check and sucks oxygen from a tank because he smoked all his life.

[rudy654-2009]

There is no lack of food anywhere. The planet we live on is more than capable of producing food for everyone and more. The problem is greed. Corporate greed. Right now, the corporate world is raping every third world country and doing their best to do the same to simple citizens in Western Nations. Again, there are no food shortages - only corporate greed fed by the political machine.