by frog
The international food crisis is having strange effects. For instance:
PHNOM PENH (Reuters) – The price of rat meat has quadrupled in Cambodia this year as inflation has put other meat beyond the reach of poor people, officials said on Wednesday.
Things could have been worse, as Freakonomics notes, rats have been fleeing to higher ground from flooded areas of the lower Mekong river, making it to catch them and creating a greater supply to match demand.
So luckily there are adverse weather events otherwise the price of rats might be even higher. HopeDance magazine takes a more macro look at the issue:
Fasten your seat belts, it’s going to be a bumpy night’. It looks like the severe food problems long predicted by some agriculture, climate and peak analysts are arriving more or less on cue, with tragic results. Some of the problems are more obviously connected to the growing energy crisis, some apparently not. But the underlying drivers of all the problems are energy and population, and that means there is something the West can do about it, provided we make the right connexions between our dinner plates, the gas pump and plight of the global poor.
That all sounds a bit gloomy, but luckily here in the fruitbowl/breadbasket that is New Zealand the solutions are easy ones that just involve investing more in local diverse and organic farming. Diverse farming may or may not include rats, depending on your preference.
Published in Environment & Resource Management by frog on Tue, September 2nd, 2008
Tags: agriculture, cambodia, farming, Food, Frog, frogblog, green party, new zealand, rats
on the trolls and those who are unable to keep on topic
Interesting that this month National Geographic puts some of the blame on soil quality – in Haiti at least, which is one of the worst hit by the shortage. Certainly something that needs addressing too – even a bit of bio-char talk! Never imagined there would be something like the International Soil Reference and Information Centre keeping an eye one this sort of thing.
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frog said: Diverse farming may or may not include rats, depending on your preference.
As long as it doesn’t include toads!!!
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Adverse whether events?
That explains why the whether forecasters get it wrong so often.
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Thanks Kevyn, all fixed now.
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Ah, that explains it. Although adverse wether events could also force people to rely on rats as part of their diet I suppose.
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I needed humour, what with all the ‘flu & crazy policy statements flying around.
Whether the weather is adversely affecting the wethers, or not, as the case may be …
Keep it coming, frogponders
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