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<span style="font-weight: bold">News Source: OTGNR - </span>
<span style="font-weight: bold"> Confirmed : The U . N . warns of fast rising food prices ( RJR )...</span>
The UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation is warning that global food prices are rapidly rising and could trigger the same kind of instability that led to riots in 2007 and 2008.The Caribbean was hit hard during the last food price spike which sparked deadly food riots in Haiti.The Caribbean, which imports US$3.5 billion worth of food a year, is seen to be one of the economic regions to be hardest hit.Food imports that are relied upon heavily at the moment include tomatoes, onions and cabbage.Jethro Green, chief coordinator at the Caribbean Farmers Network, says there is cause for concern, saying that the problem for the Caribbean lay in the region being seduced by cheap food imports while paying little attention to food security."We have been complacent in the region, people have been sending remittance from abroad, the government has not been paying attention, the economists and World Bank and the IMF has indicated to the Caribbean that they must put more emphasis on services rather than agriculture and so a lot of the misguided bureaucrats did just that. Not paying attention that a majority of their money goes to food to feed the tourists goes back out of the country," he said.However Mr. Green said since 2008, progress has been made.One example was CARICOM creating a Food Nutrition Policy.
<span style="font-weight: bold"> Confirmed : The U . N . warns of fast rising food prices ( RJR )...</span>
The UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation is warning that global food prices are rapidly rising and could trigger the same kind of instability that led to riots in 2007 and 2008.The Caribbean was hit hard during the last food price spike which sparked deadly food riots in Haiti.The Caribbean, which imports US$3.5 billion worth of food a year, is seen to be one of the economic regions to be hardest hit.Food imports that are relied upon heavily at the moment include tomatoes, onions and cabbage.Jethro Green, chief coordinator at the Caribbean Farmers Network, says there is cause for concern, saying that the problem for the Caribbean lay in the region being seduced by cheap food imports while paying little attention to food security."We have been complacent in the region, people have been sending remittance from abroad, the government has not been paying attention, the economists and World Bank and the IMF has indicated to the Caribbean that they must put more emphasis on services rather than agriculture and so a lot of the misguided bureaucrats did just that. Not paying attention that a majority of their money goes to food to feed the tourists goes back out of the country," he said.However Mr. Green said since 2008, progress has been made.One example was CARICOM creating a Food Nutrition Policy.