Lack Of Water And Food -- Two Issues That Have Sparked A Number Of Past Wars And Conflicts Are Making A Comback

From CNN -- Riots, Instability Spread As Food Prices Skyrocket

(CNN) -- Riots from Haiti to Bangladesh to Egypt over the soaring costs of basic foods have brought the issue to a boiling point and catapulted it to the forefront of the world's attention, the head of an agency focused on global development said Monday.

"This is the world's big story," said Jeffrey Sachs, director of Columbia University's Earth Institute.

"The finance ministers were in shock, almost in panic this weekend," he said on CNN's "American Morning," in a reference to top economic officials who gathered in Washington. "There are riots all over the world in the poor countries ... and, of course, our own poor are feeling it in the United States."

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My Comment: When I was growing up I learned about mass starvation from my parents. My father grew up in the Ukraine duirng the famine of 1932-1933, and my mother experienced the Second World War in Nazi occupied Russia. Hunger and war have always walked hand in hand, with both "feeding" each other.

Our hunger for energy in the form of bio-fuels may in fact produce a disaster that we are not prepared to acknowledge.

Update: Food Costs Rising Fastest in 17 Years -- Yahoo Finance

2nd Update: Food Riots Lead to Haitian Meltdown -- Time Magazine

3rd Update: Maybe I should not be so pessimistic -- As Other Staples Soar, Potatoes Break New Ground (Reuters)

4th Update: The Real Crisis Is Global Hunger. -- The Guardian