Tag: hunger

Apocalyptic footage shows huge swarm of locusts turning sky black – ‘No tree survived’

Alessandra Scotto di Santolo – December 17, 2020

A NEW generation of locust swarms is threatening to wipe out the livelihoods of farmers and herders across eastern Africa – deepening a food crisis in a region where 35 million people are already hungry, the United Nations warned on Wednesday.

From January to August, massive desert locust swarms swept across Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, ravaging crops and decimating pasture in the worst outbreak in decades. Governments, supported by U.N. agencies and international charities, responded with large-scale aerial and ground spraying of pesticides to destroy the swarms, which scientists have linked to climate change.

But widespread rains in Ethiopia and flooding caused by a cyclone in Somalia last month have created favourable breeding conditions, allowing locust infestations to increase, said the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

“We have achieved much, but the battle against this relentless pest is not yet over,” said FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu in a statement.

“We must not waver. Locusts keep growing day and night and risks are exacerbating food insecurity for vulnerable families across the affected region.”

Locust swarms are already forming in Somalia and Ethiopia and threaten to re-invade northern Kenya, while breeding is also underway on both sides of the Red Sea, posing a new threat to Eritrea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Yemen, said the FAO.

https://www.express.co.uk

The Economic Collapse Hits Home: Feeding America Says 1 Out Of 4 U.S. Children Could Suffer From Hunger By The End Of 2020

 – December 2, 2020

There are approximately 74 million children in the United States, and right now millions upon millions of them do not have enough to eat.  The economic collapse that has started in 2020 has been brutal for most of the nation, but it has hit children particularly hard.  If their parents lose their jobs, there is nothing that they can do except hope that government handouts and the kindness of others will be enough.  Unfortunately, way too often they are not enough, and at this point Feeding America is projecting that one out of every four children in America could suffer from hunger by the end of this calendar year…

By the end of this year, more than 50 million people could experience food insecurity, according to Feeding America, the country’s largest hunger-relief organization. That’s one in six Americans and one in four children—nearly a 50 percent increase from 2019. A Northwestern University study in June found that food needs had doubled nationally, and tripled for households with children. The pandemic has laid bare how many people are one paycheck or medical bill away from hunger.

Prior to the pandemic, more than 20 million children were at least getting free or reduced price lunches at school.  When lockdowns force the closing of schools, that just makes the hunger crisis even worse…

“There are 22 million children who even before this pandemic relied upon free and reduced lunch,” said Claire Babineaux-Fontenot, the CEO of Feeding America. “When you hear that schools are closed, not only does that mean that there are challenges for children with an education, but it also means lost meals.”

The good news is that the U.S. has a vast network of food banks all over the country, and they have been able to help more people than ever this year.

According to Feeding America, their food banks have “seen a 60 percent increase in demand” compared to last year.

But the bad news is that there simply is not going to be enough food if demand continues to soar in the months ahead.

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com

‘No end in sight’: hunger surges in America amid a spiraling pandemic

and – November 25, 2020

Millions of Americans must rely on charity to put Thanksgiving dinner on the table this year, as hunger surges amid a devastating spiraling of the Covid-19 pandemic which the Trump administration has failed to get under control.

In what is traditionally a season of celebration, less than half of US households with children feel “very confident” about having enough money to afford the food needed over the next month, according to the US Census Bureau’s latest pandemic survey. A staggering 5.6m households struggled to put enough food on the table in the past week.

Families of color are suffering disproportionately with 27% of black and 23% of Latino respondents with children reported not having enough to eat sometimes or often over the past week – compared with 12% of white people.

Overall food insecurity has doubled since last year due to record unemployment and underemployment rates. For families with children, hunger is three times higher than in 2019, according to analysis by Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach, director of the non-partisan Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University.

“Across the country demand has not let up, and food banks do everything they can to make sure families have food on the table for Thanksgiving. There’s no end in sight, but we can’t be the only solution,” said Zuani Villareal, spokeswoman for Feeding America, a network of 200 food banks nationwide. Since the start of the pandemic, four of every 10 people seeking food aid are first-timers.

Hunger is not new in America. Even before the pandemic, 35 million people relied on food banks every year, according to Feeding America. But the pandemic has been catastrophic – despite initial lauded federal interventions such as the stimulus cheques and enhanced unemployment benefit. As many as 50 million people could experience hunger this year, including a quarter of all children.

https://www.theguardian.com

New, larger wave of locusts threatens millions in Africa

RODNEY MUHUMUZA – April 10, 2020

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Weeks before the coronavirus spread through much of the world, parts of Africa were already threatened by another kind of plague, the biggest locust outbreak some countries had seen in 70 years.

Now the second wave of the voracious insects, some 20 times the size of the first, is arriving. Billions of the young desert locusts are winging in from breeding grounds in Somalia in search of fresh vegetation springing up with seasonal rains.

Millions of already vulnerable people are at risk. And as they gather to try to combat the locusts, often in vain, they risk spreading the virus — a topic that comes a distant second for many in rural areas.

It is the locusts that “everyone is talking about,” said Yoweri Aboket, a farmer in Uganda. “Once they land in your garden they do total destruction. Some people will even tell you that the locusts are more destructive than the coronavirus. There are even some who don’t believe that the virus will reach here.”

Some farmers in Abokat’s village near the Kenyan border bang metal pans, whistle or throw stones to try to drive the locusts away. But mostly they watch in frustration, largely barred by a coronavirus lockdown from gathering outside their homes.

A failed garden of cassava, a local staple, means hunger. Such worries in the village of some 600 people are reflected across a large part of East Africa, including Kenya, Ethiopia and South Sudan. The locust swarms also have been sighted in Djibouti, Eritrea, Tanzania and Congo.

https://apnews.com