· April, 2008

Stories about Food from April, 2008

Sudan: Coffee ceremony in Al Meganis

  30 April 2008

Andrew writes about coffee culture in Al Meganis, Sudan: “It is almost as complicated as an Ethiopian coffee ceremony – look at all those pots, including the glue tin containing the final brew. But the end result is harsher and sweeter. Not that that is necessarily a bad thing on...

Kazakhstan: Bloggers Discuss Elites and Economics

  30 April 2008

Plitical intra-elite battles and anti-corruption crusades both remain hot topics on the agenda of Kazakhstani blogosphere, but speculations over the looming global food crisis and its implications for Central Asia made the bloggers cover this issue in their discussions. Ehot wonders, what will Kazakhstan be looking like if the food...

Caribbean: Food Shortages

  30 April 2008

“If music be the food of love, play on”, wrote Shakespeare, who could not possibly have anticipated the global food crisis the world is facing today. Rising food prices are a hot topic with bloggers the world over – and the Caribbean is no different. The “music” coming out of...

Indonesia: Rice laws

  28 April 2008

‘Sarapan Ekonomi, quotes a scholar who says “Asian rice laws and regulations are going in the wrong direction.”

Southeast Asia: Rice and food price crisis

  28 April 2008

The Southeast Asian region, home to several emerging and developing economies, is also struggling to cope with the global food price crisis. Bloggers discuss the impact of the crisis in the region.

St. Lucia: Inflation

  28 April 2008

Blogging from St. Lucia, Looshan Ramblings notes that “Oil is set to go up again. If the trend continues the first casualties of this spiraling inflation are the poor nations of the developing world.”

East Timor: On the shortage of rice

  27 April 2008

Ângela Carrascalão [pt] describes how rice entered East Timor via Indonesia, substituting native corn, and the problem the country now faces in times of food shortage: “When it was no longer part of the current diet of the East Timorese people, the population almost ceased to grow corn, and the...

St. Lucia: Bring on the Budget

  25 April 2008

Although she is “yet to get a copy of the estimates of expenditure for the 2008/2009 budget”, Looshan Ramblings has a few things to say: “The present administration has no idea…they are acting as if Saint Lucia is on planet Venus and the rest of the world is on earth....

St. Lucia: Oil and Food Prices

  24 April 2008

As oil prices hit US $120 per barrel, Looshan Ramblings says: “The…continued rise in oil prices will negate any efforts by Caricom governments to reduce food prices as we are so heavily dependent on imported food.”

Brazil: On the food crises

  23 April 2008

Matheus Pacini makes available in Portuguese [pt] a translation of The silent tsunami, from The Economist, to support his post about the food crisis.

Japan: Where has all the butter gone?

  23 April 2008

Where is the butter? — cry Japanese consumers who have been hunting everywhere for the dairy product. The drastic reduction in raw milk production, complicated by hikes in the price of grain as well as changes in the global patterns of dairy product consumption, have caused a serious butter shortage...

Haiti: Hunger Crisis

  22 April 2008

“Thirty years ago, Haiti raised nearly all the rice it needed. What happened?” asks Blog de Port-au-Prince, as it examines the causes of Haiti's hunger riots.