The Earth Shall Wax Old

Volume 41 Issue Eight August 2022

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“For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?” I Cor. 14:8

The Earth Shall Wax Old


“Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished.”

Isaiah 51:6

“Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed: But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end.”

Psalm 102:25-27

When people hear the word “apocalypse” they often think of the Book of Revelation. This is fitting because the word apocalypse is taken from the Greek word “apokálypsis;” which means “revelation.” (1) In particular, the word apocalypse is usually associated with revelations regarding end-time prophecy and events. While the book of Revelation contains many Scriptures regarding the world’s final days, there are an abundance of other apocalyptic messages found throughout God’s Word. For example, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ spends the entirety of Matthew, chapter 24, describing both the destruction of the Jewish temple in 70 A.D. and also the end of the world. The Apostle Paul devotes II Timothy, chapter 3, to the “perilous times” (verse 1) that would occur in “the last days” and even warns that “evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived” (verse 13.) The Apostle Peter wrote of the end times in II Peter, chapter 3, warning in verse 3; “There shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts.” He then offers a vivid description of God’s judgment upon the earth by writing in verse 10, “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.”

How is it that God, who lovingly and meticulously created this world and then proclaimed His creation to be “very good” in Genesis 1:31, could ever allow this world to be burned up? Over time, this planet has been ravaged by sin, suffering the effects of greed, selfishness, unbridled lust, hatred, and a lack of regard for Almighty God. When God decides it is time for this world to be destroyed, much of the damage will have already been inflicted by mankind. Thus, as a property owner might find a dilapidated and unsound building condemned and subject to demolition, God, too, will demolish this world.

Scriptures in the Old Testament tell us that the world we now occupy will eventually wear out and “wax old like a garment.” Isaiah 51:6 declares, “Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished.” A remarkably similar passage can be found in Psalm 102:25-27, which tells us, “Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed: But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end.” Even as these verses reveal the ultimate demise of our world, we see the promises that not only will God Himself endure for all eternity, but His salvation, too, will endure for all eternity. It is for this reason that Jesus promises in John 5:24, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.” As the forthcoming content of this newsletter will reveal, our world is facing astonishing trouble in the days ahead. As such, the promises of God are exceedingly precious to His people, and we will need His mercy and grace to endure the coming months and years.

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3a GUERRA MUNDIAL; CRISE DE ALIMENTOS NO CANADÁ; SEM PICADA SEM ALIMENTO; MAIS BASE DE DADOS

AP Interview: UN food agency boss warns of migrant crisis

World Food Program executive director David Beasley talks during an interview at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Canberra, Australia, Monday, March 26, 2018. Beasley says the collapse of the Islamic State movement’s self-described caliphate across Syria and Iraq has led to extremists mounting a recruitment drive in sub-Sahara Africa which threatens to trigger a new European migrant crisis. Rod McGuirk AP Photo



By ROD McGUIRK Associated Press



March 26, 2018 03:30 AM

Updated 1 minute ago
CANBERRA, Australia



The collapse of the Islamic State group's self-described caliphate in Syria and Iraq has led to extremists mounting a recruitment drive in sub-Sahara Africa that threatens to trigger a new European migrant crisis, the head of the United Nations food agency said Monday.

World Food Program executive director David Beasley said many of the militants who fled Syria had ended up in the greater Sahel region, a belt of semi-arid land spanning east-west across Africa and home to 500 million people.

Islamic State militants are collaborating with other extremist groups, including al-Qaida, al-Shabab and Boko Haram, to create "extraordinary difficulties" across the Sahel, Beasley said.

He has warned European leaders that they could face a far larger migrant crisis from the Sahel than the Syrian conflict generated if they do not help provide the region with food and stability.

"You're talking about the greater Sahel region of 500 million people, so the Syria crisis could be like a drop in the bucket compared to what's coming your way," Beasley told The Associated Press.

"What they're now doing is coming into an already fragile area, a very destabilized area because of climate impact and governance, and they're infiltrating, recruiting, using food as a weapon of recruitment to destabilize so that they can have mass migration into Europe," Beasley said.

"Mother after mother will tell you that 'My husband did not want to join ISIS or al-Qaida, but we had no food,' and if you haven't fed your little girl or little boy in two weeks and the alternative is signing up with ISIS, you sign up," Beasley added, referring to the group, also known as Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.

The World Food Program wants to provide stability, economic growth and sustainable development as well as food to the region, said Beasley, who was in Australia for talks with the government on funding strategies.

The Sahel — which includes Burkina Faso, Chad, Niger, Mali and Mauritania — is vulnerable to droughts and floods and faces constant food insecurity.

Five nations have also been grappling with a growing menace from extremists, including groups linked to al-Qaida's North Africa branch.

In February 2017, the so-called "Group of Five" agreed to assemble a 5,000-strong force to combat extremist groups, organized crime and human trafficking.

Memory Of Potato Famine Burdens 'Immortal Irishman'

Author Interviews



Updated March 3, 20168:44 AM ET Published March 3, 20165:11 AM ET

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Civil War buffs and the Irish-American community have probably heard of Thomas Francis Meagher. Renee Montagne talks to New York Times columnist Timothy Egan about his book The Immortal Irishman.

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The Malnutrition Epidemic in America

By WakingTimes April 23, 2015

Tracy Kolenchuk, Contributor
Waking Times

America is suffering from an epidemic of malnutrition. But it’s not what you think.

If you check the World Health Organization for malnutrition, you will find many studies about, and programs for malnutrition in children. It’s as if malnutrition doesn’t exist in adults? We’re all children. And many of us are suffering from malnutrition. If you search, you can find a few references where the definition of malnutrition includes ‘eating too much’. But that’s not it either.

America is suffering from an epidemic of obesity. There is no question about that. The only questions are about the causes. Few notice that obesity is easily caused by starvation.

It’s a common mistake, assuming that obesity is caused by too much junk food, combined with too little exercise. All to simple, and all too simplistic. The conclusions are easy to accept: judgement of people for their behaviors. People who are fat, especially people who are obese, are themselves at fault. If they would just eat less, and exercise more – they could solve their own problems. But that’s simplistic nonsense. No one wants to be obese.

Obesity, in America, is a disease of malnutrition. Cheap food makes us all poor, unhealthy, and fat. Obesity often results when your body is starving. When the food you eat does not provide the nutrients you need. Your body knows you are starving, no matter how much you are ‘eating. It reacts ‘hungrily’, trying to eat more food, to get the necessary nutrients. At the same time, because it senses ‘famine’, because the required nutrients are not available, it initiates a fat storage system to save calories, ‘until the famine passes’.


The (obese) body is doing it’s best to get the nutrients it needs, and to store extra food that is not needed. It urges you to eat more, you get fatter. But you are still starving all of the time. Because the food you are eating does not provide the nutrients you need.

Have you noticed? Obese people are often ‘starving’.

How can this be happening? Why is this happening? There are several factors:

In the past, there were lots of ‘healthy, nutritious foods’ around. Even if you ate cake every day, most of the other food you ate met your biological needs, so you didn’t need to keep eating and eating. Because your dietary needs were being met, your body was not ‘starving’. It didn’t push you to eat more. Because your body was not starving, it did not need to ‘store food’ for the famine.

In the past, foods were ‘seasonal’. People were forced to eat different foods in winter than in summer, different in spring than in fall. These dietary changes forced you to consume a wider variety of foods, more likely to meet your nutritional needs – over the year. Even foods like beef, chickens, eggs, and milk changed with the seasons, because the animal’s diets changed.

Today, it is possible to eat the same foods, day in and day out, with no seasonal changes, for many years. It is easy to ‘fill up’ several times a day on foods that do not meet your nutritional needs. Your body senses famine, stores fat for the famine, and urges you to eat more, to address your malnutrition, your starvation.

This also exacerbates the accumulations of toxic chemicals from your foods. When we eat the same foods, day after day, month after month, season after season, year after year, the toxic chemicals in those foods accumulate. When our diet was changing with the seasons, we consumed different toxic chemicals in different seasons, and left others behind. Our bodies had months to recover. But today, we seldom change our diet consciously, and even if we do, the market ensures that we pick many similar foods, developed by similar growing and manufacturing processes with similar toxic chemicals.

There is a second factor at play, which is often important. When you become obese, you don’t just ‘gain fat. Your stomach, and the rest of your digestive system grows. It takes more to make you ‘feel full’, you become more reliant on ‘feeling full’ to know when to stop eating. As soon as you feel ‘not full’, you start eating again. When you are ‘feeling full’, there’s always room for desert. Your body is starving. When you feel stomach discomfort, your body urges you to eat – because it knows you are starving.

As a result, even if you start eating the right foods, you will still feel hungry – and it might take a very long time to shrink your body, and your digestive system back to a ‘healthy’ size. For all of that time, it will be easy to think you are hungry, when you don’t need food. It can take a long time to learn that you are not ‘hungry’ whenever your stomach hurts, and you are not full when your stomach hurts. Those are lessons learned through malnutrition – hard to unlearn.

It’s ironic, that most of the treatments for obesity include some type of starvation. Cut back on calories, don’t eat this food, don’t eat that food. Fat loss diets range from rabbit food to lion food – but they seldom work. And sticking to them is almost impossible for anyone who has become obese. It’s hard to stick to a diet when you are malnourished. It’s hard to stick to a diet that doesn’t meet your nutritional needs, when you are starving.

The other ‘treatment’ suggested for obesity is exercise. There are a variety of reasons why exercise is a high risk for obese people, from high blood pressure to dehydration, to breathing problems because of their larger chest wall. But add to that, the fact that their bodies are not healthy, their bodies are starving, and thus more susceptible to, and more likely to be damaged by the stress of exercise.

There are people who can quit smoking in a day – I did it (after 5 or so unsuccessful attempts). And there are a few obese people who can ‘fix their eating’ almost overnight. But those are few, and far between. And perhaps more important, many who succeed have no idea what worked, what didn’t work, and how to proceed afterwards. If they want to remain ‘thin’, they are stuck in whatever rut that helped them lose weight, even if it was an unhealthy technique. They are unable to escape, for fear of becoming obese again. Dreaming about chocolate cake. I still dream about smoking sometimes….

You hear a lot about the epidemic of obesity in the USA. Is it really an epidemic of obesity? 

A Harvard Study in 2011 listed the following causes of ‘preventable deaths’:

1. Smoking: 467,000 deaths.
2. High blood pressure: 395,000 deaths.
3. Overweight-obesity: 216,000 deaths.
4. Inadequate physical activity and inactivity: 191,000 deaths.
5. High blood sugar: 190,000 deaths.
6. High LDL cholesterol: 113,000 deaths.
7. High dietary salt: 102,000 deaths.
8. Low dietary omega-3 fatty acids (seafood): 84,000 deaths.
9. High dietary trans fatty acids: 82,000 deaths.
10. Alcohol use: 64,000 deaths.
11. Low intake of fruits and vegetables: 58,000 deaths.
12. Low dietary poly-unsaturated fatty acids: 15,000 deaths.

It’s clear that high blood pressure, overweight-obesity, high blood sugar, high LDL cholesterol, high dietary salt, low dietary omega-3 fatty acids, high dietary trans fatty acids, alcohol use, low intake of fruits and vegetables, and low dietary poly-unsaturated fatty acids are all malnutrition – and most are nutritional deficiencies. Most of these diseases are caused by starvation, even though obesity is near the top of the list.

What about smoking, it’s not nutrition, or is it? People smoke to take nutrients – drugs – into their bodies. People smoke because if they stop, they’ll gain weight. Smoking is a substitute for eating. Smokers need more nutrients, to help their bodies heal and clear the toxic chemicals, but instead, they eat less. And what about alcohol? Both smokers and alcoholics are prone to malnutrition, because they substitute smoking, and alcohol for food.

There is an epidemic of malnutrition in America. That’s why so many people are so fat.

to your health, tracy

About the Author

Tracy Kolenchuk is the founder of Healthicine.org and author of: Introduction to Healthicine: Theories of Health, Healthiness, Illness and Aging.

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The Siege of Jerusalem

Flavius Josephus

(37-100)

"But why dwell on the commonplace rubbish which the starving were driven to feed upon, given that what I have to recount is an act unparalleled in the history of either the Greeks or the barbarians, and as horrible to relate as it is incredible to hear?"

The Siege of Jerusalem, AD 70
by Josephus

Jerusalem fell, after a siege, to a Roman army under Titus.
Josephus was a Jew who had gone over to the Romans.



Throughout the city people were dying of hunger in large numbers, and enduring unspeakable sufferings. In every house the merest hint of food sparked violence, and close relatives fell to blows, snatching from one another the pitiful supports of life. No respect was paid even to the dying; the ruffians [anti-Roman zealots] searched them, in case they were concealing food somewhere in their clothes, or just pretending to be near death. Gaping with hunger, like mad dogs, lawless gangs went staggering and reeling through the streets, battering upon the doors like drunkards, and so bewildered that they broke into the same house two or three times in an hour. Need drove the starving to gnaw at anything. Refuse which even animals would reject was collected and turned into food. In the end they were eating belts and shoes, and the leather stripped off their shields. Tufts of withered grass were devoured, and sold in little bundles for four drachmas.

But why dwell on the commonplace rubbish which the starving were driven to feed upon, given that what I have to recount is an act unparalleled in the history of either the Greeks or the barbarians, and as horrible to relate as it is incredible to hear? For my part I should gladly have omitted this tragedy, lest I should be suspected of monstrous fabrication. But there were many witnesses of it among my contemporaries; and besides, I should do poor service to my country if I were to suppress the agonies she went through.

Among the residents of the region beyond Jordan was a woman called Mary, daughter of Eleazar, of the village of Bethezuba (the name means "House of Hyssop"). She was well off, and of good family, and had fled to Jerusalem with her relatives, where she became involved with the siege. Most of the property she had packed up and brought with her from Peraea had been plundered by the tyrants [Simon and John, leaders of the Jewish war-effort], and the rest of her treasure, together with such foods as she had been able to procure, was being carried by their henchmen in their daily raids. In her bitter resentment the poor woman cursed and abused these extortioners, and this incensed them against her. However, no one put her to death either from exasperation or pity. She grew weary of trying to find food for her kinsfolk. In any case, it was by now impossible to get any, wherever you tried. Famine gnawed at her vitals, and the fire of rage was ever fiercer than famine. So, driven by fury and want, she committed a crime against nature. Seizing her child, an infant at the breast, she cried, "My poor baby, why should I keep you alive in this world of war and famine? Even if we live till the Romans come, they will make slaves of us; and anyway, hunger will get us before slavery does; and the rebels are crueler than both. Come, be food for me, and an avenging fury to the rebels, and a tale of cold horror to the world to complete the monstrous agony of the Jews." With these words she killed her son, roasted the body, swallowed half of it, and stored the rest in a safe place. But the rebels were on her at once, smelling roasted meat, and threatening to kill her instantly if she did not produce it. She assured them she had saved them a share, and revealed the remains of her child. Seized with horror and stupefaction, they stood paralyzed at the sight. But she said, "This is my own child, and my own handiwork. Eat, for I have eaten already. Do not show yourselves weaker than a woman, or more pitiful than a mother. But if you have pious scruples, and shrink away from human sacrifice, then what I have eaten can count as your share, and I will eat what is left as well." At that they slunk away, trembling, not daring to eat, although they were reluctant to yield even this food to the mother. The whole city soon rang with the abomination. When people heard of it, they shuddered, as though they had done it themselves.

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Famine during the Siege of Jerusalem

Terrible were the calamities that fell upon Jerusalem when the siege was resumed by Titus. The city was invested at the time of the Passover, when millions of Jews were assembled within its walls. Their stores of provision, which if carefully preserved would have supplied the inhabitants for years, had previously been destroyed through the jealousy and revenge of the contending factions, and now all the horrors of starvation were experienced. A measure of wheat was sold for a talent. So fierce were the pangs of hunger that men would gnaw the leather of their belts and sandals and the covering of their shields. Great numbers of the people would steal out at night to gather wild plants growing outside the city walls, though many were seized and put to death with cruel torture, and often those who returned in safety were robbed of what they had gleaned at so great peril. The most inhuman tortures were inflicted by those in power, to force from the want-stricken people the last scanty supplies which they might have concealed. And these cruelties were not infrequently practiced by men who were themselves well fed, and who were merely desirous of laying up a store of provision for the future.

Thousands perished from famine and pestilence. Natural affection seemed to have been destroyed. Husbands robbed their wives, and wives their husbands. Children would be seen snatching the food from the mouths of their aged parents. The question of the prophet, “Can a woman forget her sucking child?” received the answer within the walls of that doomed city: “The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people.” Isaiah 49:15; Lamentations 4:10. Again was fulfilled the warning prophecy given fourteen centuries before: “The tender and delicate woman among you, which would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daughter, ... and toward her children which she shall bear: for she shall eat them for want of all things secretly in the siege and straitness, wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee in thy gates.” Deuteronomy 28:56, 57.

The Great Controversy, pp.31-32.
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Jamestown settlers ate 14-year-old girl, researchers say

Smithsonian explains the Jamestown archaeological dig.
By Matt Pearce

May 1, 2013, 1:47 p.m.

The early American settlers called it "the starving time," and accounts of the winter of 1609-1610 were so ghastly, and so morbid, that scholars weren't sure if the stories were true.


George Percy, then president of the English settlement of Jamestown in Virginia, wrote that settlers ate horses, then cats and dogs, then boots and bits of leather, and, finally, one another.

"One of our colony murdered his wife, ripped the child out of her womb and threw it into the river, and after chopped the mother in pieces and salted her for his food," wrote Percy, who then ordered the man executed.

"Now whether she was better roasted, boyled or carbonado’d [barbecued], I know not, but of such a dish as powdered wife I never heard of," added the famed settler John Smith. "This was that time, which still to this day we called the starving time; it were too vile to say, and scarce to be beleeved, what we endured."

Until now: Researchers said Wednesday that they have discovered the first forensic proof that cannibalism happened at Jamestown during one of its darkest periods.

The announcement was presented by Douglas Owsley, the division head for physical anthropology at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, chief archaeologist William Kelso from the Jamestown Rediscovery Project at Preservation Virginia and historian James Horn, vice president of research and historical interpretation at Colonial Williamsburg.

But the biggest name involved with the announcement was "Jane," the nickname given to the remains of a 14-year-old girl found last year in settlement trash from the starving period.

Archaeologists did not find much of Jane -- just part of her skull and part of her leg, or 10% of her body -- but said those remains showed that someone tried to eat her, apparently after she had died of an undetermined cause.

Someone made four small chops to Jane's forehead before an ax or cleaver broke open the back of her skull, the researchers said. There were also small knife cuts on her jaw and cheek.

“The desperation and overwhelming circumstances faced by the James Fort colonists during the winter of 1609–1610 are reflected in the postmortem treatment of this girl’s body,” Smithsonian anthropologist Owsley said in the announcement. “The recovered bone fragments have unusually patterned cuts and chops that reflect tentativeness, trial and complete lack of experience in butchering animal remains. Nevertheless, the clear intent was to dismember the body, removing the brain and flesh from the face for consumption.”

Researchers took DNA from Jane in case that her real identity could be someday discovered by matching samples with those of her family's descendants, though officials said finding relatives was unlikely.

Tests showed that Jane had a diet of wheat and meat, said officials, who believe she arrived in Jamestown in August 1609, mere months before the worst of the colonists' starvation. That winter, 80% of the settlers died -- about 200 people -- sometimes at the hands of the Native Americans living in the area.

"The 'starving time' was brought about by a trifecta of disasters: disease, a serious shortage of provisions, and a full scale siege by the Powhatans that cut off Jamestown from outside relief," Colonial Williamsburg's researcher Horn said in the announcement. "Survival cannibalism was a last resort; a desperate means of prolonging life at a time when the settlement teetered on the brink of extinction."

By May, the colony's Percy wrote, settlers called out to visitors, "We are starved, we are starved."

One man, Hugh Pryse, "being pinched with extreme famine ... did come openly into the market place blaspheming, exclaiming and crying out that there was no God, alleging that if there were a god he would not suffer his creatures whom he had made and framed to endure those miseries." Pryse was soon killed by Native Americans, Percy wrote, surely in divine punishment for his blasphemy.

Jamestown, although almost abandoned, survived after more settlers and colonists arrived.

The discovery of Jane came as part of a 20-year excavation of the colonists' original settlement. A digital reconstruction of her face will go on display Friday at the Nathalie P. and Alan M. Voorhees Archaearium at Historic Jamestowne and at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington.


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And there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places

And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.

All these are the beginning of sorrows.

Matthew 24:6-8

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The Beginning of Sorrows

⁶ And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

⁷ For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.

⁸ All these are the beginning of sorrows.

Matthew 24

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Food prices to rocket by 50% as global hunger epidemic causes riots and famines

By David Derbyshire
Last updated at 11:03 PM on 24th January 2011

'Perfect storm' of issues will bring widespread starvation if nothing is done

Food prices to rise by 50 per cent over the next decade

GM crops will be needed to feed the world

Global population to grow to 9billion by 2050

The cost of food will soar by 50 per cent over the next few decades as the world becomes racked by famine, mass migrations and riots, experts have warned.

The increase will be triggered by the exploding world population, rising cost of fuel and increased competition for water, according to a leading Government think-tank.

Spiralling food prices will push hundreds of millions of people into hunger, trigger mass migration and spark civil unrest, the report warned.

Food crisis: A leading Government think tank has warned scaremongering over GM farming is no longer acceptable

And in the UK, the price of basics such as bread, rice and milk will spiral to inflation-busting record prices within the next few decades.

The report, from Foresight, a think-tank set up to predict future crises, called for ‘urgent action’ to prevent food shortages, and said genetically modified crops may be needed to prevent famines.

Even a ‘modest’ rise in food prices could push 100million people into hunger, the report warned.



The world is facing a commodities crisis that could leave millions unable to afford the rising costs of food as population levels soar


Global food prices are already at a record high. Last month the price of cereals, sugar and meat soared on the world’s markets after a series of crop failures caused by bad weather.

Foresight predicted that the world’s population would rise from 6.9billion today to around 9billion by the middle of the century.







Bleak outlook: Sir John cited swelling population levels, energy shortages and climate change will make 'perfect storm' forcing widespread starvation

As the world gets more crowded and more wealthy, demand for food, water and energy will soar.

At the same time, climate change will increase the risk of droughts, floods and crop failures – creating a ‘perfect storm’ of food shortages and above-inflation rises in prices.

Co-author Prof Charles Godfray of Oxford University said: ‘There is a very large risk of a quite substantial increase in prices over the next 30 or 40 years.

‘We are going to have to produce considerably more food. So, inescapably, we are going to have to produce more food from the same amount of land without wrecking the environment.’
The report, written by 40 scientists in 35 countries, calls for a ‘green revolution’ to boost production using traditional, organic and genetically modified crops – designed to be resistant to drought or salt water – and better training for farmers in less well-off countries.

It also called for a massive crackdown on food waste. A typical British household wastes £500 to £700 a year on food that they buy and then throw away.

More...Was climate change responsible for the rise and fall of the Roman Empire?

'We can live on bread and water... but not with this ruling party,' say Tunisia protesters as they take to the streets again

How to slash the cost of your weekly food shop (thisismoney.co.uk)

Professor Sherman Robinson of Sussex University, one of the report’s authors, said food prices could go up by 50 per cent over the next few decades.

‘The robust conclusion is that the long run decline in food prices is over,’ he said.
Swelling: Sir John said he world's population will reach a total of around 9,000 million by 2050, with around 60% living in cities

Professor John Beddington, the Government’s chief scientific adviser, said the food system was failing.

‘Firstly it is unsustainable, with resources being used faster than they can be naturally replenished,’ he said.

‘Secondly a billion people are going hungry with another billion people suffering from “hidden hunger”, whilst a billion people are over-consuming.'

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Eyewitness: Guatemala food crisis

Page last updated at 12:49 GMT, Monday, 14 September 2009 13:49 UK

Eyewitness: Guatemala food crisis

Children in eastern areas of the country are suffering from malnutrition


Guatemala has been hit by severe food shortages, with some 54,000 families living in the east of the country facing a critical situation.

President Alvaro Colom last week declared a "state of public calamity" to try to mobilise funding to tackle severe food shortages in the country.

Lida Escobar is a field monitor for the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) in Guatemala. She sent this update on the situation there to BBCMundo.com.


In the eastern city of Jalapa I was astonished by what I saw.
There were many many children with severe malnutrition problems.

We found 22 children with marasmus and kwashiorkor [two nutrient deficiency diseases] in the hospital.





Lida Escobar has visited some of the areas worst affected by the crisis








Kwashiorkor is a type of malnutrition in which the children swell because they retain liquids because of protein deficiency.

Their hair can also become discoloured and they develop some skin lesions.

Marasmus is another form of malnutrition in which the skin barely covers the bones because of a protein and calories deficiency.

The children become very thin, lose hair and can become very irritable.

In Jalapa, the children are not only suffering from malnutrition but they also have to fight other diseases like bronchial pneumonia, gastrointestinal problems and diarrhoea.

They lose their appetites and their bodies don't absorb the nutrients when they eat. As their body defences are low, they get sick very easily.

I also went to Chiquimula, in the town of Jocotan.

I visited two nutritional treatment centres which have been treating children from the indigenous area known as Chorti.

We found eight children recuperating there, most of them with Marasmus and Kwashiorkor.

The crisis has very complex causes.






Some children have developed these conditions because of the lack of food, but some because they have related diseases and are weak.





The mothers say the children have fever and nausea and that, since they are not hungry, they don't give them anything to eat.

The Chorti community have access to medical services through non-governmental organisations contracted to the ministry of health.

To reach them, you have to drive and the walk for two hours through a mountainous area.

In some cases there is help available, but there are problems with education.

We found one girl that was very cold and about to die.

We asked the mother why she hadn't taken her to the centre and she replied that they only take their children to the centre when the local shaman cannot do anything else to help.

In the most vulnerable areas, the WFP helps with a project in which we exchange food for work.

This gives the community an opportunity to work in projects like soil conservation, reforestation, growing vegetable, fertilising and training.

We also provide young children, lactating mothers and pregnant women with Vitaceral, which is a mixture of corn with fortified soy, micronutrients and fortified biscuits.

It's very sad to see the children with marasmus and kwashiorkor.

They just stare into space and it makes you wonder what they are looking at. What is their future? What are they thinking about?


Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8254841.stm
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Out Of The Cities

Out of the Cities!

Just imagine, at least try to imagine.

Author Unknown

A few parents or grandparents are alive today to share their memories of those terrible years historians have labeled "The Great Depression." So that you and I can just imagine it, I will share a bit of history.

　"The Great (Economic) Depression" was global, affecting the entire industrialized, civilized world. The hardships and sorrows associated　with "The Great Depression" were largely unknown however and scarcely felt by people living in the primitive third-world. Poverty for the "primitive poor" was everyday normal. But things were very different elsewhere on the planet.

In the autumn of 1929, the legendary New York City Wall Street Stock Market crashed! At this moment I am reading the actual headline of ‘The Brooklyn Daily Eagle’, dated Thursday, October 24, 1929 (a framed reproduction hangs above my desk): "WALL ST. IN PANIC AS STOCKS CRASH." Countless thousands of intelligent, wealthy persons, in America and abroad, were bankrupted overnight by the crash and lost everything they owned. More than a few committed suicide rather than face the "depression of The Depression."

History reveals that The Great Depression reached its economic low point　about three and half years later in 1932. I wasn’t around at that time and likely you were not on the ground either. My mother was though. She was a teen and the eldest of seven children. Her father, a 1917 immigrant coal miner from Birmingham, England, worked in Alabama coalmines supplying coal for the steel mills in Birmingham, Alabama.

During those Depression years, heart-wrenching photographs recall the　haggard-faced thousands of American city-dwellers standing in long "soup lines," begging day after day for a scrap of bread and nourishment. Multiplied thousands of "hobos," fled America’s great cities, hopping trains and crisscrossing our nation, begging for meals and looking for any kind of employment they could find. Many left hungry and destitute families at home.

Nothing about the brutal experience of "The Great Depression" was imaginary for these people. For those who experienced it, "The Great Depression" was not a dream it was a nightmare!

You should know that things and people were different 75 years ago. Seventy percent (70%) of Americans lived in rural America, many of them on farms. During the Depression, at least 70% of America’s population could garden, keep a few chickens and maybe a cow to feed themselves—not so with city-dwellers! For more than a decade, millions of families, in America and abroad, suffered privation!

In Birmingham, Alabama, my yet to be mother, still a teen living at home with her parents and six brothers and sisters, at times went for days without a bite of food in the house! Sometimes a Good Samaritan would leave a loaf of bread and a few potatoes at the front door. My mother could never relate the experience without tears.

Just imagine; at least try to imagine.

I hope that I am mistaken in my interpretation of prophetic Scripture, but I don’t think that I am misreading what the Prophets have written. Another global Great Depression is on the way, but this one will be A Great, Great Depression! It will be global and the entire industrialized, civilized world will soon be thrust into an unimaginable crisis

Today, America is very different from the America of 75 years ago. 75　years ago most Americans left their homes unlocked. Most Americans allowed their children to walk to school and to town—hardly imaginable today. Today the tables are turned. 70% of Americans are crowded into cities that are waiting to explode with unimaginable human fury and suffering.

Today, even smaller American cities are being invaded by vicious gangs, druggies and increasing numbers of poor that can scarcely find enough food for a month. When the economy collapses and there are no monthly checks from Uncle Sam, just try to imagine!

Imagine angry mobs, looting and rampaging through city streets, taking what they need or want. Imagine lawless packs assaulting trucks as they attempt to deliver food, medicine and necessities to desperate city centers—trucks that will likely never arrive because they have been hijacked, looted and burned as a storm of rage sweeps across the land.

Just imagine.

So where are the police? Hello! Katrina was America’s wake-up call for city dwellers! Okay, what about our National Guard? Hello! Most of them are away fighting mad Muslims in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Middle East, and "what has been will be again!"

Aren’t you thankful that you and your family are not living in or too near a large metropolis? Aren’t you thankful that you obeyed the warnings of Heaven and history, that you used common sense, and moved to a rural setting while you could?

Try to imagine the fear that will grip thousands upon thousands who will try to flee the coming fury but find no gasoline in the pumps. Think of those who will discover major highways blocked with fleeing-on-foot mobs, throwing stones, some waving guns, attempting to hijack anything with wheels and gasoline. Aren’t you thankful that you "got out of Dodge" before the coming war with Iran and The Great, Great Depression that will surely follow.

Just imagine the spiritual consternation of hundreds and thousands of sincere Christians, taught by thousands of sincere Shepherds to proof-text rather than context Bible teachings regarding the Great Tribulation and the return of Christ. Self-inflicted blindness is awful!

Through the ages God’s people have always suffered persecution (tribulation). Christ, the Baptist and the Disciples suffered tribulation, but modern millions have been taught that they will be "raptured" and never experience such tribulation. Somehow they have failed to read Jesus’ admonition regarding the Tribulation time: "The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord." Matthew 10:24. Imagine sincere people waiting, waiting, waiting for deliverance, as the world sinks around them.

Just imagine, at least try to imagine, when this time comes, how many people would have appreciated an opportunity to read and heed insightful warnings, like these, written by a sincere Christian; Ellen White; who received the instruction below, by inspiration, 100 years ago:

"The work of the people of God is to prepare for the events of the future, which will soon come upon them with blinding force."

"Unless we understand the importance of the moments that are swiftly passing into eternity, and make ready to stand in the great day of God, we shall be unfaithful stewards. The watchman is to know the time of night... The judgments of God are about to fall upon the world, and we need to be preparing for that great day."

"God has revealed what is to take place in the last days that His people may be prepared to stand against the tempest of opposition and wrath. Those who have been warned of the events before them are not to sit in calm expectation of the coming storm, comforting themselves that the Lord will shelter His faithful ones in the day of trouble."

"I see the necessity of making haste to get all things ready for the crisis."　

"In the great final conflict, Satan will employ the same policy, manifest the same spirit, and work for the same end as in all preceding ages. That which has been, will be, except that the coming struggle will be marked with a terrible intensity such as the world has never witnessed."

"Transgression has almost reached its limit. Confusion fills the world, and a great terror is soon to come upon human beings. The end is very near. We who know the truth should be preparing for what is soon to break upon the world as an overwhelming surprise."

"It is often the case that trouble is greater in anticipation than in reality; but this is not true of the crisis before us. The most vivid presentation cannot reach the magnitude of the ordeal."

"If in the providence of God we can secure places away from the cities the　 Lord would have us do this. There are troublous times before us."

"The time is near when the large cities will be visited by the judgments of God. In a little while, these cities will be terribly shaken."

"Erelong there will be such strife and confusion in the cities that those who wish to leave them will not be able. We must be preparing for these issues. This is the light that is given me."

"For this reason I see the necessity of the people of God moving out of the cities into　retired country (places) where they may cultivate the land and raise their own produce. Get out of the cities into rural districts, where the houses are not crowded closely together, and where　you will be free from the interference of enemies."

"During the night season I was pleading with some families to avail themselves of God’s appointed means, and get away from the cities...Some were loitering, making no determined efforts. The angels of mercy hurried Lot and his wife and daughters by taking hold of their hands... Lot had too much of a lingering spirit... Those who obey this warning will find refuge. Let every man be wide awake for himself, and try to save his family...God will reveal from point to point what to do next."

"Again and again the Lord has instructed that our people are to take their families away from the cities, into the country, where they can raise their own provisions... Purchase a little piece of land where　you can have a garden. God will help His people to find such homes outside the cities."　

"A great terror is soon to come upon human beings. The end is very near. We who know the truth should be preparing for what is soon to break upon the world as an overwhelming surprise."　

"The time is coming when we cannot sell at any price. Hoarded wealth will soon be worthless. Money will soon depreciate in value very suddenly when the reality of eternal scenes opens to the senses of man."

"In the last great conflict in the controversy with Satan, those who are loyal to God will see every earthly support cut off. Because they refuse to break His law in obedience to earthly powers, they will be forbidden to buy or sell."

"Now I plead with every soul to look not too strongly and confidently to human counselors, but look most earnestly to God, the One wise in counsel. Submit all your ways and your will to God’s ways and to God’s will. Spread every plan before God with fasting, (and) with the humbling of the soul before the Lord Jesus, and commit thy ways unto the Lord. The sure promise is, ‘He will direct thy paths.’ He is infinite in resources."

Source: http://www.present-truth.org/2-News/out-cities.htm