Thursday 25th of April 2024
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monkey money....

Spice lovers are bracing for a shortage of Sriracha sauce that experts say is likely due in part to the effects of climate change on chili peppers.

The green-capped, bright red product, whose popularity NPR described as “something of a cult following,” is beginning to disappear from supermarket shelves.  

 

The company that produces Sriracha, Huy Fong Foods, wrote in an April email that it would stop making the sauce for the coming months due to “severe weather conditions affecting the quality of chili peppers.”

The Hill reported that the shortage is expected to extend throughout the summer and into the fall.

Guillermo Murray Tortarolo, a climate scientist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, attributes the shortage to a failed harvest of chili peppers in northern Mexico and says climate change is very likely a factor, according to NPR.

The peppers grow during the first third of the year and need constant irrigation, but the region is experiencing its second year of drought and has been “pushed over the limit by two consecutive La Niña events,” Tortarolo told NPR.

Grocery stores in some regions are running low on stock of the sauce, while many restaurant owners are grappling with rising prices, according to the outlet.

“Usually when I bought one case, it was roughly around $30 to $32,” Michael Csau, co-owner of the restaurant Pho Viet in Washington D.C., told NPR. “Now it’s up to $50, almost double the price. If it keeps going up, we cannot afford it.” 

 

Welcome to Equilibrium, a newsletter that tracks the growing global battle over the future of sustainability.

Today we’ll look at the extreme weather events hitting the globe before summer. Then we’ll take a final stop in Iceland for an up-close look at carbon removal technologies.

 

READ MORE:

https://thehill.com/policy/equilibrium-sustainability/3528452-equilibrium-sustainability-climate-change-may-be-coming-for-sriracha-sauce/

 

 

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no planned recession….

US Treasury weighs in on recession prospects

 

    

Secretary Janet Yellen says that despite serious issues, a recession is not certain at this point 

A full recession in the US is not “at all inevitable” despite an economy that is slowing down, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen claimed on ABC’s This Week program on Sunday.

“As the labor market has recovered and we have reached full employment, it’s natural now that we expect to transition to steady and stable growth,” she said, arguing that while maintaining a strong labor market “is going to take skill and luck,” it’s not impossible.

The Treasury secretary insisted “consumer spending remains very strong” despite record lows in consumer confidence. According to a recent report from the University of Michigan, consumer confidence has reached a rock-bottom outlook of 50.2 points, a statistic not seen since the stagflation era of the early 1980s. 

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal has revealed that some 44% of economists believe a recession will arrive within the year.

During the interview, ABC’s George Stephanopoulos reminded Yellen that she and the administration of US President Joe Biden had been wrong last year when they claimed the uptick in inflation was a transitory phenomenon ahead of what turned out to be its steepest rise in four decades.

Acknowledging that “inflation is really unacceptably high” and would remain so for the rest of the year at a minimum, the Treasury secretary placed the blame on “Russia’s war on Ukraine.” She also admitted that sanctions on Moscow over Ukraine are backfiring against average Americans, saying that “there are some spillovers to us as well.”

READ MORE: US economy faces major recession – economists

Yellen’s remarks followed the latest Federal Reserve interest rate hike as the central bank attempts to quell inflation by tamping down on the supply of cheap money. Some experts, including a predecessor of Yellen’s, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, believe the economy will get worse before it gets better, as higher interest rates mean steeper debt accumulation. The average American carries a whopping $96,371 in debt, according to the consumer credit bureau Experian. 

 

READ MORE:

https://www.rt.com/news/557446-yellen-us-treasury-recession/

 

 

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Picture at top from Lawson Wood's Annual.....

 

 

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sanctioning the poor…….

A United Nations study finds that Russia’s war on Ukraine and the intensifying climate emergency have pushed the number of people facing famine globally to an all-time high.

The combination of a worsening climate emergency and Russia’s war on Ukraine has helped push the number of people at risk of famine globally to an all-time high of up to 49 million, according to a study by the Food and Agriculture Organisation and the World Food Program.

 

 

By Jake Johnson

“This should be the biggest story in the world right now,” U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), a Somali refugee,, tweeted Monday in response to The Washington Post’s story on the United Nations study, which warns that tens of millions of people in 46 countries are in need of “immediate life and livelihoods-saving assistance.” “Here are the impacts of climate change and fossil-fueled conflict: drought, starvation, and nearly 50 million people at risk of facing famine.”

On Tuesday at 1 pm ET, Omar is set to hold a press conference on the domestic and global hunger crises and potential ways to redress them.

Published last week, the U.N. report points to “ripple effects from the war in Ukraine” and increasingly intense extreme weather events as key drivers of surging hunger worldwide as low-income countries attempt to grapple with unprecedented global food prices and avert humanitarian disaster.

“In view of the soaring input prices, concerns about the weather, and increased market uncertainties stemming from the war in Ukraine, FAO’s latest forecasts point to a likely tightening of food markets and food import bills reaching a new record high,” said Upali Galketi Aratchilage, an economist with the FAO.

The report notes that of the nearly 50 million people believed to be facing famine worldwide, 750,000 are already in “catastrophe”—the most dire phase of the U.N.’s food insecurity scale. Ethiopia, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, and Yemen are among the countries experiencing the worst acute hunger, the report states.

“In Eastern Africa, rainfall deficits of up to 60% of the average and prolonged dry spells recorded in large parts of Somalia, southern and eastern Ethiopia, and eastern Kenya since the start of the Gu rainy season (typically March to May) are likely to further exacerbate the food security situation,” the report observes.

“Sri Lanka, West African coastal countries (Benin, Cabo Verde, and Guinea), Ukraine, and Zimbabwe have been added in the list of hot spot countries compared to the January 2022 edition of this report,” the study adds.

The U.N. report also mentions Afghanistan, where the economy is on the brink of total collapse as the Biden administration continues to withhold the country’s central bank assets despite worsening hunger, including among children

“Recurrent La Niña events since late 2020 have impacted agricultural activities, causing crop and livestock losses in many parts of the world including Afghanistan and Eastern Africa,” the study notes. “Although still uncertain, if La Niña conditions last until Northern Hemisphere autumn, it could also impact the start of the 2022-23 agricultural season and further worsen the food security situation.”

Brian Lander, deputy director of WFP’s emergencies division, told the Post that millions of people in low-income countries across the globe “literally don’t know where their next meal is coming from.”

“They’re not countries where we have high industry. Not countries where we see mass production and degradation of the environment. It’s countries that are living on very basic terms,” Lander said. “They’re not at fault. They’re living the consequences of the West and the industry we’ve developed.”

This story has been updated with news of Rep. Ilhan Omar’s press conference.

 

Original article by Jake Johnson, republished under creative commons license from Common Dreams

 

READ MORE:

https://johnmenadue.com/ilhan-omar-49-million-facing-famine-the-biggest-story-in-the-world-right-now/

 

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PLEASE DON'T BLAME PUTIN FOR THIS CRAP.... BLAME JOE BIDEN.....

 

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