Despite gains in reducing world poverty, 1 billion people continue to live on just a dollar a day — the accepted measure of absolute poverty. It was not a famine that precipitated the new crisis, but the economics of the global marketplace.<\/p>\n
The Economist reports that “the middle classes in poor countries are giving up health care and cutting out meat so they can eat three meals a day. The middling poor, those on $2 a day, are pulling children from school and cutting back on vegetables so they can still afford rice.”<\/p>\n
Starvation is an everyday prospect for those whose staple food is rice. The Economist warns that “the desperate — those on 50 cents a day — face disaster,” and refers to the worldwide rise in the price of food as “the silent tsunami.”<\/p>\n