Food prices have risen globally for the last 12 months in a row making a 40% increase over the last year.
In April food prices rose 4.8%, the largest increase month-to-month in more than a decade.
The demand for meat, cooking oil, and more is rising all over the world.
High demand for corn in China and a drought in Brazil are both factors causing the surge in food prices.
Cooking oil especially has been subjected to market pressure. Palm oil supplies are at their lowest level in four years, due partly to labor shortages related to the pandemic. And soybean oil prices have risen almost 70% this year, reaching an all-time high last week, due in large part to a renewed demand for soy oil in biofuels.
Asian Elephants Leave Their Reserve in Search of a Better Habitat
Elephants in China have left their nature reservation and are roaming across different cities for a new habitat.
The family of 15 wild elephants left their nature reserve more than a year ago. They have traveled more than 300 miles in the last year in search of a bigger habitat.
The Chinese government is tracking the elephants using drones. Authorities have helped them cross roadways and tried to steer them away from densely populated areas. Still, the elephants have trampled more than a million dollars worth of crops on their journey.
The length of the migration is unheard of for Asian elephants, prompting some scientists to believe they left in search of better habitat and are having a hard time finding it. ‘For some reason, these elephants felt that their traditional home range was no longer suitable… and then they just left to find somewhere else,’ said Ahimsa Campos-Arceiz, an elephant specialist at the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden.
The elephants previously lived in Yunnan province where native forests are being cut down for tea and rubber plantations. China’s elephant population has doubled over the last 30 years from 150 to 300, due to anti-poaching laws. Unfortunately, their habitats continue to shrink.
Chinese Government Release New Policy Forbidding Dog Meat
China’s Ministry of Agricultural and Rural Affairs has marked the practice of raising dogs for meat as forbidden in a new draft policy. The ministry further explained its policy, saying dogs were a “special companion animal.” Animal rights activists have long decried the eating of dogs in China, and this new stance from the government is a step towards banning the practice.
That signals a major shift, recognising that most people in China don’t eat dogs and cats and want an end to the theft of their companion animals for a meat trade that only a small percentage of the population indulge in,”
Due to the coronavirus outbreak, China’s National People’s Congress has banned the consumption of all wild animal meat. Shenzhen, a city in the populous province Guangdong, has put forward additional regulations banning the eating of dogs and cats. On May 1st, the law will take effect, and restaurants that serve pet meat will receive a fine of 20,000 to 200,000 yuan (2,800 – 28,000 USD).
China’s Richest Man Donates a Million Masks and 500,000 Testing Kits to the U.S.
In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, the media and the Trump administration have taken to blaming the coronavirus pandemic solely on China. The claims made by people in power go beyond pointing out that the virus originated in China, and in many cases are statements of fear-based racism. Trump has referred to COVID-19 as the “Chinese Virus’ on several occasions. When China is mentioned in the media, it is largely negative.
The United States will be powerfully supporting those industries, like Airlines and others, that are particularly affected by the Chinese Virus. We will be stronger than ever before!
With the negative media coverage of China, there has been little to no reporting on the Chinese billionaire who recently shipped half a million testing kits and a million face masks to the U.S. On March 16th, Jack Ma announced that he would donate 1 million masks and 500,000 coronavirus testing kits to the U.S. through his charitable foundation. Additionally, Ma has donated $14.5 million for the development of a vaccine for the virus.
At this moment, we can’t beat this virus unless we eliminate boundaries to resources and share our know-how and hard-earned lessons. United we stand, divided fall!”
Jack Ma
Additionally, Ma’s foundation is donating materials to Japan, Italy, Korea, Spain, and Iran. The destination of the tests and masks has not been specified.
China Supplies The U.S. With 97% Of All Antibiotics & Most Other Drugs
The coronavirus has shed light on a Chinese monopoly on U.S. medical supplies and prescription drugs. China sells the United States an estimated 97% of all antibiotics used and 80% of the active pharmaceutical ingredients needed to produce drugs.
If China shuts the door on exports of medicines and the ingredients to make them, within a couple of months our pharmacies would be empty. Our healthcare system would cease to function. That’s how dependent we are.”
It’s not the first time the issue has come up. Rosemary Gibson is the co-author of China Rx: Exposing the Risks of America’s Dependence on China for Medicine. He has been sounding the alarm on national media for some time.
We can’t make penicillin anymore. The last penicillin plant in the United States closed in 2004.”
Medicines can be used as a weapon of war against the United States. China Rx: Exposing the Risks of America’s Dependence on China for Medicine. Supplies can be withheld. Medicines can be made with lethal contaminants or sold without any real medicine in them, rendering them ineffective.”
The FDA says it is better monitoring the drug supply for potential shortages, including 20 products that may be at risk due to the current pandemic, which is raising concerns about our convoluted pharmaceutical supply chain.
Coronavirus highlights a growing vulnerability: Not only are many medications used in the United States manufactured overseas but critical ingredients — and the chemicals used to make them — also are overwhelmingly made in China. As much as 90 percent of drugs sold in Americans are generic. Most of the generic drugs produced outside of China use ingredients that come from China. The supply chain is so complicated and obscure that it’s difficult to predict where critical shortages could emerge.