"pearl" > wrote in message news:...

> in this trade is significant: the 500 million people suffering starvation

'October 2006
...
More than 852 million people -- about 13 percent of the world
population -- do not have enough food each day to sustain a
healthy life, according to the Rome-based Food and Agriculture
Organisation (FAO).

Of this, about 815 million people live in developing countries,
28 million in "transition" countries of the former Eastern Europe
and ex-Soviet republics, and about nine million in the industrialised
world.

"It is a shame on humanity that in a world that is richer than ever
before, six million children due of malnutrition and related illnesses
before they reach the age of five," Ziegler said.

The study, which goes before the current 61st session of the
General Assembly, points out that the majority of the hungry
live in Asia and Africa, while about 80 percent live in rural areas
and depend on agriculture and pastoralism to survive.

"They are hungry because they do not have enough work, or
access to productive resources like land and water sufficient to
feed their families," it says.
....'
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=35166