• Billions of people are purchasing more and more food. Nowhere is this more evident than in the booming economies of China and India where many have stopped growing their own food and are now using their newfound wealth to buy much more food instead. Changes in diets have seen a dramatic increase in meat consumption. This has helped push up prices and the demand for grain.
• The drive to produce biofuels as an alternative to hydrocarbons is putting enormous strain on food supplies. This is especially prevalent in the USA where generous subsidies for ethanol have persuaded thousands of farmers to move away from growing crops for food.
• Soaring oil prices have inflated the price of fertilizer along with the associated transportation costs from farms to markets to shipping abroad.
• Droughts in Australia and South Africa, floods in West Africa, deep frosts in China and record-breaking warmth in northern Europe have all played their part in causing global food shortages.
• Governments have been imposing export restrictions leading to hoarding and panic buying.
• On the money markets, speculators have poured billions into commodities, which have accelerated price rises. For instance, on just one day in February, global wheat prices rose by 25 per cent after Kazakhstan’s government announced restrictions on wheat exports to combat fears of hunger within their own country.

Please commit to praying every day for those who feel hungry, helpless and abandoned during this devastating global food crisis. Find moments in your day to remember those at greatest risk – while standing in checkout queues at the supermarket or petrol station.

Will you make a stand and suffer alongside those who hunger 24/7 by joining our Global Day of Prayer and Fasting on Sunday 13 July 2008? Time and again we hear how the private discipline of fasting combined with prayer releases many breakthroughs in seemingly impossible situations in our Compassion projects around the world.

As you fast and take the focus off your own personal needs, we pray that God will challenge many of the spiritual and practical areas of your life. If we see a dramatic change in personal lifestyles as a result of the Global Day of Prayer and Fasting, we believe its impact will be felt in many powerful ways around the world. Order more information sheets and prayer cards for your church by calling 01932 836499.

To help bring practical relief and lasting change, we have set up the Compassion Global Food Crisis Fund. We want to give you, your friends and family and congregation at church the opportunity to give financial support to a fund that will reach out to those in greatest need at this time. Donate to the Global Crisis Fund today.