{"id":15164,"date":"2017-10-26T16:06:34","date_gmt":"2017-10-26T15:06:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thevoiceoflondon.co.uk\/?p=15164"},"modified":"2017-10-26T16:06:34","modified_gmt":"2017-10-26T15:06:34","slug":"chipocalypse-hints-at-global-hunger-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/chipocalypse-hints-at-global-hunger-games\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Chipocalypse\u2019 hints at global hunger games"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4><strong>Can you imagine a life without crisps and chips and creamy mash? Soon, we too\u00a0 could be hit by the global \u2018Chipocalypse\u2019 like Japan and New Zealand. Or worse?<\/strong><\/h4>\n<h4><strong>Words: Rituja Rao| Subbing: Bishakha Dutta<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">On 16 October, many Kiwis walked into supermarkets to find no crisps and warning signs of nationwide potato shortage.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Attention: \u2b07\ufe0f <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/tBRKFRmyGq\">pic.twitter.com\/tBRKFRmyGq<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Angela Meyer (@ange_meyer) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ange_meyer\/status\/919049074015268864?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 14, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A year of devastating rains and two serious floods in New Zealand have wiped out 20% of the country\u2019s annual potato crop, and 30% of the \u201ccrisping\u201d varieties for potato chips, took the biggest hit.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/twitter.com\/claudiajardine\/status\/919649850609696768?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&#038;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fworld%2F2017%2Foct%2F16%2Fchipocalypse-potato-shortage-in-new-zealand-sparks-crisp-crisis<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">However, this is not the first warning of global \u2018chipeggedon\u2019 as Japan too was struck by this bizarre crisis in summer 2017.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Crisps in Japan were on sale for six times their normal price, as the country&#8217;s main manufacturer Calbee, suspended sales due to country-wide potato shortage.<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">This led to a panic buying spree as Japan raided supermarkets and online platforms to secure their munchies. Bags that normally cost about 200 yen (\u00a31.39) were going for more than 1,250 yen (\u00a38.71) in online auctions, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2017-04-14\/the-great-japan-potato-chip-crisis-panic-buying-12-bags\"><b>Bloomberg reported.<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A VOL investigation has revealed that there has been a global shortage of potatoes at the heart of the potato processing industry and could affect other potato products and not just crisps. European markets like Belgium, Poland and Netherlands could be hit next with this crisis. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The US has recorded the contradictory situation and produced a large volume of good quality potatoes, which has resulted in lower prices. The Chinese production is the largest in the world, but the yield in 2016-17 is behind that of Europe and the US.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_15169\" style=\"width: 470px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-15169\" class=\"size-full wp-image-15169\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/64\/2017\/10\/grafiek1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"460\" height=\"284\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-15169\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Production and Price chart for Bintje variety of potatoes in Belgium. Source: www.freshplaza.com<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_15168\" style=\"width: 470px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-15168\" class=\"size-full wp-image-15168\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/64\/2017\/10\/grafiek2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"460\" height=\"300\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-15168\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Production and Price chart for Fontane variety of potatoes in Belgium. Source: www.freshplaza.com<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">UPDATE: France battles with<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.ie\/world-news\/europe\/ooohlala-why-france-is-currently-battling-with-a-croissant-shortage-36260961.html\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Croissant shortage<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> as the country has a butter shortage due to declining milk production. Supermarkets shelves sit empty and the prices of croissants are on an ever rise in France.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">There were enough terrible things happening now there&#39;s a French butter shortage like what even is the point anymore <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/cmNRpDw2Ha\">https:\/\/t.co\/cmNRpDw2Ha<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Emma Graney \ud83c\udde6\ud83c\uddfa\ud83e\udd37\ud83c\udffb\u200d\u2640\ufe0f\ud83c\udde8\ud83c\udde6 (@EmmaLGraney) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/EmmaLGraney\/status\/923260459955998721?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 25, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">All of these point towards a greater problem at hand: Global food shortage due to climate change. A report<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/gro-intelligence.com\/\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">by Gro Intelligence<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> suggests that the world could run out of food by 2023.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Another report <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">from <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.globalharvestinitiative.org\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">the Global Harvest Initiative<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, states that with a world population expected to be at least 9 billion people in 2050, the world will run out of food if the food production output remains the same.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">According to the<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/documents.wfp.org\/stellent\/groups\/public\/documents\/ena\/wfp291270.pdf?_ga=2.153878392.1757526494.1509026315-74748347.1509026315\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Global Report on Food Crises 2017<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> by Food Security Information Network, South Sudan, Somalia, Yemen, and northeast Nigeria have been identified at risk of famine.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-15170\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/64\/2017\/10\/Screen-Shot-2017-10-26-at-3.20.34-pm.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1149\" height=\"402\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Crisps, Croissants, Chocolate and hungry mouths. What next? <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Can you imagine a life without crisps and chips and creamy mash? Soon, we too\u00a0 could be hit by the global \u2018Chipocalypse\u2019 like Japan and New Zealand. Or worse? Words: Rituja Rao| Subbing: Bishakha Dutta&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":476,"featured_media":15172,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56,67,75,93,145],"tags":[1313,1620,2439,2451,3061,4963],"class_list":["post-15164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food","category-health-fitness","category-investigations","category-news","category-worldnews","tag-chips","tag-crisps","tag-food","tag-food-shortage","tag-hunger","tag-potato"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/476"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15164\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}