Task force studying food crisis scenarios

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Task force studying food crisis scenarios
By Lisa Burgess, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Thursday, May 22, 2008

ARLINGTON, Va. — Concerned by reports of global unrest caused by food shortages and rising oil prices, the Pentagon’s top military leader has asked staff to size up how the U.S. military might be affected or become involved in any such crisis.

After deadly food riots erupted in Haiti and Egypt in early April, Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, asked members of his Warfighting and Analysis Division to pull together a temporary task force to look at other situations that could develop within the year that might trigger a Pentagon response.

The Food and Fuel Task Force, as the group is informally dubbed, meets weekly, according to Col. Walter Barge, chief of the War-fighting and Analysis Division.

The group includes officers who work in every Joint Staff division, from public affairs to intelligence, Barge said.

Mullen gave the group 30 days to develop a "framework" of possible global food crisis scenarios and the different outcomes that could result if the military took steps to address problems, Barge said.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=54990