In Vietnam, this severe drought is shaping up to be the worst in a hundred years.  The truth is that there has been very little rainfall across the entire nation since last September.  Over half of Vietnam's estimated 44 million person workforce is involved in agriculture, so if this drought continues much longer it is going to be a horrific disaster.

The drought is also extremely severe in Thailand.  Thailand accounts for approximately one-third of all global rice exports, and analysts are now forecasting a decline of at least one million tons for this year.

That is bad news, but hopefully world food supplies will not be impacted that severely.  However, a few more body blows like this and we could start looking at a global food crisis.

So just how bad are things around the world?

*India has announced that it has suffered its worst drought in 37 years, with total rainfall 23 percent below average at the end of that nation's four-month monsoon season.  Approximately 65 percent of India's farms are unirrigated and depend on rainfall during the monsoon season, so the lack of rainfall is hitting those farmers particularly hard.

*In east Africa things are even worse.  The drought there has reached its fifth year, and it is estimated that 23 million Africans in that region are on the verge of starvation.  In a statement, Paul Smith Lomas, Oxfam's East Africa Director said this about the situation: "This is the worst humanitarian crisis Oxfam has seen in east Africa for over ten years."

*The drought in Australia has gotten so bad that it is being called the new "dust bowl" and a recent dust storm in Sydney was so severe that it actually turned the sky red.

*In Texas, farmers and ranchers are desperately hoping for rain as the extreme drought has cost the agricultural sector billions of dollars.

*The water crisis has gotten so bad in California that the Obama administration has urged California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to call state lawmakers into a special session just to deal with it.

*Saudi Arabia had been producing enough wheat to be self-sufficient for over 20 years, but in 2008 they realized that the non-replenishable aquifer they had been pumping for irrigation purposes was nearly depleted.  So in response that nation decided to reduce their wheat harvest by one-eighth every year.  Wheat production there is scheduled to cease entirely in 2016.  After that they will be importing all of the wheat that their entire nation depends upon.

So what does all of this mean?

It means two things.

#1) The world is running out of water.

#2) The world is running out of food.

If things don't turn around dramatically very, very soon millions of people are going to starve.  There simply will not be enough food to feed everyone.

Those who are able to buy food for their families will notice much higher food prices.  That is what happens when demand continues to go up while supply drops like a rock.

Even in our technologically advanced society, extreme drought means famine.

We are facing a true global food emergency.  The world demand for food is going to be much higher than the world supply of food in 2010.  Not everyone is going to make it.

Are you ready?