--- description: The Ebola epidemic that has killed scores in West Africa is expected to whittle the region’s food supply, the U.N. said on Tuesday title: Food Supply Threatened in Ebola-Striken West Africa, U.N. Says image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt99ca9535237638a8/6986a1a0adae441875544c40/rtr44697.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Disease](/tag/disease/) ## Disease Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Food Supply Threatened in Ebola-Ravaged West Africa, Says U.N. by [Elizabeth Barber](/author/time-staff/) ## Elizabeth Barber Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 2, 2014 9:42 AM CUT  A resident of the West Point neighborhood, which has been quarantined following an outbreak of Ebola, receives food rations from the U.N. World Food Programme in Monrovia, Liberia, on Aug. 28, 2014 A resident of the West Point neighborhood, which has been quarantined following an outbreak of Ebola, receives food rations from the U.N. World Food Programme in Monrovia, Liberia, on Aug. 28, 2014Reuters by [Elizabeth Barber](/author/time-staff/) ## Elizabeth Barber Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 2, 2014 9:42 AM CUT The Ebola epidemic that has killed some 1,550 people in West Africa since March is now expected to whittle the region’s [food supply](http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/02/us-health-ebola-food-idUSKBN0GX0HB20140902 "undefined"), the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on Tuesday. The FAO is warning that food prices in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea — the three countries most stricken by the disease — are projected to rocket, in part because of restrictions on movement throughout the afflicted region, Reuters reports. Those restrictions, while attempting to keep the lethal epidemic contained, are also preventing vital supplies from getting where they need to go. Quarantines designed to prevent the disease’s spread have also curtailed supplies in some West African communities, spurring terrified households to rush on food stores and pushing commodity prices ever higher, the FAO said. Harvests of rice and maize — the production season for both is just weeks away — is expected to be less than usual, since the same movement restrictions will also prevent farms from acquiring the required labor, the FAO said. Meanwhile, migration restrictions have also precluded some traders from putting their goods on the market, leaving both farmers and middlemen without cash to feed their families. “Even prior to the Ebola outbreak, households in some of the most affected areas were spending up to 80% of their incomes on food,” Vincent Martin, head of an FAO unit in Dakar, Senegal, said in a statement. “Now these latest price spikes are effectively putting food completely out of their reach.” The price of cassava at one market in Monrovia, Liberia, sprung upward 150% in the first weeks of August, the FAO said. For short-term relief, the U.N. World Food Programme and FAO are expected to launch an emergency program to deliver 65,000 tons of food to 1.3 million people in the affected region. \[[_Reuters_](http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/02/us-health-ebola-food-idUSKBN0GX0HB20140902 "undefined")\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3254748/food-supply-threatened-in-ebola-ravaged-west-africa-says-u-n/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3254748/food-supply-threatened-in-ebola-ravaged-west-africa-says-u-n/"},"headline":"Food Supply Threatened in Ebola-Ravaged West Africa, Says U.N.","datePublished":"2014-09-02T09:42:05.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T09:57:34.620Z","description":"The disease-stricken region is facing a fresh crisis, as it contends with meager food supplies and sky-high prices","url":"https://time.com/3254748/food-supply-threatened-in-ebola-ravaged-west-africa-says-u-n/","keywords":["Disease","United Nations","U.N.","Sierra Leone","ebola","Guinea","Liberia","Monrovia"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt99ca9535237638a8/6986a1a0adae441875544c40/rtr44697.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Elizabeth Barber"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt99ca9535237638a8/6986a1a0adae441875544c40/rtr44697.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Resident of the West Point neighbourhood, which has been quarantined following an outbreak of Ebola, receives food rations from the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in Monrovia","caption":"Resident of the West Point neighbourhood, which has been quarantined following an outbreak of Ebola, receives food rations from the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in Monrovia","creditText":"Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/disease/","name":"Disease"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3254748/food-supply-threatened-in-ebola-ravaged-west-africa-says-u-n/","name":"Food Supply Threatened in Ebola-Ravaged West Africa, Says U.N."}}]}] ```