With droughts in Russia, excessive rains in Canada and Pakistan and adverse weather conditions affecting the harvest in the U.S., the U.S. government has cut its forecast for stocks of key crops such as corn, wheat and soybean.
Mr Dempster was 16 in 1944 when he first sailed in the convoys, battling extreme weather and German bombardment to help keep a supply line with Russia open.
The Afghan government said it was trying to win the release of eight Turks, an Afghan translator and two pilots one from Russia and the other from Kyrgyzstan who were kidnapped after their helicopter made an emergency landing in bad weather last Sunday in eastern Logar province adjacent to Nangarhar.