by startingover 12 Replies latest social current
I don't believe there's an Armageddon on the horizon, nor do I believe there's a god who has anything to do with this, but I really do think we are headed for hard times like we have never seen.
http://www.theamericannightmare.org:80/FOOD_SHORTAGE__AAK.html
People will bury their heads in the sand - they always do. A number of countries have already halted exports of rice and grain - parts of India, China, Russia, so that they can ensure food for their own people. The USA used to have an emergency food supply of xx pounds of food per person so that in times of food shortages etc, they could feed their own people. The government disbanded the agency and the amount of food readily available for each citizen in the USA stands at about a pound or so....or a day or two of food. The ability to grow your own food has decreased as farm land has been swallowed up by malls, roads and housing and we are ever more reliant on imports to exist - our farming industry consists of a few major farms with the little ones getting destroyed by the monopolies along the way. Monsanto with its GM foods is now thought to be behind the rust disease killing off natural grains in Europe and some people in India are going underground with their natural seeds, trying to keep genetically modified out of the system. I don't think people understand how the fragile the balance really is for all of us - sammieswife.
More doomsday jibberish. Commodity prices have been falling the last few weeks. No market indication whatsoever of any impending shortage.
I don't see any doomsday jibberish about it - I see it as simple fact. There is a certain amount of logic that should hit when you understand that if you take away 1/3 of your farmland to grow food to eat, and instead grow product to use for fuel - well, common sense should tell anyone that it means 1/3 less food being produced. Common sense should also dictate that with 6 billion people to feed all over the world, but land capability to produce food at about half of that - it's only a matter of time before masses of people somewhere begin to starve while the rest of the world hoards in order to sustain itself. Of course, if you don't mind genetically modified food forever, I suppose it doesn't matter since you will eat mass produced, modified, hormone induced and rapid growth product daily once the governments build simple cloning stations in every city. I'm sure the prototype is already available online somewhere. I think just like water and oil, food is a political game. Do I think there will be shortages? There already are. Will people die? Sure. Just thank the stars you live in North America - a lot of other countries won't be so lucky.
Rising prices for cooking oil are forcing residents of Asia’s largest slum, in Mumbai, India, to ration every drop. Bakeries in the United States are fretting over higher shortening costs. And here in Malaysia, brand-new factories built to convert vegetable oil into diesel sit idle, their owners unable to afford the raw material." ... "This is the other oil shock. From India to Indiana, shortages and soaring prices for palm oil, soybean oil and many other types of vegetable oils are the latest, most striking example of a developing global problem: costly food." ... "The food price index of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, based on export prices for 60 internationally traded foodstuffs, climbed 37 percent last year. That was on top of a 14 percent increase in 2006, and the trend has accelerated this winter." ... "In some poor countries, desperation is taking hold. Just in the last week, protests haveerupted in Pakistan over wheat shortages, and in Indonesia over soybean shortages. Egypt has banned rice exports to keep food at home, and China has put price controls on cooking oil, grain, meat, milk and eggs." ... "According to the F.A.O., food riots have erupted in recent months in Guinea, Mauritania, Mexico, Morocco, Senegal, Uzbekistan andYemen." ... "A startling change is unfolding in the world’s food markets. Soaring fuel prices have altered the equation for growing food and transporting it across the globe. Huge demand for biofuels has created tension between using land to produce fuel and using it for food." ... "Cooking oil may seem a trifling expense in the West. But in the developing world, cooking oil is an important source of calories and represents one of the biggest cash outlays for poor families, which grow much of their own food but have to buy oil in which to cook it." (1, 2 , 3) - By Keith Bradsher with contributions by Andrew Martin, Anand Giridharadas, and Michael Rubenstein -NYTimes
Oh, so the US has promised ALL to other countries? For once, let's not be stupid Americans and let's keep the f-ing stuff for ourselves. It's not as though anyone appreciates what we do for them anyway. They still hate us, they will probably always hate us....exacerbated by the idiot in the White House, of course....so let's feed our own poor people instead.
DEATH to AMRIKA My A$$
I know some bleeding heart variety liberal is going to tell me how awful and selfish I am...blah blah blah Yeah, right.
Philippines asks Vietnam to guarantee rice supply
Reuters
First Posted 02:14:00 02/22/2008MANILA, Philippines -- President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has asked Vietnam to guarantee her country an unspecified volume of rice as tight world supply threatens its food security, Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap said Thursday.
Yap said Arroyo had been in contact with Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung to secure an undisclosed volume of the Philippines' food staple.
"I am very confident that in the coming weeks we will have a positive response," Yap told reporters at a briefing on the global rice situation. “I am fairly confident that we will be able to secure the rice stocks that will be needed to raise our buffer.”
The Philippines is the world's biggest importer of rice and faces the risk of shortages this year as soaring prices encourage exporters to stockpile the grain.
The Philippines' own stocks are down to eight days of consumption or around 264,000 metric tons, and Arroyo wants to ensure it has a 30-day buffer.
If Vietnam agrees to the request, the prices will be decided by public bidding.
In the meantime, the Philippine government is considering making similar requests from other rice-producing nations but is aware that it might not be able to buy enough to meet the appetite of a rapidly expanding population, Yap said.
"Even if we want to import, there is a possibility that there will not be enough stock in the international market," he said.
Millions more of the world's most vulnerable people are facing starvation as food shortages loom and crop prices spiral ever upwards.And for the first time in history, say experts, the impact is spreading from the developing to the developed world.
More than 73 million people in 78 countries that depend on food handouts from the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) are facing reduced rations this year. The increasing scarcity of food is the biggest crisis looming for the world'', according to WFP officials.
At the same time, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation has warned that rising prices have triggered a food crisis in 36 countries, all of which will need extra help. The threat of malnutrition is the world's forgotten problem'', says the World Bank as it demands urgent action.
The bank points out that global food prices have risen by 75% since 2000, while wheat prices have increased by 200%. The cost of other staples such as rice and soya bean have also hit record highs, while corn is at its most expensive in 12 years.
The increasing cost of grains is also pushing up the price of meat, poultry, eggs and dairy products. And there is every likelihood prices will continue their relentless rise, according to expert predictions by the UN and developed countries.
High prices have already prompted a string of food protests around the world, with tortilla riots in Mexico, disputes over food rationing in West Bengal and protests over grain prices in Senegal, Mauritania and other parts of Africa. In Yemen, children have marched to highlight their hunger, while in London last week hundreds of pig farmers protested outside Downing Street.
If prices keep rising, more and more people around the globe will be unable to afford the food they need to stay alive, and without help they will become desperate. More food riots will flare up, governments will totter and millions could die.
Our grain reserves have been falling for years now. Ethanol based fuels have worsened the situation because arable land is being diverted towards fuel production. We've paved over a lot of arable land in the last few decades to build suburbia. With fuel prices rising, the auto-based way of life is looking untenable.
There have been riots in Mexico over the price of corn. The poor can't afford tortillas in places, their daily bread.
I might drink the Kool-Aid.
Burn
know some bleeding heart variety liberal is going to tell me how awful and selfish I am...blah blah blah Yeah, right
I don't think you are being selfish - I see it more as survival. It's natural. The problem is that the US and a lot of other countries have thrown aid to other countries for years and years and what has been accomplished? Corrupt governments that intercept food drops. Money wasted for teaching skills to those who might benefit. Today as you know, the top guns are under fire in the oil companies for taking 18 billion dollars from the US taxpayer in subsidies yet walking away with 25 million dollar bonuses. See anything wrong with the equation? When the majority of the billions in farm subsidies go toward the 10 biggest and most profitable farms in the USA who control all your food, there is something inherently wrong with the whole system. Subsidies should be capped and should be aimed at the small local farmer who can bring food to the table of the locals - why does a farm making a 10 million dollar profit need your tax dollars to survive. It doesn't and yet the corruption and game go on all around us. sammieswife.
More doomsday jibberish. Commodity prices have been falling the last few weeks. No market indication whatsoever of any impending shortage.
I hope you are right, but the recent fall in commodity prices may just be short term noise in a large term trend. Let's hope it's cyclical (it was during the last commodities bull market), but there are structural reasons for the rise. Burn
When people get scared, they start to horde.
When enough people horde, the problem gets worse.
Vicious cycle.
Burn
