Global Planned Food Shortages - Food as a weapon

[Brocke]

NOTICE:

April 20, 2008, 03:56:15 PM
This thread is now a merger of two topics:

Food Riots Breaking Out Across the Planet (started by industria)
http://forum.prisonplanet.com/index.php?topic=35095.0
and
World Wide Food Shortages - Food as a weapon (started by Brocke)
http://forum.prisonplanet.com/index.php?topic=35068.0


Haiti's President tries to halt crisis over food
Published: April 10, 2008

The police in Haiti struggled Wednesday to control looting and rioting over high food prices as President René Préval issued a sharp call for an end to the chaos.

"The solution is not to go around destroying stores," Préval said in a national address. "I'm giving you orders to stop."

In the speech, his first public comments on the issue since protests began last week, he urged Haiti's Congress to cut taxes on imported food. Meanwhile, looters emptied stores, warehouses and government offices and burned tires in Port-au-Prince, the capital.

Most Haitians survive on less than $2 a day, and rioters say the prices of staples have spiraled so high that most people are going hungry.

Amid the violence, many businesses were closed, and the American Embassy urged Americans in Port-au-Prince and Les Cayes to stay inside.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/04/10/america/10haiti.php

[Brocke]

China at risk of food shortages tied to the loss of arable land, analysts say
By Niu Shuping and Nao Nakanishi
Reuters
Thursday, April 10, 2008

BEIJING: The fear of failing to grow enough corn, wheat or rice to feed its people has spurred China into action this year, but Beijing may be doing too little, too late to overcome the powerful forces of urbanization.

Just as global grain markets grapple with ultralow stocks and record-high prices, China is battling to stem the destruction of its arable land due to urban sprawl, the growing scarcity of water and the exodus of labor to its booming cities by directing tens of billions of dollars to rural areas.

But it needs to do much more to counter the impact of the greatest urbanization in history, analysts say.

"The subsidies are still very low," said Li Guoxiang, a researcher with the Rural Development Institute at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the top government research organization on rural policies.

He said direct subsidies accounted only for about 5 percent of farmers' income in China - well below the 60 percent in some developed countries, like the United States or Japan.

With 20 percent of the world's population but only 7 percent of the planet's farmland, China has done well to grow enough rice, corn and wheat to feed its people.

But with diets improving, and meat and dairy consumption rising, those days are ending, possibly faster than many expect, adding to growing global unease over future food supplies.

Beijing has pledged to keep at least 120 million hectares, or 300 million acres, of arable land. But it says it may have less than that because of illegal land use, the minister of land and resources, Xu Shaoshi, said in July last year.

China has already lost about 1 percent of its agricultural land - the equivalent of Holland and Belgium combined - every year for the past eight years, said Frédéric Hervouet, the head of commodity investor derivatives at BNP Paribas.

Li added: "The grain supply is secured in the short term. But there is big pressure in the long term. The most important thing is to protect farmland. Now everywhere in the country, they are taking the land away for industralization or to build industrial parks."

A shortage of cooking oil this year, in which domestic prices rose behind global rates, causing supplies to dry up in some areas, highlighted Beijing's unease about relying on foreign supply.

While it is too late to reverse its reliance on imported vegetable oil, Beijing is doling out money to farmers, exhorting them to begin planting corn, rice or soybeans to help secure national supplies.

"We should go back to basics, take measures to further increase agricultural yield and supply, to offset grain price hikes globally," Ma Kai, one of China's five state councilors and secretary general of the cabinet, said last month.

The government has decided to raise spending on rural development by 30 percent to a record 562.5 billion yuan, or $80.13 billion, this year, including 133.5 billion yuan for direct subsidies and 304.4 billion for improving productivity.

But critics say the extra funds barely offset rising costs for living or production and pale in comparison to the higher wages and social prospects available in growing coastal cities.

Moreover, Chinese grain prices are among the world's lowest, if not the lowest, as the government maintains hefty grain stocks and bans some exports to keep food affordable. Chinese rice fetches as little as 2,400 yuan a ton.

Prime Minister Wen Jiabao put grain stocks at 150 million to 200 million tons last month, including 40 million-50 million tons of rice.

Worsening the problem is persistent migration from the countryside to the cities.

Attracted by higher wages, 300 million to 400 million peasants are expected to move into cities by 2020, abandoning the land and leaving it for older generations to work - and consuming several times more food and water in the cities.

This is also a factor behind a slow recovery in China's pork supply following an outbreak of blue-ear disease in 2006.

Few are now willing to raise pigs in their backyards, which was once the backbone of the world's largest pork industry.

"Only women and elders are working on fields. This is one of our problems in raising productivity via technology," Liu Jiang, an adviser to the government on agriculture and a former agricultural minister, said last month.

Increasingly volatile weather conditions have played havoc with yields, prompting China's top weather official to warn last August that China might need an extra 10 million hectares or it could face a food shortfall of 100 million tons by 2030, when the population would reach its peak of 1.5 billion.

Analysts and officials say water shortages pose a serious challenge for China especially in the longer term, with ground water levels sinking every year in provinces like Shandong and Hebei, two of the nation's major wheat producers.

"They are building huge canals from the south of China to north of China," said John Chappel, general manager of Sino Analytica in Dalian. "But the problem is that the water will be expensive. We don't think it is going to help the farmers."

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/04/09/business/yuan.php

[Brocke]

Britain's Brown calls on world leaders to tackle child hunger, rising food prices

The Associated Press
Thursday, April 10, 2008

LONDON: Growing global hunger, rising food prices and demands from biofuels threaten to set back development in some of the world's poorest countries, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown warned Thursday.

In a letter to world leaders before the Group of Eight industrialized nations summit in Japan in July, Brown wrote about the urgent need to address rising food prices and the impact of biofuel production on agriculture.

"Rising food prices threaten to roll back progress we have made in recent years on development," Brown wrote. "For the first time in decades, the number of people facing hunger is growing."

Surging food prices, combined with rising fuel costs, have triggered unrest around the world in the past month. One person was killed in two days of rioting in Egypt earlier this week, while similar clashes erupted in Haiti on Wednesday. Last month there were food riots in Cameroon as well.

Brown's office said he had sent the letter to Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and other Group of Eight leaders. He also sent it to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Dominique Strauss-Kahn of the International Monetary Fund, and World Bank President Robert Zoellick,

Brown called for the use of genetically modified crops to be reconsidered for the sake of resolving food shortages.

"We must take the initiative to further develop higher-yielding and climate resilient varieties of crop," he wrote.

The prime minister also appealed for more humanitarian funding to cover the rising costs of food aid. Brown urged fellow leaders to provide more assistance for the very poor and to focus on infant nutrition.

He said that in the short-term at least, poorer countries already reliant on imported food will need help to cope with the impact of higher food prices.

British lawmakers and environmental scientists have criticized Brown's government for promoting biofuels, saying their production leads to forests being destroyed and requires energy-intensive processing.

Biofuels come from a range of products such as sugar beet and wheat, and produce less harmful emissions when used to power vehicles.

In a report in January, British lawmakers said biofuels were unlikely to improve fuel security, that agricultural subsidies for them were unsustainable, and that they would push up food prices.

"There is growing consensus that we need urgently to examine the impact on food prices of different kinds and production methods of biofuels, and ensure that their use is responsible and sustainable," Brown wrote.

World Food Program Executive Director Josette Sheeran — who also received the letter — last month asked donor countries for US$500 million (€324 million) to prevent cuts in its operations due to soaring food and fuel costs.

A letter to governments warned the U.N. body would need to cut rations to some of the world's most impoverished regions starting next month.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/04/10/europe/EU-GEN-Britain-Food-Aid.php

[Brocke]

Does French cuisine merit UN stars?
By Mary Blume
Wednesday, April 9, 2008

PARIS: French cooking may be awfully good, but it's not awfully interesting to international critics these days: "I find Paris restaurants rather provincial," American Vogue's Jeffrey Steingarten has observed.

It isn't that French chefs can't cut the mustard, but they don't extrude foams or macerate molecules in the style of Heston Blumenthal of England or Ferrán Adriá of Spain who vie these days for the title of world's best chef.

What has happened is that la cuisine française has been reduced to heirloom status, and the odd thing is that the French themselves have colluded in the process, led by President Nicolas Sarkozy, who in February announced his wish that it be listed for protection under Unesco's heritage scheme.

The media fuss shows no sign of abating. "Tête de veau and blanquette as heritages like Mont-Saint-Michel or Machu Picchu?" asked a weekly, Le Nouvel Observateur, while such leading chefs as Paul Bocuse, Alain Ducasse, Joël Robuchon and Guy Savoy announced their support.

Part of the furor came from a confusion with Unesco's World Heritage list, started in 1972, of "properties having outstanding universal value." The list, now up to 851, includes not only Mont-Saint-Michel and, for that matter, Venice but also lesser-known sites from Butrint in Albania to the Matobo Hills in Zimbabwe. Not all the French were thrilled at the thought of having their cuisine co-listed with parts of the Congo basin or an ancient church in Finland.

In fact, it is not among the familiar heritage sites but within Unesco's Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage - which includes oral traditions, performance art, traditional crafts, social practices and "knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe" - that Sarkozy wants French cooking to be enshrined. The convention dates from 2003, entered into force in 2006 and will get around to adopting criteria in June, with the first inscriptions to come in September 2009. Until then, says a Unesco spokesman, the organization can offer no comments about the merit or likelihood of any inscription.

This gives ample time for the French to argue about safeguarding French cooking. Is a Unesco listing a way of proclaiming, as Sarkozy did, that it is the best in the world, or is it a way of mummifying cassoulet, as Le Figaro asks? It is the world's best, says Jean-Robert Pitte, a Sorbonne professor who, with the Institut Européen d'Histoire et des Cultures de l'Alimentation, thought of the scheme, adding graciously on French TV last Sunday that one can eat better in small bistros in Italy than in French ones. The compliment was neutralized by his observation that a pizza can be made in a trice while a blanquette de veau takes the whole day.

Whether French cuisine is under attack from foreigners with their fast foods and syringes and dishes like Blumenthal's bacon-and-egg ice cream or whether it is simply a bit tired, Sarkozy's plan seems to indicate that gastronomy here has moved into a gelid commemorative stage. French cooking is good enough to eat and rich enough to analyze as Dr. François Ladame, the author of "Un psychanalyste chez Guy Savoy," has shown, but the fact is that the last time the French startled the food world was in the 1970s with "la nouvelle cuisine," with its oversized plates, undersized portions and undercooked chicken and fish.

La nouvelle cuisine is happily forgotten, but much of French food is connected with commemoration's more elastic cousin, memory. The terroir, the land, is a word dear to everyone here.

"The deep connection the French have is with their region of origin," says the Paris writer Chantal Thomas, who grew up in Arcachon, which left her with an indelible passion for oysters. "People identify themselves much more by their memories of the first taste of the region than by their family."

Thomas, an 18th-century specialist at the Centre National de Recherche Scientifique, has just come out with two books, "Cafés de mémoire" and "L'ÎIe flottante" (as in the dessert called floating island).

The second book, really a leaflet, has been adapted by Thomas and the eclectic Argentinian director Alfredo Arias into a play of the same name, and has been playing in the Théâtre National de Chaillot's pocket Studio (until April 13). It is about two small girls in Arcachon who decide to separate themselves from the ordinary world and adult life by eating only white foods. One actress plays both girls, Arias plays a lampshade (don't ask), and instead of an usher the spectators are seated by an actor in a chef's costume.

At the play's end, the audience is invited to sit at two long trestle tables that flank the stage and to eat a bowl of cream of corn soup with caramelized popcorn from the recipe of the three-star chef Alain Passard.

Thomas and Arias had a lot of tasting sessions, and the soup is indeed very nice, "While they are eating it audiences talk with each other about other meals," Thomas says. In France, she adds, meals are fragile ephemeral events to be kept in memory.

While Thomas approves of Sarkozy's Unesco initiative, she hopes it is not commemorating something going or gone. "There is a risk because French cooking is so rich and dense and diverse," she says. "The Unesco idea may keep it going. If it's an effort to perpetuate the moment of pleasure it is a good thing."

The line between memory and memorialization is never easy to draw, especially in France. In no other country, Thomas agrees, could the simple little cake called a madeleine have the resonance it acquired with Proust. As A.J. Liebling, the American journalist and famously hearty eater, remarked some years ago, the madeleine is now as firmly established in folklore as Newton's apple. He went on to wonder how anyone could be inspired by so small a cake:

"In the light of what Proust wrote with so mild a stimulus, it is the world's loss that he did not have a heartier appetite," he wrote. "On a dozen Gardiners Island oysters, a bowl of clam chowder, a peck of steamers, some bay scallops, three sauteed softshelled crabs, a few ears of fresh-picked corn, a thin swordfish steak of generous area, a pair of lobsters and a Long Island duck, he might have written a masterpiece."
Notes:
International Herald Tribune Copyright © 2008 The International Herald Tribune | www.iht.com

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/04/09/arts/blume.php

[industria]

Food Riots Breaking Out Across the Planet


A woman dries mud cookies in the sun on the the roof of Fort Dimanche, once a prison, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Nov. 29, 2007.

Stuffed and Starved: As Food Riots Break Out Across the Globe
Raj Patel Details “The Hidden Battle for the World Food System”
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/4/8/stuffed_and_starved_as_food_riots

Global food prices have risen dramatically, adding a new level of danger to the crisis of world hunger. In Africa, food riots have swept across the continent, with recent protests in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Mauritania and Senegal. In most of West Africa, the price of food has risen by 50 percent—in Sierra Leone, 300 percent. In the United States there has been a 41 percent surge in prices for wheat, corn, rice and other cereals over the past six months. We speak with Raj Patel, author of Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System. [includes rush transcript]

Real Video Stream
http://play.rbn.com/?url=demnow/demnow/demand/2008/april/video/dnB20080408a.rm&proto=rtsp&start=47:13

Real Audio Stream
http://play.rbn.com/?url=demnow/demnow/demand/2008/april/audio/dn20080408.ra&proto=rtsp&start=47:13

MP3 Download
http://media.switchpod.com/users/democracynow/ftp/dn2008-0408-1.mp3


A demonstrator smashes the windows of an airline office in Port-au-Prince, Tuesday, April, 8, 2008. Hungry Haitians stormed the presidential palace Tuesday, throwing rocks and demanding the resignation of President Rene Preval over soaring food prices. Overwhelmed guards struggled to hold back the crowd until U.N. peacekeepers came to their rescue, firing rubber bullets and tear gas.(AP Photo/Jack Tierney)

AMY GOODMAN: For our last segment, we look at the dramatic rise in global food prices, adding a new level of danger to the crisis of world hunger. In Africa, food riots have swept across the continent, with recent protests in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Mauritania, Senegal. In most of West Africa, the price of food has risen by 50 percent—in Sierra Leone, 300 percent. Last week, African finance ministers warned the rise in international food prices “poses significant threats to Africa’s growth, peace and security.” Other protests have been held this past week in countries like Cambodia, Indonesia, Egypt. In Haiti, at least five people have died in riots over 50 percent price hikes for rice, beans and fruit since last year. The demonstrations continued Monday outside the national palace in Port-au-Prince.

                  HAITIAN DEMONSTRATOR: We are protesting voluntarily. It is not for money. The parliament is               
                  responsible for all of this. All we ask for is for the government to cut down on prices of food.

AMY GOODMAN: Last month, the World Food Program issued a rare appeal for an additional $500 million in funding. For its part, the Bush administration has reduced emergency food aid. Last month, the US Agency for International Development said that a 41 percent surge in prices for wheat, corn, rice and other cereals over the past six months has generated a $120 million budget shortfall that will force the agency to reduce emergency operations.

What’s causing this food price hike? What can be done to reverse it? Raj Patel explores this question in his new book Stuffed and Starved: the Hidden Battle for the World Food System. He’s a writer, activist, former policy analyst with Food First, formerly worked for the World Bank, the World Trade Organization, the United Nations, and has also protested them on four continents. He joins us from San Francisco.

Welcome, Raj Patel.

RAJ PATEL: Hi, Amy. How are you?

AMY GOODMAN: Very good to have you with us. What’s causing this surge in food prices around the world?

RAJ PATEL: Well, it’s a number of factors. For a start, there were just bad harvests last year. Some people say that this is a sign that climate change is biting in agricultural economies. And it’s certainly the case that there was some very bad weather, particularly in Australia, last year. So there’s a low level of crops available.

But on top of that, there are a few other factors. One of them, one of the issues, is that governments, particularly the US government, is very keen on biofuels. Biofuels are fuels that are derived from corn, from sugar cane, and they’re being presented as a way of achieving energy independence. The trouble is, of course, that the biofuels drive up the price of these commodities, which means that poor people can’t afford them anymore.

On top of that, you’ve got an increasing demand for meat in developing countries. And as people get richer in those countries and they shift to something that looks more like an American diet, you have a situation where the grains are being diverted away from poor people and into livestock. So, again, that’s driving up the price of grains.

And finally, I think one of the major issues is, of course, the price of oil. I mean, one of the problems with the way our food reaches us today is that it is industrial, it is very fossil fuel-intensive, not just to the distance the food travels, but also in the fertilizer. You know, fossil fuel is required to produce fertilizer, pesticide, these sorts of things. And so, when the price of oil is over $100 a barrel, that combines with all the other factors to make a perfect storm where food prices are absolutely beyond the means of the poorest people.

AMY GOODMAN: Ethanol has been posed as an alternative to oil. What is your response to that?

RAJ PATEL: It’s an alternative to oil if you’re in the grain business. It’s an alternative to oil if you are one of the large industrial grain processors who are looking and lobbying very hard to make money out of the transformation of grain into ethanol.

But it’s an absurd idea. I mean, in terms of just the carbon, the level of carbon that’s in—the level of CO2 that it takes to produce ethanol is much higher than the actual—you know, the saving that you get from burning ethanol. So, in terms of a climate change strategy, ethanol is madness. And sadly, all the major presidential candidates at the moment seem to have been drinking the Kool-Aid on this one. And it seems to be something that doesn’t enter popular discourse as one of the grave dangers in modern American agricultural policy.

AMY GOODMAN: Raj Patel, you write in the beginning of your book, “Our Big Fat Contradiction,” that “the hunger of 800 million happens at the same time as another historical fact: that they are outnumbered by the one billion people on this planet who are overweight.” Talk about that contradiction.

RAJ PATEL: Yeah—well, I mean, it’s a contradiction actually that you see everywhere. I mean, you see it in the States. I mean, the US is the most obese country on the planet. There are only three in ten Americans are now at a normal body weight. And at the same time last year, about thirty-five million Americans went hungry at some point last year. So this contradiction between hunger and obesity is worldwide.

And in the past, we had a situation where the rich were fat and the poor were thin. Today, because our food comes from the sort of industrial market of highly processed food that extracts value from poor farmers and gives us processed, highly fatty food, a sort of fast food, as convenience food for people living in cities. Well, the upshot of that is that you’ve got both poor people who are going hungry and poor people who are predominantly overweight. I mean, it’s a sad contradiction that today in the United States the lower your income, the more overweight you’re likely to be.

AMY GOODMAN: Raj Patel, we’ve had this controversy in the presidential race, the stepping down of the head of Burson-Marsteller from the campaign, Mark Penn, from the campaign of Hillary Clinton, because he met with the Colombian ambassador. They have retained his lobbying company to lobby on behalf of a so-called free trade agreement between Colombia and the United States. Bush is giving that agreement to Congress to pass on. What about the so-called free trade and how it affects food prices around the world?

RAJ PATEL: Well, I mean, one of the reasons that you’re seeing food price riots right now is because all the countries that you listed, from Haiti to Senegal to Burkina Faso to India, they are largely hitched to an international economy where they have to import grain in order to be able to consume it. And this is a consequence of the US pushing a so-called free trade agenda, where countries are being forced to lower their tariff barriers, to stop protecting farmers. And as a result, what you’re seeing is that the countries that are worst affected by this are the ones that have most enthusiastically been forced to embrace free trade.

The countries that are doing—that are not suffering quite as badly are countries that have a lot of support for agriculture. I mean, the support is distorted, particularly in the US and the European Union, but even in China or Japan or South Korea. Rice, for example, in South Korea and Japan, is treated as a cultural good. The Japanese and South Korean governments fought very hard to exempt food from the strictures of free trade.

So, absolutely, free trade has a great deal of responsibility to bear here, because countries have been forced into using free trade. And, of course, when the price of food goes up globally, countries have no reserves, they have no policies, they have no recourse, if they’re being forced to be part of the free trade system. So, yes, I think it has a great deal of responsibility.

AMY GOODMAN: Farmer suicides, what have you found?

RAJ PATEL: Across the world, but particularly in India, you see a situation where farmers on—I mean, farmers, like everyone else, want to improve their lot, and so they borrow money to be able to invest in their land. And increasingly, those investments don’t pan out, whether it’s climate change or whether it’s a medical expense that they have to pay. And all of a sudden, farmers find themselves on the brink of foreclosure or bankruptcy, and they become the first people in generations in their family to lose their land. And rather than suffer that indignity, farmers in India, for example, have been poisoning themselves with pesticides. That was one of the hardest parts of researching this book, is talking to families where farmers did kill themselves.

And, of course, it’s an epidemic that started in the States, in the Midwest in the 1980s, when there was a flourishing of farmer suicides. That’s perhaps not the right word, but there was certainly an epidemic of them. And those suicides follow the rise of debt for farmers. They particularly affect small farmers, farmers who have been—family farmers who have been on their land for generations. And in the new modern agricultural economy, those farmers are the most vulnerable, whether they’re in India or the States or in Britain.

AMY GOODMAN: Raj Patel, in the last thirty seconds—and then we will bring our listeners and viewers part two of this conversation—but in our last thirty seconds, how devastating are the hike in food prices for those living on the edge?

RAJ PATEL: I mean, they’re absolutely devastating. It’s important to remember, of course, that living on the edge is also devastating, but what we have now is a situation where the food prices are really just toppling people into straightforward hunger and famine. I mean, in Haiti, people are eating mud cakes in order to keep hunger pangs at bay. Things are pretty dire.

--

Riot police face down hungry people in Port-au-Prince.

A significant spike in grain and commodities prices is driving up the cost of food worldwide and marking the beginning of the collapse of the world economy. As a result, violent riots have broken out, as described by Vivian Walt (Time, February 27, 2008)
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1717572,00.html

Rocketing food prices — some of which have more than doubled in two years — have sparked riots in numerous countries recently. Millions are reeling from sticker shock and governments are scrambling to staunch a fast-moving crisis before it spins out of control. From Mexico to Pakistan, protests have turned violent. Rioters tore through three cities in the West African nation of Burkina Faso last month, burning government buildings and looting stores. Days later in Cameroon, a taxi drivers' strike over fuel prices mutated into a massive protest about food prices, leaving around 20 people dead.

Here in the U.S., the economic collapse has been "contained" to the housing market and a "few bad apples" (Bear Stearns) in the financial markets, but for how much longer? Will we see food riots at home?


Hungry Haitians storm the presidential palace demanding food.


So far, the riots have been largely in developing countries around the world. The Wall Street Journal reports today that the World Bank estimates that the cost of food has risen 83% over the last 3 years.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120778643316903397.html?mod=hps_us_whats_news
Here's a timeline of food riots since 2007:

January 2007 - Mexico riot over the increasing price of tortillas.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/how-the-rising-price-of-corn-made-mexicans-take-to-streets-454260.html

September 2007 - Indians in West Bengal riot over food shortages and public corruption.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Panel_blames_corrupt_PDS_for_Bengal_food_riots/rssarticleshow/2639176.cms

February 2008 - Cameroons angry over high fuel and food prices.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/02/27/africa/27cameroon.php

February 2008 - Protesters in Burkina Fassoattacked government offices and burned, shops, cars and petrol stations.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=76905

Marchh 2008 - Senegalese citizens are beatenfollowing protests against the high cost of living.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=77539

April 2008 - Haitians riotover rising food prices.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/04/09/news/CB-GEN-Haiti-Food-Protests.php

April 2008 - Yemenis riotas the price of wheat has doubled since February, while rice and vegetable oil have gone up 20%.
http://www.inteldaily.com/?c=148&a=5876

April 2008 - Egyptians riotover the price of bread.
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1729061,00.html


Is the U.S.immune to the conditions that cause food riots?

Documented soaring wheat prices, which are now showing up in price hikes at bakeries in Michigan, New York, and beer just about everywhere. Milk pricesare up 26 percent, and egg pricesare up 40 percent.

http://www.mlive.com/business/index.ssf/2008/04/area_bakeries_feel_bite_of_ris.html
http://www.herkimertelegram.com/archive/x1779605858
http://www.wspa.com/midatlantic/spa/news.apx.-content-articles-SPA-2008-04-07-0023.html
http://www.boston.com/business/personalfinance/articles/2008/03/09/surging_costs_of_groceries_hit_home/
http://www.boston.com/business/personalfinance/articles/2008/03/09/surging_costs_of_groceries_hit_home/



Now, nearly one in 10 Ohioans now receive food stamps.
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2008/03/22/foodstamps.ART_ART_03-22-08_A1_NN9NE83.html?sid=101

Middle class Long Islandersare turning to food pantries.
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/ny-bzecon0331,0,2740821.story

In Windsor, CT, 350 households now visit the food bank, compared to 120 in 2006.
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19091302&BRD=1633&PAG=461&dept_id=11608&rfi=6

[industria]

 U.N. Troops Fire On Starving Haitians
http://www.infowars.com/?p=1410

Roger Annis
Rabble
April 9, 2008

Protests erupted in cities across Haiti on Monday in response to rising poverty and hunger and to the seeming indifference of the large United Nations mission in that country.

In the capital city, Port-au-Prince, thousands protested in front of the presidential palace. As BBC News reported, “Witnesses say the protesters used metal bins to try to smash down the palace gates before UN troops fired rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse them.”

“The demonstrators outside the presidential palace said the rising cost of living in Haiti meant they were struggling to feed themselves. ‘We are hungry,’ they shouted, before attempting to smash open the palace gates.”

Protests spread across the country

The countrywide demonstrations started with two days of protest in Les Cayes, Haiti’s third largest city. According to a Haiti Information Project report, on April 2, “More than 3000 demonstrators surrounded a UN compound that houses Uruguayan troops who reportedly opened fire on the crowd.”
   
   
   

The next day, over 5000 protesters set up flaming barricades throughout the main downtown area of the city and paralyzed traffic for several hours. They attacked the fence of the headquarters of United Nations forces in the area.

Uruguayan troops with the United Nations Stabilization Mission, known by its French acronym MINUSTAH, opened fire on the crowd and witnesses claim that five people were wounded. News agencies report that at least four Haitians have been killed by UN forces since protests erupted.

Mounting protests throughout Haiti stand in stark contrast to recent press releases and interviews by UN and Canadian officials claiming that the situation in Haiti continues to improve following the overthrow of the country’s elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, in 2004. A foreign-sponsored election in February 2006 saw René Préval, a former colleague of Aristide, chosen as president.

Where has the “aid” money gone?

Foreign countries, principally Canada, the U.S. and France, have pumped several billion dollars into Haiti since 2004 while the average Haitian has seen no improvement in their living conditions. The price of staples such as rice and beans, whose importation is controlled by a few wealthy families, has nearly doubled while unemployment remains at close to 80 per cent.

There is great resentment, among the Haitian people, against the UN-sponsored police and military presence in their country. The UN spends $600 million per year there, twice the national budget of the Haitian government. Most of the UN money is spent on police and military, while the country is mired in a profound economic, social and environmental calamity.

Canada sent 500 soldiers to Haiti in February/March 2004 to participate in the overthrow of Aristide’s government, along with troops from the U.S. and France. Since then, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police has headed up a 100-plus member Canadian training mission of the Haitian National Police, a notorious human rights-violating agency. Unknown numbers of Canadian military advisers are in the country. There are also Canadian-appointed advisers playing key roles in the ministries of the Haitian government.

Following Aristide’s ouster in 2004, several thousand of his supporters were killed, and thousands were jailed or exiled. Haiti’s prison population has doubled since 2004. Prisoners are held in horrific conditions. The April 7, 2008 issue of Maclean’s described the conditions in Haiti’s main national penitentiary as follows: “Words cannot describe the horror, the stench and the despair inside.”

The Canadian government says that one of its contributions to Haiti in the past four years has been improvement to the prison and criminal justice system.

[releasethebonds]

"It's begun, ENDGAME has"

[RustOnMyHalo]

I am so very sorry for all of these people

[chirhonius]

On Dec. 10, 1974, the U.S. National Security Council under Henry Kissinger completed a classified 200-page study, "National Security Study Memorandum 200: Implications of Worldwide Population Growth for U.S. Security and Overseas Interests." The study falsely claimed that population growth in the so-called Lesser Developed Countries (LDCs) was a grave threat to U.S. national security.

There were several measures that Kissinger advocated to deal with this alleged threat, most prominently, birth control and related population-reduction programs. He also warned that "population growth rates are likely to increase appreciably before they begin to decline," even if such measures were adopted.

A second measure was curtailing food supplies to targetted states, in part to force compliance with birth control policies: "There is also some established precedent for taking account of family planning performance in appraisal of assistance requirements by AID [U.S. Agency for International Development] and consultative groups. Since population growth is a major determinant of increases in food demand, allocation of scarce PL 480 resources should take account of what steps a country is taking in population control as well as food production. In these sensitive relations, however, it is important in style as well as substance to avoid the appearance of coercion."

http://www.larouchepub.com/other/1995/2249_kissinger_food.html

[strgzr]

I see those public service ads on TV about "human rights" all the time. I have yet to see one about the human right to eat. To have enough food to sustain yourself. If there is so much corn that we can afford to turn it into ethanol to fill up our cars, there should be enough to feed the hungry people in the world. I'm 54 and my entire life I have heard of people here or there starving. It's been that way in our entire history. Anyone who doesn't believe there is a conspiracy to keep the third world down, and to eliminate millions, if not billions of people, is simply not paying attention.
Now before I start getting the "why aren't you doing anything about world hunger" let me say I help with local programs to feed folks, and I'm currently helping to sponsor a dear friend who spent several months last year in Sudan, and is now in Turkey on her way to Afghanistan. I don't trust that The Red Cross or Feed the Children or whoever else will do right by any money I could send.
So what's to be done? The problem and solution are the same as in many other aspects of our lives. The problem, the evil people that have insinuated themselves into leadership roles in our country, and throughout the world i.e. George Bush and Co. The solution, get rid of them. I'm not a capitol punishment proponent, I could be persuaded to change my mind in this instance.

[industria]

So what's to be done? The problem and solution are the same as in many other aspects of our lives. The problem, the evil people...The solution, get rid of them.

End World Hunger... Eat The Elites.

[chris jones]

The price of gas dictates the price of consumer goods. Thats it, story over.
There are more oil reserves found in the past three years, including the syphoning of oil from Iraq, then there has been in 30 years. Its not oil, its the oil barons and the elites plan to gain control.
Riot, sure, sacking most certianly, afterall it is survival and the Elite know that. They are using our most basic needs, nutrition,substance to survive, now its water, next it will be air tax.
Our sukbag pols.(90%) are not going against the oil barons are they, I wonder why. They , the power have been destroying our nation for the past 5  decades at least, it is no longer the tip of the iceberg, they are going for broke, their plan is unfolding, and they surely beleive they will gain complete control.
If there is no massive, patriotic, truth seeking march of Americans, peacefully calling to their pols. and letting them understand we got their act, a massive display of human beings in DC, we are destined to be slaves.
We not only will loose our freedom, but that of our children, and the remainder of the human race on this earth.
 The choice is Either join the NWO or MARCH. It is long past a wake up call.

[PaladinRoden]

With over population and low investment in society (infrustructor, education, job development) you get situations like these. I believe in End Game but one has to admit that this situation was bound to happen with the world population getting so big so fast. Many factors play into world hunger and one can't ignor that over population and lack of investment into society plays the biggest role. It happens in the animal kingdom, what makes you think humans are immune to such situations. We are not....

[hellcatjr]

I am so very sorry for all of these people

You should feel sorry for yourself, it's gonna happen to all of us.

[bigron]

Food prices stir poverty concern   !!!
 
 http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/731157E1-133D-490D-ACF7-3405744C491D.htm
 
 
 
The price of coarse rice, the staple food of poor Bangladeshis, has more than doubled in a year .

 
The International Monetary Fund has said that rising food prices threaten to undermine gains made in cutting poverty and further strain a global economy already hit by a financial crisis.

The warning came after riots related to increasing food prices and low wages rocked Haiti and Egypt.
 
 
The increases have been caused in part by drought in Australia and central Europe, and more demand for food in Asian countries, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, IMF managing director, said on Thursday.


 
Strauss-Kahn's comments came on the eve of a meeting of finance ministers and central bank chiefs of the Group of Seven industrial countries in Washington DC.

 

Biofuels link

The increased use of grains to produce biofuels, first heralded as a way to cut greenhouse gases, combined with a rising demand for food in emerging market economies, has contributed to grain shortages and food riots.

In video Starvation fears in Bangladesh:   
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXPN0RfLZRQ
 
The IMF has calculated that corn ethanol production in the US accounted for at least half the rise in world corn demand in each of the past three years.

Washington provides a subsidy of 51 cents a gallon to ethanol blenders and slaps a tariff of 54 cents a gallon on imports.

In the European Union, most countries exempt biofuels from some gas taxes and slap an average tariff equal to more than 70 cents per gallon of imported ethanol.

"Food prices, for instance, increased by 48 per cent since the end of 2006 until now, which is a huge increase, and it may undermine all the gains we have obtained in reducing poverty," Strauss-Kahn said.

Price riots

Riots over food price rises began in southern Haiti earlier this week and quickly spread to the capital Port-au-Prince, where tens of thousands took to the streets.

 
Four were killed in the disturbance, while UN peacekeepers drove away rioters used rubber bullets and tear gas to drive away rioters from the presidential palace.

Most Haitians live on less than $2 a day.

Reports suggest the most desperate have turned to eating cookies made of dirt, vegetable oil and salt.

Meanwhile, at least seven people have died in Egypt in riots earlier this week, sparked partly by rises in the price of bread of other foods.

Similar riots have been reported in Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Indonesia and Peru.

Historic levels

Robert Zoellick, World Bank president, said on Thursday that while developed nations struggled with high fuel cost of fuel to run their cars, poor people in developing nations were struggling to feed themselves.

"In many developing countries, the poor spend up to 75 per cent of their income on food. When prices of basic foods rise, it hits hard", he said.

 
Rising bread prices in Egypt have contributed to protests that led to several deaths .
 
"In just two months, rise prices have skyrocketed to near historic levels, rising by around 75 per cent globally and more in some markets - with more to come."

Zoellick said the world needs to recognise food price inflation is contributing to a growing emergency, one which the UN World Food Programme has said requires $500 million just to fill immediate need.

The World Bank says food price inflation is not a short-term phenomenon but will likely persist through 2008 and 2009 before demand slackens due to high prices.

Most people in the world's wealthiest countries take food for granted.

Even the poorest fifth of households in the US spend only 16 per cent of their budget on food.

 
By contrast, Nigerian families spend 73 per cent of their budgets on eating, Vietnamese 65 per cent, while Indonesians allocate half.


Last year, the food import bill of developing countries rose by 25 per cent as food prices rose to levels not seen in a generation.



Food commodities

World financers have also been adding to the food price problem.

Commodities, as an asset class, have attracted investors looking not only for a safe haven from the carnage in highly leveraged mortgage investments.


"In many developing countries, the poor spend up to 75 percent of their income on food."


Robert Zoellick, World Bank President
 
From 2005 to 2007, world wheat prices rose 70 per cent, corn gained 80 per cent, and dairy prices nearly doubled, up 90 per cent.

A senior UN official has said that global investment funds and the weak dollar are largely to blame for the world's rise in food prices.

"The crisis is a speculative attack and it will last", Jose Graziano, the UN food and farm organisation's regional representative for Latin America and the Caribbean, said.

"The lack of confidence in the [US] dollar has led investment funds to look for higher returns in commodities ... first metals and then foods."

Investors have speculated in commodities including wheat, corn and rice because stocks in recent years have been drawn down by rising demand in emerging markets and supply shortages due to adverse climate in key producer nations, Graziano said.

 
 
 
 
 
Source: Agencies
 

[Brocke]

Food riots to worsen without global action: U.N.
Fri Apr 11, 2008 1:57pm EDT

By Robin Pomeroy

ROME (Reuters) - Food riots in developing countries will spread unless world leaders take major steps to reduce prices for the poor, the head of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said on Friday.

Despite a forecast 2.6 percent hike in global cereal output this year, record prices are unlikely to fall, forcing poorer countries' food import bills up 56 percent and hungry people on to the streets, FAO Director General Jacques Diouf said.

"The reality is that people are dying already in the riots," Diouf told a news conference.

"They are dying because of their reaction to the situation and if we don't take the necessary action there is certainly the possibility that they might die of starvation. Naturally people won't be sitting dying of starvation, they will react."

The FAO said food riots had broken out in several African countries, Indonesia, the Philippines and Haiti. Thirty-seven countries face food crises, it said in its latest World Food Situation report.

Some of the worst tensions have been in Haiti where protests at high cost of living descended into riots last week and four people were killed in clashes with security forces. There is concern about rising prices in the Philippines, but it was not clear what incidents FAO was referring to there.

"I am surprised that I have not been summoned to the U.N. Security Council as many of the problems being discussed there would not have the same consequences on peace, security and human rights (without the food crisis)," Diouf said.

Increased food demand from rapidly developing countries such as China and India, the use of crops for biofuels, global stocks at 25-year lows and market speculation are all blamed for pushing prices of staples like wheat, maize and rice to record highs.

While people in richer countries have noticed higher supermarket prices, the effect is far more pronounced in developing countries where 50-60 percent of income goes to food compared with just 10-20 percent in the developed world.

FOOD CRISIS SUMMIT

Diouf called on heads of state and government to attend a food crisis summit at FAO headquarters in Rome on June 3-5.

He said the priority was a "massive seed transfer" -- to ensure farmers in poor countries could buy seeds, fertilizer and feed at prices they could afford.

Other necessary measures include creating financial mechanisms to ensure poorer food importing countries could continue to buy the food they need and give a larger proportion of aid budgets to agriculture, Diouf said.

The comments echoed those of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who called this week for a coordinated response to the food crisis which would include reaching a deal on the Doha trade talks and the possible use of market-based risk management instruments to avert food price volatility.

Diouf said it was normal to expect developing countries to put controls on food exports, even if that exacerbated global food prices. The price of rice jumped 40 percent in three days recently when India and Vietnam banned exports, an FAO official said.

"Export bans are a normal reaction for any government that has a prime responsibility to its people," he said.

Expanded crop plantings this year should mean a 2.6 percent increase in cereal output, with wheat up 6.8 percent on last year, FAO has forecast. But with only a small proportion of that reaching the open market, the effect on prices will be negligible as other prices pressure remain, it said.

(Editing by Chris Johnson)

http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSL1190784520080411

[Brocke]

Higher food prices here to stay: World Bank
Wed Apr 9, 2008 3:14pm EDT

By Lesley Wroughton

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Surging global food costs are not a temporary phenomenon and prices are likely to stay above 2004 levels until 2015 for most crops, the World Bank said on Wednesday.

In a policy paper prepared for weekend meetings of world finance chiefs in Washington, the World Bank said food prices are set to stay high in 2008 and 2009, and then decline as supply and demand respond to high prices.

World Bank President Robert Zoellick said he feared that the higher cost of food would reverse declining poverty levels in some countries.

"As an international community we must rally not only to offer immediate support, but to help countries identify actions and policies to reduce the impact on the world's most vulnerable," Zoellick said.

The Bank suggested that the least disruptive policy response in dealing with higher prices was for countries to introduce or expand cash transfer programs to the poor.

"These support the purchasing power of the poor without distorting domestic incentives to produce more food, and without reducing the incomes of poor food sellers," it said.

To tackle domestic food insecurity, it also said countries should cut tariffs and taxes on key staple foods, which could provide some relief to consumers, albeit at a fiscal cost.

It said food export bans were detrimental to food importers and dampened incentives by farmers to increase production.

A combination of high oil and fuel prices, rising demand for food in wealthier Asia, the use of farmland and crops for biofuels, bad weather and speculation on futures markets have all combined to push up food prices, prompting violent protests in a handful of poor countries.

In the latest rioting, five people have been killed in a week of demonstrations in Haiti over the rising costs of food, while unions in the Western African country of Burkina Faso called a general strike over the increasing cost of living.

The World Bank said there had been a sharp surge in domestic food price inflation especially in Sri Lanka (34 percent), Costa Rica (21 percent) and Egypt (13.5 percent).

In many countries food inflation is higher than aggregate inflation, contributing to inflationary pressures, it said. For example, in Europe and Central Asia overall inflation in 2007 averaged 10 percent, food inflation 15 percent and bread and cereals inflation 23 percent.

The World Bank said currently countries were seeking its help with assessing economic and social implications of rising food prices, as well as possible policy responses.

It is too early to assess the extent to which countries would require World Bank loans to fill funding needs brought on by rising food prices, the bank added.

However, a few countries, such as Burkina Faso, are considering increasing the size of upcoming loans, it said.

The development agency said high food prices highlighted the need for the World Bank and other donors to increase investments in agriculture.

(Editing by Diane Craft)

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSWAT00929720080409

[Fleahman]

its just sad that they are using corn and soybeans to make inefficient ethanol.  What a farce that is.  It takes a great deal of petroleum just to grow and harvest the corn, not to mention to turn it into ethanol.  All the while people are starving and the price of most groceries is  going up due to the increased cost of corn.  Because corn is used as feed for livestock the price of many groceries is related to the price of corn.  Cows eat corn.  So beef, cheese, milk, cream, yogurt, icecream, all go up in price. The same goes for chickens which eat corn, eggs also go up in price.  I wouldn't mind paying more for groceries if I felt like this ethanol thing was helping but because it takes to so much energy to make the ethanol it is highly inefficient and a bandaid for the problem.  I don't understand why they even bother with it.

[Brocke]

its just sad that they are using corn and soybeans to make inefficient ethanol.  What a farce that is.  It takes a great deal of petroleum just to grow and harvest the corn, not to mention to turn it into ethanol.  All the while people are starving and the price of most groceries is  going up due to the increased cost of corn.  Because corn is used as feed for livestock the price of many groceries is related to the price of corn.  Cows eat corn.  So beef, cheese, milk, cream, yogurt, icecream, all go up in price. The same goes for chickens which eat corn, eggs also go up in price.  I wouldn't mind paying more for groceries if I felt like this ethanol thing was helping but because it takes to so much energy to make the ethanol it is highly inefficient and a bandaid for the problem.  I don't understand why they even bother with it.

You get two crises for the price of one: Shortage of fuel and shortage of food.

Notice there are fewer ads on TV with starving children in foreign countries (at least here in Australia). MSM is shifting away from lets help the poor in third world countries and they are starting to show the ugly side to hunger (riots). We are being programed. They want us to riot.

[Brocke]

Desperate North Korea seeks food aid - UN official
Fri Apr 11, 2008 4:12am EDT
By Jon Herskovitz

SEOUL, April 11 (Reuters) - Impoverished North Korea is seeking international aid to battle one of its worst food shortfalls in years, a senior U.N. official based in Asia said on Friday.

Agricultural experts in Seoul have said the shortfall may be one of the worst since famine hit North Korea in the 1990s, the result of flood damage last year, high commodity prices and political wrangling with major food donor South Korea.

"The North Koreans know that they are facing a difficult situation and have made it increasingly clear in the past few weeks that they will need outside assistance to meet their growing needs," the U.N. official said, asking not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue.

North Korea, which even with a good harvest still falls about 1 million tonnes, or around 20 percent, short of what it needs to feed its people, relies heavily on aid from China, South Korea and U.N. aid agencies to fill the gap.

The UN official said it was clear from a variety of sources that the food security situation was worsening in North Korea and that it needed to be addressed.

Last month Kwon Tae-jin, an expert on the North's agriculture sector at the South's Korea Rural Economic Institute told Reuters that if South Korea and other nations did not send food aid, the North would be faced with a food crisis worse than the one in the 90s.

A famine in the mid-to-late 1990s killed more than 1 million North Koreans in a country of about 23 million.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation said in late March it sees the North having a shortfall of about 1.66 million tonnes in cereals for the year ending in October 2008.

North Korea for years has been able to receive massive food aid, with few questions asked, by left-of-centre South Korean governments who have seen the handouts as a small price to pay to keep the peninsula stable.

But the conservative government that took power in South Korea in February said there would no longer be a free ride for its capricious neighbour and wants to see progress on ending its nuclear weapons programme.

North Korea has no plans to ask Seoul for help but recently appealed to China for aid, the South's Hankyoreh newspaper last week quoted diplomatic sources as saying.

The South typically sends about 500,000 tonnes of rice and 300,000 tonnes of fertiliser a year. None has been sent this year and without the fertiliser, North Korea is almost certain to see a fall of several tens of tonnes in its harvest, Kwon said.

The North will start to feel the shortage the hardest in the coming months when its meagre stocks of food, already depleted by flooding that hit the country last year, dry up and before the start of its potato harvest in June and July.

China, the closest the North has to a major ally, has too many problems of its own, such as keeping runaway grain prices under control, to help its destitute neighbour, experts said.

But experts doubt that North Korea will offer to make concessions in international talks aimed at ending its nuclear weapons programme in order to receive food aid. (Additional reporting by Lee Jiyeon, editing by Jonathan Thatcher and Sanjeev Miglani)

http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSSEO217335

[Brocke]

U.N. says markets are to blame for world food crisis
Thu Apr 10, 2008 6:31pm EDT

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Global investment funds and the weak dollar are largely to blame for high world food prices, a senior official of the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization said on Thursday.

"The crisis is a speculative attack and it will last," said Jose Graziano, the UN food and farm organization's regional representative for Latin America and the Caribbean.

"This is not a conspiracy theory," he said.

Across the globe foods from bread to milk have become more expensive and in some countries helped fuel inflation. High prices for rice, beans and other food staples provoked food riots in Haiti this week.

"The lack of confidence in the (U.S.) dollar has led investment funds to look for higher returns in commodities ... first metals and then foods," Graziano told a news conference in the capital.

Investors have speculated in commodities including wheat, corn and rice because stocks in recent years have been drawn down by rising demand in emerging markets and supply shortages due to adverse climate in key producer nations, Graziano said.

"Speculative attacks become possible when you have low reserves," Graziano said.

Stocks of some food crops have fallen to their lowest levels in three decades, according to Brazilian farm experts.

Brasilia will host an FAO conference next week, which will focus on food shortages in Haiti, biofuels and small farms.

The FAO will in next week's meeting propose initiatives to help combat the current global food shortage, including incentives for small farmers.

Brazil is one of the world's leading food exporters.

(Reporting by Raymond Colitt, editing by Todd Eastham)

http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSN1040602920080410

[Brocke]

Little progress in preventing foodborne ills: CDC
Fri Apr 11, 2008 3:15am EDT

By Julie Steenhuysen

CHICAGO (Reuters) - U.S. efforts to contain foodborne illness have made no dent in reducing the number of infections, which were flat last year after a period of decline, according to a government report released on Thursday.

In the past two years, high-profile food safety scares involving peanut butter, spinach and other products have intensified pressure on lawmakers to protect the nation's food supply.

Yet the 10-state report issued by government researchers found no change in the rate of infections caused by Listeria, Salmonella, Shigella, E.coli O157 and several other nasty bugs in 2007 compared with the previous three years.

It also showed that levels of Cryptosporidium, a parasite which causes diarrhea, actually increased compared with 2004-2006.

"We can't say we've made tremendous progress in the last year," Dr. Robert Tauxe, deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control's Division of Foodborne, Bacterial and Mycotic Diseases told a news conference.

"The most salient observation we see is that there is not a particularly important change from the last few years," Tauxe said.

"A lot of things have been going on to improve food safety and we still think they are likely to bear fruit ... but we have not seen a particular decrease in the important sections that we are tracking," Tauxe said.

Faye Feldstein, acting director of the Food and Drug Administration's Office of Food Defense, said the FDA will continue to pursue strategies to reduce all foodborne illness.

One key was a food protection plan, to cover the span from production to consumption, or "from farm to fork," and involves preventing foodborne contamination, intervening at critical points in the supply chain and responding to minimize harm, Feldstein said.

Consumers can reduce their risk for foodborne illness by following safe food-handling recommendations and avoiding the consumption of unpasteurized milk, raw or undercooked oysters, raw or undercooked eggs, raw or undercooked ground beef, and undercooked poultry.

The data were collected under a collaborative effort among CDC, the FDA, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and state surveillance sites.

The effort tracks data on infections diagnosed in 10 states and adds the results of other surveys to get an overall picture on individual infections, said Tauxe.

An apparent rise in the foodborne illness Cryptosporidiosis was linked to a new treatment which was making it more likely that doctors would send specimens for testing, Tauxe said.

"There is more of a reason to get the specimen to the lab and to have the test done so that doesn't mean that there is actually more Cryptosporidiosis illnesses but it means that more are being diagnosed now," said Tauxe.

(Additional reporting by Matthew Bigg; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSN1033919520080411

[Brocke]

HIGHLIGHTS 4-Comments from G7, IMF, World Bank meetings
Fri Apr 11, 2008 2:54pm EDT

WASHINGTON, April 11 (Reuters) - Finance ministers and central bankers from the top industrialized countries are scheduled to meet on Friday to discuss the global credit crisis.

Their meeting is expected begin at mid-afternoon, with a communique issued about 6:30 p.m. (2230 GMT).

Following are highlights from their comments before the Group of Seven meeting.

For more stories from the G7 meeting, see [G7/G8].

German Finance Minster Peer Steinbrueck

When asked whether there was the possibility of any currency intervention or coordinated action on foreign exchange, Steinbrueck said, "No."

Canada Finance Minister Jim Flaherty:

"I am sure we will revisit today the issue of imbalances in terms of lack of flexibility of the currencies of some of the emerging economies including China and particularly now in a time of global volatility and turbulence."

"I intend to raise it (the issue of imbalances) today and I am sure we will hear back from some of the other participants."

"There are some short-term discussions that I'm sure will take place about valuations. There is a school of thought that says that fair value perhaps ought to be modified that mark-to-market is too strict a rule in some circumstances where there is no market or you're marking to a model or where transactions are only happening in stressed situations, and so they're not reflecting a true market. Quite frankly I think we need to keep to the traditional rules on that in order to make sure that we don't make matters worse. Counterparties need to know that everybody's playing by the same rules in terms of valuation. That's what I'm going to advocate."

"I expect that the recommendations of the forum (Financial Stability forum) will be accepted and may include guidelines on disclosure, but that's looking at the longer term."

"There are some issues that I think will be the subject of some vigorous discussion this afternoon. There are different views on valuation rules, for example, and on what should be the accounting rules for valuation of securities that have little or no market ... There are some differing emphases on that ... I'm sure it will be part of the communique."

"There is concern of course with currency volatility. The decline in the value of the U.S. dollar has been borne primarily by the Canadian dollar and also by the euro and the yen as well so I imagine we will have some discussion about that today and it will be referenced in the communique."

"In terms of the Canadian perspective we still have economic growth and we're comfortable with our budget projections."

UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling:

"Currencies are discussed regularly and I dare say will continue to be discussed again. And as we continue to monitor these things people recognize that there are some things governments can do and some things governments can't."

"There has been upward pressure on food prices over the last few months. ... We cannot allow ourselves to get into a situation where food prices keep going up and up."

Darling said there were no proposals for a government to buy up mortgage=backed securities before the G7 meeting this weekend. But "We should be ready to look at any options to reopen these markets. ... It would be quite wrong to rule out any options at this stage. However, options have to be practical. They have to be workable."

German Finance Minster Peer Steinbrueck:

On worldwide food prices:"A monster is stepping up on the political stage." It will be a big issue at the World Bank meetings. "This is a very fundamental problem.

On the Financial Stability Forum report: "I am very satisfied with this report, because it contains of quite a number of very concrete measure. ... These measures should be implemented as soon as possible."

On efforts of banks and rating agencies to find voluntary solutions to the financial crises: "this is helpful, but not sufficient. ... Politics have to play their role to."

UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling on credit crisis:

"Today we must commit to implementing the Financial Stability Forum report fully and quickly."

"We should not hesitate to take action if the market-led response proves inadequate."

UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling on housing:

"There are a number of key differences between the U.K. and U.S. housing markets, which mean that the U.K. housing market is unlikely to experience problems in the way that the property market in the U.S. has been affected."

"In the U.S. the falls in housing prices are being driven by a very large overhang of unsold houses. In the U.K, by contrast, housing supply has not kept pace with demand."

"While the U.K. also has a subprime mortgage sector it is much smaller than that in the U.S."

UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling on credit crisis/inflation:

"These are uncertain times. There are huge challenges ahead. All major economies will see slower growth this year."

"Oil prices have been above $100 a barrel in recent months, And food and metal prices have increased sharply, too. This is bringing new inflationary pressures."

"Central banks have made coordinated efforts to improve liquidity in money markets. ... We must ensure that we continue to do whatever is necessary to maintain confidence in the financial markets."

http://www.reuters.com/article/bondsNews/idUSN1037908720080411

[Brocke]

Price boom proves mixed blessing in farming nations
Fri Apr 11, 2008 1:57pm EDT

By Helen Popper

PERGAMINO, Argentina (Reuters) - Sometimes called "green gold" of the Pampas, soybeans have brought new prosperity to the Argentine countryside, but with that prosperity comes controversy over how to share the bounty of high global prices.

The town of Pergamino is nestled among some of the world's most fertile commercial farmland, and residents credit the current boom in soybean prices for new high-rise buildings, record car sales and a bustling main street filled with chain stores.

"The town's made a comeback," said real estate agent Luis Battaglino, adding that prime farmland prices have risen by 10 percent per year since 2002. It now sells for as much as $15,000 per hectare ($37,000 per acre) -- comparable to prices in the U.S. farm belt.

"They call this area the golden triangle of the Pampas," he added. "Even at these prices, there's nothing on sale because everyone thinks grain prices will keep on rising."

Strong demand for Argentina's farm exports has helped Latin America's No. 3 economy recover some of its former glory as a breadbasket for the world, fueling Chinese levels of growth and swelling state coffers through export taxes on grains.

In the famous Pampas plains, many credit farmers with lifting the country out of the doldrums after an acute crisis in 2001-02 that followed a long slump in the farming industry partly due to dollar-peso parity that made exports expensive.

"It was farming that brought the country back to life,", said Jorge Solmi, director of the Agrarian Federation (FAA), which led a recent three-week farm strike against a tax hike on soy exports. "When the country was in ruins, all the money for the social welfare plans came from the countryside."

POVERTY

However, the agricultural bonanza has yet to significantly ease poverty rates in the region's big food producers, even if it has improved state finances.

In neighboring Brazil, the world's top soybean supplier, trade revenues from farm exports have allowed the accumulation of towering foreign reserves that are serving as an insurance policy amid global financial jitters.

"Brazil has clearly benefited from strong commodities prices," said Yoshiaki Nakano, economics director at Sao Paulo's Getulio Vargas Foundation think-tank and university. "Only a few years ago, Brazil wouldn't have weathered the current global credit crisis so well."

High prices are encouraging farmers to return to land they abandoned from 2004 to 2006 when drought, crop diseases and the sharp rise of the Brazilian real against the dollar pushed many to the brink of bankruptcy.

But the race to expand the farming frontier has triggered environmental concern, especially in the Amazon. Recent satellite data showed a 13 percent jump in deforestation in the region, mostly in Brazil's No.1 soy state, Mato Grosso.

Grains-producing countries have also had to battle rising food costs for local shoppers, which have soared in tandem with greater export demand in nations where poverty rates run high.

Governments have sought to tame the price rises with a mixture of measures and success.

Some have banned exports of staple foods or imposed price caps. In Peru, potato flour is being promoted as an alternative to wheat while beef-loving Argentines were even encouraged to eat pork or chicken in the face of rising beef prices.

Brazil has restricted anti-inflation efforts to raising interest rates, but it has not been immune.

"It's just absurd," said Fernanda Prazeres, 52, a shopper out buying bread in Sao Paulo. "I may have to stop buying bread rolls at this rate."

Bread prices have risen more than 10 percent in Brazil this year, partly due to export restrictions imposed by Argentina.

CELEBRATING?

If shoppers have drawn the short straw of racing food prices, farmers should be the ones celebrating.

But Argentina's agricultural comeback has set off a bitter three-year conflict between farmers and the government, which raised export taxes on soybeans last month, a measure it says is vital to share the benefits among poor city dwellers.

President Cristina Fernandez branded the recent farm strike against the tax increase "protests of abundance," saying farmers were enjoying sky-high profits thanks to government policies such as keeping the peso weak.

She often compares the situation to that of Brazil, where soy farmers' profits are lower, largely because of the strength of the local currency against the dollar that raises their production costs and lowers earnings in local terms.

In Pergamino however, farmers are frustrated.

"I don't know what soy's done to deserve this reaction," said Roberto Campi, president of the town's branch of the Argentine Rural Society (SRA), which groups larger farmers. "The recovery of the Argentine economy, or at least the countryside, is thanks to soy."

(For previous stories, graphics, pix and video, click here)

(For pix click here#a=1)

(Reporting by Helen Popper; Additional reporting by Reese Ewing in Sao Paulo; Editing by Eddie Evans)

[Brocke]

World food crisis to last four to six more years
Thu Apr 10, 2008 12:03pm EDT

By Inae Riveras

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - High world food prices will not ease for another four to six years, when global grain production should catch up with new demand from emerging countries, a senior Brazilian farm official said.

Adoption of food products like corn and wheat to make fuels have been fingered as one of the main reasons for soaring food prices, which have provoked protests and riots and led governments to impose export restrictions and price controls.

But Brazil's former agriculture minister, sugar cane producer Roberto Rodrigues, told Reuters that although biofuels have contributed to food inflation, they've been unjustly blamed.

He argued the rise in food prices has been caused by a new demand "explosion" in emerging markets like China and India.

"It is the equilibrium between supply and demand that will solve this problem we have today. But the solution won't come soon," Rodrigues said. "It could take four, five, six years."

Demand for food is growing 4.8 percent per year on average in Asian, African and Latin American countries, while it rises 2.6 percent per year in developed markets, he said.

Moreover, crop output was severely hit by drought in the past year in Australia, Europe and South America. World corn, rice and wheat stocks have fallen dramatically, to levels 40 to 60 percent lower than seven years ago, Rodrigues said.

Food is exhibiting a similar rise in price that energy and metals have undergone in past years due to growth in consumers' disposable income in Asia and the emerging markets. But new oil or iron ore production can take 10 years to bring on line.

VILIFICATION

As one of the coordinators of the Inter-American Ethanol Commission, Rodrigues said food and oil companies have opened dual fronts from which to attack ethanol as the reason for food inflation and shortages.

"It seems there's an orchestrated effort, led in part by the U.S. food sector and the oil industry, especially in Europe," Rodrigues said.

"And this is contaminating cane-based ethanol, which doesn't have anything to do with that. I doesn't compete with food."

Rodrigues said cane planting, which has been expanding into degraded pastures, has actually boosted the planting of grains in Brazil, which are used as a rotation crop.

Brazilian ethanol is made from sugar cane, the exact same crop that makes Brazil the world's largest sugar producer and exporter. There is no shortage of sugar in the world, but the image of Brazilian ethanol has already been tainted by food inflation, he told Reuters.

"Pressure has been strong, but I don't think it will destroy the development (of a biofuel market). It will slow down the process -- actually it already has."

ENERGY

In addition to higher food consumption in the developing world, rising oil prices have led to a jump in food transport costs and fertilizer prices. In some cases they more than doubled over the past year.

But world corn, soy and wheat output will expand as high prices stimulate planting around the world.

Until that happens, biofuels should be reinforced as a priority in world energy policy, he said.

"Energy safety is as relevant nowadays as food safety was in the 20th century," Rodrigues said. "Even if oil falls back to $40, the issue now is to safeguard energy supply."

(Editing by Reese Ewing and Jim Marshall)

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN1021437020080410

[Fleahman]

thanks for posting these articles.

Your right I have not seen a commercial for donations for starving children for awhile.  I also haven't seen anything about food riots on the MSM, although, I would certainly consider food riots to be noteworthy news

[chirhonius]

Food riots to worsen without global action: U.N.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080411/wl_nm/food_fao_dc

"I am surprised that I have not been summoned to the U.N. Security Council as many of the problems being discussed there would not have the same consequences on peace, security and human rights (without the food crisis)," Diouf said.


Of course the UN will just have a couple meetings and exchange a few letters between the hundreds of pro-eugenics representatives. No no, no way INFLATION could cause something like this.

[industria]

Biofuels propelling food crisis, U.K. PM says
Driving Up Prices
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/world/story.html?id=436549

Lesley Wroughton, Reuters, with files from news services 
Published: Friday, April 11, 2008


A farmer turns hay in a field on March 30, 2008 outside the town of Hod Hasharon, central Israel. World food prices are soaring in the face of what some analysts are describing as a perfect storm of circumstances: ...

WASHINGTON - Gordon Brown, the British Prime Minister, called yesterday for a co-ordinated response led by the United Nations, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to look at the role played by biofuels in pushing up food prices.

"We need urgently to examine the impact on food prices of different kinds and production methods of biofuels and ensure that their use is responsible and sustainable," he wrote in a letter to Yasuo Fukuda, the Japanese Prime Minister, as chairman of the Group of Eight industrial nations.

Canada, the United States and other nations are encouraging the addition of fuels such as ethanol -- derived from corn, sugar cane and other food crops -- to gasoline as a way of reducing reliance on oil and damage to the environment.

The price of rice, the staple food for half the world, has doubled in the past year to an all-time high. Global food prices increased 57% last month from a year earlier, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.

The increases have touched off riots as far afield as the Philippines, Uzbekistan, Bolivia and Cameroon. Analysts blame rising fuel costs, more demand for food in wealthier Asia, the use of more farmland and crops for biofuels, bad weather and speculation on futures markets.

"For the first time in decades, the number of people facing hunger is growing," Mr. Brown writes in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters before the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) meetings in Washington this weekend.

"The international community needs a fully co-ordinated response. I would propose that you, as chair of the G8, ask the World Bank, the IMF and the UN to urgently work together to lead the development of an international strategy to address all the elements of this crisis."

Mr. Brown's letter came as the World Bank reported rising global food costs are not a temporary phenomenon and prices are likely to stay above 2004 levels until 2015 for most crops.

In the policy paper prepared for the IMF/World Bank meetings, the bank said food prices are set to stay high in 2008 and 2009, and then decline as supply and demand respond to high prices.

Robert Zoellick, the World Bank president, said he feared the higher food prices would reverse declining poverty levels in some countries. Last week, he called for a global response to tackle the food crisis.

Not everyone sees biofuel production as the culprit. Among the naysayers are the European Union and Brazil, the world's biggest ethanol exporter.

"The reasons for the price increases at the global level are numerous, but the impact of biofuels is not significant," Jose Barroso, president of the European Commission, said yesterday in Brussels.

"We have, above all, structural reasons."

The 27-nation EU aims to boost the share of biofuels in the region's transport fuel to 10% by 2020 from a planned 5.75% in 2010, part of a push to reduce reliance on fossil fuels that contribute to global warming.

"The alternative to biofuels for transport is oil, which has a very negative impact with respect to climate change," Mr. Barroso added.

"We are for sustainable biofuels."

Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the Brazilian President, also rejects any link between rising global food prices and the growth in biofuels, of which his country is the world's biggest exporter.

Speaking in the Netherlands on the first day of a state visit, he told reporters, "Don't tell me biofuels are causing inflation."

Rather he blamed changes in eating habits.

"Today there are more people who eat. The Chinese eat, the Indians eat, the Brazilians eat ... and people live longer," he said, arguing the growing number of mouths to feed is causing the inflation in food prices.

"I ask the whole world to produce more."

Roberto Rodrigues, Brazil's former agriculture minister and sugar cane producer, also believes biofuels are being unfairly singled out.

"It seems there's an orchestrated effort, led in part by the U.S. food sector and the oil industry, especially in Europe," he said.

"And this is contaminating cane-based ethanol, which doesn't have anything to do with that. It doesn't compete with food."

Brazilian ethanol is produced from sugar cane, which is not used for food, and in addition there is no shortage of sugar in the world.

Mr. Rodrigues said cane planting, which has been expanding into degraded pastures, has actually boosted the planting of grains in Brazil, which are used as a rotation crop.


Mr. Gore you are robbing Peter, paying Paul
http://globalpolitician.com/24486-environment-poverty

Iqbal Latif - 4/12/2008

More people are expected to die of famine in Africa than imprinting a larger CO2 footprint. 'Al Gore Environmental policies' are aimed at 'Robbing Peter paying Paul.' Green based priorities are creating severe food shortages. Hunger in African will kill faster and will have larger impact on the flimsy structure of the growing under class of the world.Is human life less than a computer driven theoretical reading of rising CO2 emissions? Lets not forget we all make mistakes, computer generated models are far inferior than human complex life, we owe it to our conscious to save every human being. Malthus and many others had made dire predictions, and lets not take our eye off Club of Rome predictions or even our guru Carl Sagan predicted that 1991 Kuwait oil well fires will lead South Asia to winter of death, South Asia had the best crops since then.

In a display of over enthusiasm to grow crops for biofuels to control toxic emissions a lot of agricultural land has been diverted away from food and led to severe price hikes. Robert Zoellick, World Bank's president, says that food prices have risen by 83% in the past three years. The price of wheat had risen by 120% in the past year, more than doubling the cost of a loaf of bread. Rice prices were up by 75% in just two months.

The Guardian reports that in Bangladesh a 2kg bag of rice now consumes almost half of the daily income of a poor family. With little margin for survival, rising prices too often means fewer meals, Poor people in Yemen were now spending more than a quarter of their income on bread. The Bank's analysis chimes with research from the International Monetary Fund which shows that Africa will be the hardest hit continent from rising food prices. More than 20 African countries will see their trade balance worsen by more than 1% of GDP through having to pay more for food. Robert Zoellick, the Bank's president, called on rich countries to commit an extra $500m (£250m) immediately to the World Food Programme, and sign up to what he called a "New Deal for global food policy".

The economic impact of all this cannot be overemphasized higher inflation as a result of higher food costs will lead to economic slowdowns as interest rates may have to escalated instead of being cut ( to encourage recovery) to contain food inflation, a scenario of stagflation is possible if this foolish diversion of resources in developing expensive biofuels from crops is not altered.

The hardest hit from such global economic situation will be the countries on the lowest rung of poverty ladder. Will someone put some senses to divert this whole dialog on environment on a more human footing. Environment at the cost of mass famine and fewer morsels in the mouth of those who need the most is very poor judgment. Death of a poverty stricken individual is a death of a whole generation, lets stop playing God and stop fiddling with mother nature that has created us over 13.6 billion years of complex creation from nothingness.


East Africa: High Food Prices Hamper Fight Against Poverty
http://allafrica.com/stories/200804110569.html
   
The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)
11 April 2008
Tom Mosoba

High food prices in East Africa have had a negative impact on the region's poverty alleviation efforts, a World Bank official said yesterday.

Citing Tanzania, Mr Hans Hoogeveen, a senior economist at the World Bank Tanzania country office said last year's drought, which was followed by rapid increases in food prices had hampered the country's development targets, especially reduction of child mortality and malnutrition.

"Tanzania's positive gains in reducing child mortality rates, and its fight against extreme poverty and hunger is being negated by the spiraling cost of living, fuelled by high food prices, especially among poor households. Fifty percent of children's diseases and deaths are caused by malnutrition.

The reduction in malnutrition cases among children aged below five years recorded between 1999 and 2004 has also been compromised by lack of enough food resources," he said. Mr Hans was speaking in Dar es Salaam at the official launch of the joint World Bank and International Monetary Fund global monitoring report on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The report, which was released internationally yesterday from the Bank's headquarters in Washington, US, showed that most sub-Saharan Africa countries would fall behind in attaining targets of halving poverty, cutting child and maternal mortality and raising school enrollment.

According to the report, high commodity prices, rising food and fuel costs lowered incomes among the poorest households exposed to malnutrition that contributed to high mortality rates among children.

World Bank president Mr Robert Zoellick expressed worries at the risk in most countries of falling behind the goals of reducing hunger and malnutrition, which he termed "the forgotten MDGs".

"Reducing malnutrition has a multiplier effect contributing to success in other MDGs including maternal health, infant mortality and education," he said.

The report called on African governments to adopt sustainable development, noting that most MDGs were linked to growth and environment. Climate change, the report said, would worsen food insecurity in Africa.

The EAC had not been spared by rising food prices, which experts say are being fuelled by high world fuel prices. And the warnings on soaring oil and food prices come at a time the region is also projecting serious food shortages in the near future.

Tanzania has already put some regions on food shortage alert. Authorities say up to 300,000 tonnes of maize imports would be required to meet the national food requirements over the next six months.

Already, the country has started relief food programmes in areas experiencing critical food deficits. Overall inflation also jumped to 8.9 percent in February this year, up from 6.8 last December.

Currently the food basket in Tanzania accounts for 55 percent of the consumer price index, meaning most of the inflation burden results from high food and commodity prices. In neighbouring Kenya, economist Robert Shaw this week warned of a spiraling cost of living contributed to by a projected food shortage and declining purchase power of most households.

Political trouble following disputed elections last December has also been blamed for a wide drop in food supply.


IRAQ: Hundreds forced to scavenge for food in garbage bins
http://dusteye.wordpress.com/2007/10/19/iraq-hundreds-forced-to-scavenge-for-food-in-garbage-bins/

UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs


Shish/Reuters/Corbis

BAGHDAD, 17 October 2007 (IRIN) - Barira Mihran, a 36-year-old mother of three, scavenges every day in other people’s dustbins in Baghdad for leftovers on which to feed her children.

Widowed and displaced by sectarian violence, the unemployed mother said she had no other way of providing for her children.

“In the beginning it was very difficult. I never imagined that one day I was going to be forced by destiny to feed my children from the remains of other people’s food,” Barira said. “We always had good food on our table when my husband was alive but since he was killed in August 2005, my life has gone from bad to worse.”

“My children are under age and so cannot work or beg in the streets,” she said.



"Sometimes you have to fight for a dustbin. Many women know which houses have good leftovers and so they wait for hours near the houses until the leftovers are thrown in the bins outside. Then you can see at least 10 people, women and children, running to get it, and I will be in the middle of the crowd, for sure,” Barira added.

Survey

Barira, an educated woman, has now joined hundreds of other mothers who rummage through rubbish bins for food to feed their children, according to the Baghdad-based Women’s Rights Association (WRA), which conducted a survey of displaced families and people living on the streets in 12 provinces (excluding the Kurdistan region) between January and August 2007.

Mayada Zuhair, a WRA spokeswoman, said the survey showed an increase of 25 percent, since the previous survey in December 2005, in the number of mothers who fed their children either by scavenging in people’s rubbish bins or by becoming sex workers. Of the 3,572 respondents, 72 percent were women (mainly widowed) and of these 9 percent said they had resorted to prostitution and 17 percent said they scavenged for food in dustbins and at rubbish tips. The survey was published and distributed to non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and local government offices.

“This is now a common sight, especially in Baghdad - mothers standing near dustbins trying to find some food for their children,” Mayada said.

Government food rations

Government monthly food rations - including rice, beans, lentils, flour and cooking oil - are in principle available to Iraqi families regardless of income, on production of proof of citizenship and a fixed address.

The system was introduced by former President Saddam Hussein to offset the impact of sanctions and paid for by Iraqi oil under UN administration. The system is currently reaching only 60 percent of its target, and quality and quantities are in decline, Iraqi officials say.

Those without identity papers have particular problems: Mayada said many families have lost their documents, which means they cannot access the rations.

“The women who feed their children from leftovers have lost everything - homes, husbands, relatives, documents and respect,” Mayada added.

“Women require urgent support but few NGOs are able to help and these street children are suffering from diarrhoea, malnutrition and some are starving,” Mayada said.

Zahra’a Abdel-Lattef, a senior official at the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, said there were no projects helping such families: “Some mothers approach us for help and we do whatever we can. We try to give some of them new food ration cards; to others we offer mattresses and blankets and in a few cases we are able to find [them] a job,” she said.



According to the local police, many homeless women, walking around with their children on the streets of the capital, are victims of violence.

“We have some cases of women who were raped, and their children attacked and sometimes even killed while out looking for food or a place to spend the night,” Col Hassan Abdul-Khaaliq, head of Bab-al-Muadham police station in Baghdad, said.

“They need a safe place to stay because the streets in Iraq are very dangerous today and walking alone at night… leaves them open to attack by militants or insurgents,” Abdul-Khaaliq said.

[David Rothscum]

People, please buy a lot of food, something rich in energy that you can store for at least a year. I strongly doubt the idea most westerners seem to have that this'll be limited to the poor in the 3rd world. Your government doesn't care more about it's serfs in the US and Europe than it does about it's slaves in Africa and India. Also, please remember who are responsible for this. The grain that has been turned into biofuels in the US alone in the last two years would have fed 250 million people: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/apr/05/food.biofuels
That's genocide under the disguise of environmentalism and you have to know who did this.
Bill Gates, son of eugenicist William H Gates, who donates billions of dollar to population control has invested in the biofuel bussiness:
http://money.cnn.com/2006/04/24/news/newsmakers/gates_ethanol/index.htm?section=money_latest
Ted Turner and Rockefeller IV have also both been encouraging biofuel production.
Rockefeller:

On global warming and energy issues, I’m glad the President has decided to move the debate forward by talking about potential solutions.  But, I’m also reminded that the President declared last year ‘America is addicted to oil’ yet his statement was not followed by substantial action.  Not enough has been invested in domestic alternative fuels, including transportation fuels derived from our abundant supply of domestic coal.  The President must follow through on his pledge tonight to expand ethanol use and he should call for action to increase biofuel production from sources other than corn.  I appreciate his call for tougher fuel standards, however, he already has all the authority he needs to increase fuel economy.

http://www.senate.gov/~rockefeller/news/2007/pr012307.html
Ted Turner:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/5377652.stm
This same man wants to see the world's population reduced by 95%, and is the United States biggest private landowner. Just a while ago he said that people will resort to cannibalism because of starvation caused by Global Warming. That's a self fulfilling prophecy.

Turner and his billionaire buddies are the ones causing starvation here, and there's no doubt in my mind that they know it. If you're involved with "philantropy" and are smart enough to create a monopoly in media or software there's no doubt in my mind that you can figure out that the food you're turning into fuel could be put to better use by feeding starving 5 year old's in Africa.

The current crisis they've created doesn't appear to be easily reversible. The World Bank (another depopulation front) says prices will remain this high for the coming years. Whether that's true or not, children are always the first to suffer from a famine, and even if they don't directly starve the effects are terrible.

It's been proven that people who grew up malnutrated have lower IQ's and are shorter than those who grew up getting enough nutrition. That's one of the reasons tyrants always keep their slaves malnutrated, they'll be more easily managable. It's happening again now. Don't let them get away with this, make these murderers suffer for what they've done.

[chris jones]

=PaladinRoden

With over population and low investment in society (infrustructor, education, job development) you get situations like these. I believe in End Game but one has to admit that this situation was bound to happen with the world population getting so big so fast. Many factors play into world hunger and one can't ignor that over population and lack of investment into society plays the biggest role. It happens in the animal kingdom, what makes you think humans are immune to such situations. We are not....
[/quote]
The world population, the numbers are scary, sure. OK, what have we done about it in a positive sence? Has this hit the new only recently, the past few years. Another woe on top of another, its coming at us from all directions. I'm not avoiding the reality that the world population is growing, nor that it is doing so at a frightning rate.
First, the scientific community given the proper funding could begin solutions without murdering people. If the money spent on war to be used for irrigation, sewarage control recycling of materials, inhabiting areas that are barren of human life. Farming and livestock production given a key to expand. Research of water supplies and containment, I beleive at this present time there is no need for hunger on this planet.
South America alone could be the supermarket of the world.
What I see going on is a plan to keep people in a state of confusion and of fear, the price of gas equals the price of transport, if gas prices were not atronimical the price of food would not have risen, panic would not have set in. I would much rather see alternative fuel sources, real ones, eliminating fossil fuel usage. We have them, inventors and scientists have made them, the problem is they were paid off by oil barons or killed. They are kings and intend on staying that way. To add there is no oil shortage, the past three years we have found deposits that outweigh anything of the past.
So whats realy going on here, I hope folks do not beleive we need to murder off a few billion for the sake of survival, because thats not true. The money spent on the abomination in Iraq could solve your fears if it had been used in a positive manner.
The elite would enjoy that, more genocide and extermination,  the less people to control, the more power over the peons. But no, if we used our strenght and might for positive purposes, no worry at present. As for the animal kingdom, I have a feeling mankind may have had something to do with that.
It is not at this point in time overpopulation, it is misuse of money for  positive solutions.
A budy of mine an Egyptian, told that when it showers in the desert, the ground is filled with small flowers for a short time. Interesting, ya know.
Thanks Paledin. and ya know if this country gets it together, we may see the day where hunger is an unknown. Let us hope that we can end the genocide, put the criminals in jail or hang them for treason, and use this money for the good of mankind rather than the destruction.
That is the last thing the power want to see happen. They will most certainly and subliminaly push the world population slant for their own reasons.

[David Rothscum]

=PaladinRoden

With over population and low investment in society (infrustructor, education, job development) you get situations like these. I believe in End Game but one has to admit that this situation was bound to happen with the world population getting so big so fast. Many factors play into world hunger and one can't ignor that over population and lack of investment into society plays the biggest role. It happens in the animal kingdom, what makes you think humans are immune to such situations. We are not....

The world population, the numbers are scary, sure. OK, what have we done about it in a positive sence? Has this hit the new only recently, the past few years. Another woe on top of another, its coming at us from all directions. I'm not avoiding the reality that the world population is growing, nor that it is doing so at a frightning rate.
First, the scientific community given the proper funding could begin solutions without murdering people. If the money spent on war to be used for irrigation, sewarage control recycling of materials, inhabiting areas that are barren of human life. Farming and livestock production given a key to expand. Research of water supplies and containment, I beleive at this present time there is no need for hunger on this planet.
South America alone could be the supermarket of the world.
What I see going on is a plan to keep people in a state of confusion and of fear, the price of gas equals the price of transport, if gas prices were not atronimical the price of food would not have risen, panic would not have set in. I would much rather see alternative fuel sources, real ones, eliminating fossil fuel usage. We have them, inventors and scientists have made them, the problem is they were paid off by oil barons or killed. They are kings and intend on staying that way. To add there is no oil shortage, the past three years we have found deposits that outweigh anything of the past.
So whats realy going on here, I hope folks do not beleive we need to murder off a few billion for the sake of survival, because thats not true. The money spent on the abomination in Iraq could solve your fears if it had been used in a positive manner.
The elite would enjoy that, more genocide and extermination,  the less people to control, the more power over the peons. But no, if we used our strenght and might for positive purposes, no worry at present. As for the animal kingdom, I have a feeling mankind may have had something to do with that.
It is not at this point in time overpopulation, it is misuse of money for  positive solutions.
A budy of mine an Egyptian, told that when it showers in the desert, the ground is filled with small flowers for a short time. Interesting, ya know.
Thanks Paledin. and ya know if this country gets it together, we may see the day where hunger is an unknown. Let us hope that we can end the genocide, put the criminals in jail or hang them for treason, and use this money for the good of mankind rather than the destruction.
That is the last thing the power want to see happen. They will most certainly and subliminaly push the world population slant for their own reasons.

Hear hear!!!

[industria]

Haiti's government falls after food riots
http://www.reuters.com/article/homepageCrisis/idUSN12217781._CH_.2400

PORT-AU-PRINCE, April 12 (Reuters) - Haiti's government fell on Saturday when senators fired the prime minister after more than a week of riots over food prices, ignoring a plan presented by the president to slash the cost of rice.

Sixteen of 17 senators at a special session voted against Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis, an ally President Rene Preval placed at the head of a coalition cabinet in June 2006 that was meant to unite the fractious Caribbean nation.

The move by opposition senators was seen as a serious but not crushing blow to Preval, whose 2006 election brought a measure of calm to the poorest country in the Americas as it searched for political stability after decades of dictatorship, military rule and economic mayhem.

The clash with senators came after the president of the country of 9 million people -- most of whom earn less than $2 a day -- managed to persuade rioters to end a week of violence in which at least five people were killed.

Stone-throwing crowds began battling U.N. peacekeepers and Haitian police in the south on April 2, enraged at the soaring cost of rice, beans, cooking oil and other staples.

The unrest spread this week to the capital, Port-au-Prince, bringing the sprawling and chaotic city to a halt as mobs took over the streets, smashing windows, looting shops, setting fire to cars and hurling rocks at motorists.

U.N. troops, stationed in Haiti since Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted as president in a revolt in 2004, fired tear gas and rubber bullets on several occasions to disperse protesters.

On Saturday a Nigerian U.N. peacekeeper was shot to death near the main Catholic cathedral in downtown Port-au-Prince, close to the large and often violent slum of Bel-Air, a Haitian police officer and U.N. commander said.

The circumstances of the shooting were unclear and the city appeared largely tranquil. Three Sri Lankan peacekeepers were struck by bullets on Thursday but were not seriously injured.

MANY HAITIANS WELCOME OUSTER

"Now it's my turn to play," Preval said when he was told by journalists of the Senate vote shortly after he and private sector leaders unveiled a plan to cut the cost of a sack of rice to $43 from $51.

Three dollars of the price cut would be paid for by businesses and the rest by international donors, he said.

Preval said he would ask parliament to pick a new prime minister. Alexis was seen as a pragmatist and dealmaker, and also served as prime minister during Preval's first term as president from 1996 to 2001.

Many Haitians seemed to welcome the ouster of Alexis.

"When he was prime minister, he did nothing to lower the high cost of living. I hope things will change with a new prime minister," said Jean Pierre Jean-Baptiste, 29, an electrician.

Sen. Youri Latortue, a nephew of a former prime minister and leader of Saturday's vote, said Alexis had failed to ramp up food production, protect people against crime, heed calls to establish a new national security force and set a deadline for the U.N. troops to leave.

'EVERYONE HAS TO MAKE A SACRIFICE'

Disturbances over high food prices have broken out in several poor countries, primarily in Africa. Record oil prices, rising demand for food in Asia, the use of farmland and crops for biofuels and other factors such as market speculation have pushed up food prices worldwide.

"The situation is difficult everywhere around the world, everyone has to make a sacrifice," Preval said on Saturday as he announced the plan to cut rice prices in a room adorned with crystal chandeliers and thick drapes at the National Palace.

Preval reiterated that Haiti could not afford to cut taxes on food because it needed the revenue to pay for longer-term projects that create jobs and boost agriculture.

It was unclear whether the price cut would satisfy protesters.

"It has not been lowered enough," said a young man who identified himself only as Givens. "If they don't further lower the price I think people are going to protest more. There will be problems, more unrest. Even the National Palace could be set on fire because we are in trouble." (Additional reporting by Jean Valme; Writing by Michael Christie; Editing by Xavier Briand) (For more stories on global food price rises, please see here)

[industria]

Strauss-Kahn Warns Food-Price Inflation May Trigger Starvation
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601116&sid=aIFgkr_Mr6wA&refer=africa

By Christopher Swann

April 12 (Bloomberg) -- Further gains in food prices would be ``terrible'' for the world's poor and throw hundreds of thousands of them into starvation, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said.

Governments throughout Asia, Africa and the Middle East are seeking to combat food inflation and avoid social unrest by curbing exports or lifting import duties on basic food staples such as rice. Global food prices surged 57 percent last month from a year earlier, according to the United Nations, and the World Bank warns civil disturbances may be triggered in 33 countries.

If food inflation keeps accelerating at its current rate ``the consequences will be terrible,'' Strauss-Kahn told reporters at the IMF's semi-annual meeting in Washington today. ``Hundreds of thousands of people will be starving, leading to a disruption in the economic environment.''

Haitian Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis was voted out of office by the country's senate today after violent protests over rising food prices, news agencies reported today.

President Rene Preval, who called the no-confidence vote ``unjust,'' announced a 15 percent cut in the price of rice, which had doubled this week to $70 for a 50-kilogram (110-pound) bag, Agence France-Presse reported. No replacement for Alexis was announced.

Price Outlook

Consumer-price inflation in poor or so-called developing countries will accelerate this year to 7.4 percent, compared with a January forecast of 6.4 percent, the IMF said this week. Food prices will probably remain comparatively high until at least 2015, the World Bank said in a separate report.

``Economic progress made over the last years could be destroyed,'' Strauss-Kahn said.

Rice, the staple food for half the world, has surged 96 percent in the past year, reaching a record $21.60 per 100 pounds on April 8. That's forced China, Egypt, Vietnam and India, which export more than a third of the world's rice, to curb shipments of the grain. Argentina and Russia have also sought to discourage food exports in a bid to boost domestic supplies.



IMF head gives food price warning
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7344892.stm

The head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned that hundreds of thousands of people will face starvation if food prices keep rising.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn said that social unrest from continuing food price inflation could cause conflict.

There have been food riots recently in a number of countries, including Haiti, the Philippines and Egypt.

Meeting in Washington, the IMF called for strong action on food prices and the international financial crisis.

Market turmoil

Although the problems in global credit markets were the main focus of the meeting of the IMF's steering committee of finance ministers from 24 countries, Mr Strauss-Kahn warned of dire consequences from continued food price rises.

"Thousands, hundreds of thousands of people will be starving. Children will be suffering from malnutrition, with consequences for all their lives," he told reporters.

He said the problem could lead to trade imbalances that may eventually affect developed nations, "so it is not only a humanitarian question".

Food prices have risen sharply in recent months, driven by increased demand, poor weather in some countries and an increase in the use of land to grow crops for transport fuels.

The steering committee also called for "strong action" among its 185 members to deal with "the still unfolding financial market turmoil and... the potential worsening" of housing markets and the credit crunch.

The finance ministers did not dissent from the IMF's previous forecast that only a moderate slowdown in world economic growth is the most likely outcome over the next year or two.

[andy1033]

I also haven't seen anything about food riots on the MSM, although, I would certainly consider food riots to be noteworthy news

As with everything, it all depends on how far our rulers want it to go. Considering gm food thing, we can take it that our rulers do not give a shit.

[bigron]

Why Costs Are Climbing

As food prices surge, starvation looms for millions. Experts call for emergency action but admit there's no quick fix

By Eric Reguly
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080410.wfood0411/BNStory/International/home?pageRequested=all&print=true

12/04/08 "Globe and Mail" -- -ROME — Fatal food riots in Haiti. Violent food-price protests in Egypt and Ivory Coast. Rice so valuable it is transported in armoured convoys. Soldiers guarding fields and warehouses. Export bans to keep local populations from starving.

For the first time in decades, the spectre of widespread hunger for millions looms as food prices explode. Two words not in common currency in recent years — famine and starvation — are now being raised as distinct possibilities in the poorest, food-importing countries.

Unlike past food crises, solved largely by throwing aid at hungry stomachs and boosting agricultural productivity, this one won't go away quickly, experts say. Prices are soaring and stand every chance of staying high because this crisis is different.

A swelling global population, soaring energy prices, the clamouring for meat from the rising Asian middle class, competition from biofuels and hot money pouring into the commodity markets are all factors that make this crisis unique and potentially calamitous. Even with concerted global action, such as rushing more land into cultivation, it will take years to fix the problem.

The price increases and food shortages have been nothing short of shocking. In February, stockpiles of wheat hit a 60-year low in the United States as prices soared. Almost all other commodities, from rice and soybeans to sugar and corn, have posted triple-digit price increases in the past year or two.

Yesterday in Rome, Jacques Diouf, director-general of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, said the cereal-import bill for the poorest countries is expected to rise 56 per cent this year, on top of the 37 per cent recorded last year. "There is certainly a risk of [people] dying of starvation" unless urgent action is taken, he said. "I am surprised I have not been summoned to the Security Council to discuss these issues."

The UN's donor countries, he said, need to come up with as much as $1.7-billion (U.S.) to implement quick-fix food programs, such as topping up the World Food Programme, whose emergency food-buying power has been clobbered by the rising prices. Its budget shortfall, the difference between the food it intended to buy and can now afford, is $500-million.

Other UN officials have been equally blunt. Sir John Holmes, the UN's top humanitarian official and emergency relief co-ordinator, said this week that soaring food prices threaten political stability. The UN and national governments are especially worried about potentially violent situations in Africa's increasingly crowded urban areas. Rioting triggered by absent or unaffordable food could cripple cities. "The security implications should not be underestimated as food riots are being reported across the globe," Mr. Holmes said.

Nigeria's Kanayo Nwanze, vice-president of the UN's International Fund for Agricultural Development, sees no short-term fix. "I wouldn't be surprised if there is an escalation of food riots in the next few months," he said. "It could lead to famine in certain parts of Africa if the international community and local governments do not put emergency actions into place."

And it's not just the UN that thinks so. Independent analysts, economists and agriculture consultants say the term most often used to describe the food prices and shortages — crisis — is not hyperbole.

How did it come to this? Surging food prices, now at 30-year highs, are actually a relatively new phenomenon. In the mid-1970s, prices began to fall as the green revolution around the world made farms dramatically more productive, thanks to improvements in irrigation and the widespread use of fertilizers, mechanized farm equipment and genetically engineered crops. If there was a crisis, it was food surpluses — too much food chasing too few stomachs — and dropping produce prices had often disastrous effects on farm incomes.

By 2001, the surpluses began to shrink and prices reversed. In the past year or so, the price curve has gone nearly vertical. The UN's food index rose 45 per cent in the past nine months alone, but some prices have climbed even faster. Wheat went up 108 per cent in the past 12 months; corn rose 66 per cent. Rice, the food that feeds half the world, went "from a staple to a delicacy," says Standard Chartered Bank food commodities analyst Abah Ofon.

The price of Thai medium-quality rice, a global benchmark, has more than doubled since the end of 2007. This week it reached a record $854 a tonne, which helps explain why World Food Programme trucks carrying rice in certain parts of Africa have come under attack.

Food prices in the first three months of 2008 reached their highest level in both nominal and real (inflation adjusted) terms in almost 30 years, the UN says. That's stoking double-digit inflation and prompting countries such as Egypt, Vietnam and India to eliminate or substantially reduce rice exports to keep a lid on prices and prevent rioting. But, by reducing global supply, this only increases prices for food-importing countries, many of them in West Africa.

Throughout history, the world has seen food shortages and famines triggered by drought, war, pestilence, crop failures and regional overpopulation. In the Chinese famine between 1958 and 1961, an estimated 30 million people died from malnutrition. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, severe food shortages hit India and parts of southeast Asia. Only the emergency shipment of hundreds of thousands of tonnes of grain from the U.S. prevented a humanitarian disaster. Drought, violent conflict, economic incompetence, misfortune and corruption created deadly famines in Ethiopia and Sudan in the first half of the 1980s.

In each case, the food shortages were alleviated through emergency aid or investment in farming and crop productivity. While no one so far is dying of hunger in this latest crisis, the UN and agriculture experts predict years of pain, at best, and severe shortages, possibly famine in the worst-hit countries. The reason: High prices are likely to persist for years.

Swelling population explains only part of the problem. The world's population, estimated at 6.6 billion, has doubled since 1965. But population growth rates are falling and, theoretically, there is enough food to feed everyone on the planet, said Peter Hazell, a British agriculture economist and a former World Bank principal economist.

Why millions may go hungry, he said, is because prices are so high, food is becoming unaffordable in some parts of the world.

The "rural poor" (to use the UN's term) in Burkina Faso, Niger, Somalia, Senegal, Cameroon and some other African countries exist on the equivalent of $1 a day or less. As much as 70 per cent of that meagre income goes to food purchases, compared with about 15 per cent in the U.S. and Canada. As prices, but not incomes, rise, the point may be reached where food portions shrink or meals are skipped. Malnutrition sets in.

The dramatic price rises have been driven by factors absent in previous food shortages.

They include turning food into fuel, climate change, high oil and natural gas prices (which boost trucking and fertilizer costs), greater consumption of meat and dairy products as incomes rise (which raises the demand for animal feedstuffs), and investment funds, whose billions of dollars of firepower can magnify price increases.

Driven by fears of global warming, biofuel has become big business in the U.S., Canada and the European Union. The incentive to produce the fuels is overwhelming because they are subsidized by taxpayers and, depending on the country or the region, come with content mandates.

Starting next week, Britain will require gasoline and diesel sold at the pumps be mixed with 2.5-per-cent biofuel, rising to 5.75 per cent by 2010 and 10 per cent by 2020, in line with European Union directives. Ontario's ethanol-content mandate is 5 per cent. As the content requirements rise, more and more land is devoted to growing crops for fuel, such as corn-based ethanol. In the EU alone, 15 per cent of the arable land is expected to be devoured by biofuel production by 2020.

That's raising alarm bells, especially given lingering doubts about the effectiveness of ethanol in combatting climate change. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said this week he's worried that ethanol production is pushing up food prices everywhere, and he called for an urgent review of the issue. Economist Dr. Hazell has said that filling an SUV tank once with ethanol consumes more maize than the typical African eats in a year.

Rising ethanol demand is one of the main reasons why Wall Street securities firm Goldman Sachs predicts high food prices for a long time. "We believe the recent rise in agriculture prices is not a transient spike, but rather represents the beginning of a structural increase in prices, much as has occurred in the energy and metals markets," Jeffrey Currie, Goldman's chief commodities analyst, said in a research note last month.

Severe weather has clobbered crop production among some big exporting countries. Drought in Australia, the third largest wheat exporter after the U.S. and Canada, has pushed wheat production down by half since the 2005-06 crop year. Statistics Canada said Canadian wheat production fell 20.6 per last year. Exports, as a result, are expected to fall by six million tonnes in the 2007-08 year.

While Australia and Canada could bounce back in the next season or the season after, depending on temperatures and rainfall, rising global temperatures do not bode well for agriculture in many parts of the world.

The UN has predicted that climate change could reduce production in developing countries by 9 to 21 per cent by 2080 and that sub-Saharan Africa could lose more than 30 per cent of its main crop, maize. Southern Asia, it said, could see millet, maize and rice production fall by 10 per cent. The challenge is to offset the losses with higher crop yields on arable land less affected by climate change.

Mr. Ofon, of Standard Chartered Bank, said rising demand in the face of production shortfalls does not fully explain the dramatic price increases. Investors are the other driver. They have discovered they can make money from food commodities as easily as they can in oil, gold or nickel. "Fund money flowing into agriculture has boosted prices," he said. "It's fashionable. This is the year of agricultural commodities."

But Mr. Currie of Goldman Sachs dismisses the theory that funds are pushing prices higher than they would be otherwise, though the funds can make prices rise and fall quickly in the short term. "The simple truth is that the funds don't take delivery of the commodity," he said in an interview. "Therefore they cannot sit on them and put them in silos. Therefore they can't affect prices over the long term."

In other words, the rally in food prices is being caused by demand exceeding production, resulting in dwindling food stockpiles. UN's International Fund for Agricultural Development, for one, assumes prices will stay high for as long as 10 years.

Agriculture economists and the UN have not lost all hope. New irrigation systems are inevitable in Africa and have the potential to boost crop production dramatically. Ditto for the use of fertilizers. Only three to five kilos of fertilizer per hectare is used in Africa, compared with about 250 kilos in the U.S. The problem with using more fertilizer is cost. Fertilizers such as urea are derived from natural gas, and gas prices have climbed, too. The price of urea has almost tripled since 2003, to $400 a tonne.

Dr. Hazell said some big countries, notably the U.S., Canada and Ukraine, have the capacity to increase crop production substantially. Already world cereal production is on the rise, although not nearly fast enough to end the crisis. The Food and Agriculture Organization yesterday forecast a 2.6-per-cent rise in cereal production in 2008.

Cutting back on ethanol production alone would go some way to restoring supply-demand balance in the food markets. "If we decide to do something about it, we can just use less food for fuel," he said.

But everyone — analysts, economists, agriculture experts, the UN — thinks all bets are off in the next two or three years. It's almost impossible to boost production quickly, because of land and water shortages and competition from biofuels.

"I can say with some degree of confidence that if governments and international development agencies do not put in place a concerted effort quickly, then we are looking at a very serious problem," Mr. Nwanze said.

[bigron]

Let Them Eat Ethanol!


By Sharon Smith
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/04/let-them-eat-ethanol/

12/04/08 "Dissident Voice ' --- Wall Street millionaires have spent months mourning their losses from once ridiculously over-valued investments. Yet these same free market cheerleaders remain blissfully unaware of the magnitude of the crisis facing the real victims of the unfolding global meltdown they so enthusiastically enabled.
For the three billion people who survive on less than two dollars a day, the upward spiral in global food prices has meant a struggle for the most basic of human rights—the right to eat. Rice, bread and tortillas are the staple food for this half of the world’s population. In 2007, the price of grain rose by 42 per cent, and dairy products by 80 per cent, according to UN figures, and food inflation has accelerated further in recent months.

As the Observer noted on April 6, “A global rice shortage that has seen prices of one of the world’s most important staple foods increase by 50 per cent in the past two weeks alone is triggering an international crisis.” In recent weeks, mass hunger has spawned violent rioting in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Egypt, Indonesia, Ivory Coast, Mauritania, Mozambique, Senegal and Haiti.

Six straight days of rioting rocked Haiti this past week. Haiti is the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere, where 80 percent of the population lives on less than $2 per day and the typical adult diet consists of just 1,640 calories—640 calories less than the average adult requirement—according to the World Food Program. Haitians have grown tired of subsisting on what has become the common diet: clay, salt and vegetable shortening. “Protesters compared the burning hunger in their stomachs to bleach or battery acid,” noted the Guardian on April 9.

On April 4, thousands of angry Haitians protested in the southern city of Les Cayes, attempting to set the UN police base on fire while stealing rice from trucks. The rioting soon spread to Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, where thousands stormed the presidential palace demanding the resignation of the U.S.’ hand picked president, Rene Preval. Fortunately for Preval, UN “peacekeepers” eventually managed to disburse the starving masses with tear gas and rubber bullets. Their brutal suppression perhaps prevented Preval from meeting the same fate as Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier, the U.S.-backed dictator overthrown by a popular rebellion in 1986.

Preval has done nothing to stabilize skyrocketing food prices or to assist those on the brink of starvation—and he made clear in a televised speech on April 9 that he has no intention of doing so now. In a Marie Antoinette moment, Preval scolded Haitian citizens, “The demonstrations and destruction won’t make the prices go down or resolve the country’s problems. On the contrary, this can make the misery grow and prevent investment in the country.”

***

In Egypt, where protests and strikes are illegal, thousands of textile workers and supporters in Mahalla el-Kobra rioted against high food prices and low wages on April 6 and 7. Police occupied the state-owned Misr Spinning and Weaving plant overnight to prevent workers from going on strike as they had planned, but protesters responded by setting buildings on fire and throwing bricks at police tear-gassing them. Police repression did not succeed in frightening these protesters but rather only further fueled their anger.

Roughly forty percent of Egyptians survive on less than $2 per day, while the price of unsubsidized bread rose by 10 times in recent months and the cost of rice doubled in a single week. The national minimum wage has remained unchanged since 1984, at 115 Egyptian pounds per month. The Mahallah workers have called for a national minimum wage of 1,200 pounds per month—which would still leave a family of four living under the poverty level of $2 per day.

This week’s rioting in Mahalla is the latest episode in the rising class struggle now reaching deep inside Egypt’s working class. Middle East Report editor Joel Beinin argued of the growing strike movement, “This is potentially the broadest-based gathering of dissent the Mubarak regime has ever faced. The combination of repression, apathy and political demobilization that has sustained autocracy in Egypt for over half a century is being forcefully challenged, making it increasingly difficult for the Mubarak regime, if not its capitalist cronies, to conduct business as usual.” Indeed, Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif rushed to Mahallah on April 8 to announce he is granting the workers a 30-day salary bonus and will address their demands on healthcare and wages.

***

Hunger is also rising in the U.S. The unregulated greed unleashed over thirty years of neoliberalism that wreaked havoc on the world’s poorest countries is now exposing the class divide in the world’s richest. It can no longer be claimed that all of those residing in the global North gain prosperity at the expense of the global South.

To be sure, growing hunger in America has only earned passing reference from U.S. media outlets, which still largely take their cue from Wall St. and the White House. On April 7, for example, Tribune Newspapers preposterously featured an article on the plight of that tiny slice of Americans now curbing their exorbitant spending habits. The article feature a down-on-her-luck mortgage broker forced to forego the Botox treatments for which she once regularly dropped $1,800. “I would rather have Botox than go out to dinner,” the woman told reporters—who reported it without irony.

Food inflation in the U.S. has reached a level not seen in decades, with food staples like milk rising 17 percent over the last year, rice, pasta and bread rising over 12 percent and eggs increasing by 25 percent. As job losses mount in the current recession, an unprecedented 28 million Americans are expected to receive food stamps to survive this year. One in six people in West Virginia, and one in ten in Ohio and New York, are now relying on food stamps to survive. And one in three children in Oklahoma have been on food stamps at some time in the last year.

Food stamp “entitlements” are far from generous in the world’s most affluent society, and it safe to say that most people suffering from rising food prices do not qualify for help. According to guidelines posted on the USDA’s website, a family of four is eligible to receive food stamps only if their net monthly income is at or below $1,721. This same family of four is then entitled to a maximum monthly food stamp allotment of $542—the same amount as in 1996. The average subsidy amounts to roughly $1 per meal per person. And 800,000 mostly elderly and disabled food stamp recipients currently receive the minimum benefit of a mere $10 per month, according to the New York Times.

***

Mainstream economists have usually described the global food crisis as a food “shortage”, but the shortage has been greatly exacerbated by the merciless laws of the free market. In many cases, the problem is not an immediate shortage of food but merely a shortage of the money to pay for it. World Food Program Executive Director Josette Sheeran recently remarked about Sub-Saharan Africa, “We are seeing more urban hunger than ever before. Often we are seeing food on the shelves but people being unable to afford it.”

The agricultural/food business is now the second most profitable industry in the world, lagging only behind pharmaceuticals. Indeed the automaker Mitsubishi, which also controls the second largest bank in the world, has become one of the world’s largest beef processors, demonstrating the degree to which capital has flocked to the agribusiness sector. The World Bank’s World Development Report 2008 heaped approval on the role of agribusiness, commenting, “The private agri-business sector has become more vibrant. New, powerful actors have entered agricultural value chains and have an economic interest in a dynamic and prosperous agricultural sector and a voice in political affairs.”

But just as agribusiness wiped out small U.S. farmers in the 1980s, it has repeated this pattern around the world ever since. As global justice activist Vandana Shiva wrote in 2006, in India “without market regulation agribusiness corporations will make profits selling costly seeds, buying cheap farm produce, and locking farmers in debt. This has been the process by which the small family farmer has disappeared in U.S.A, Argentina, Europe.”

Now the law of supply and demand has dictated that the new market for biofuels should reduce the production of corn for food by 25 percent in the U.S.–triggering a manmade shortage and a rise in corn prices. Speculators have been hoarding crops on the expectation that prices will rise further. Meanwhile, investors around the world have been fleeing the falling dollar to buy up commodities such as rice and wheat, adding to the speculative momentum and forcing staple prices higher for the world’s poorest people.

The neoliberal agenda long ago lost its shine for the vast majority of the world’s population, although its most earnest proponents have been the last to recognize this stubborn reality. The most recent World Economic Outlook, published by the IMF last fall, did note rising inequality in the richest countries: “Among the largest advanced countries, inequality appears to have declined only in France… The recent experience (of increasing inequality) seems to be clear change in the course from the general decline in inequality in the first half of the 20th century.”

Yet the IMF remained optimistic about the future of neoliberalism: “from 2002 to the present, the world economy has enjoyed its strongest period of sustained growth since the late 1960s and early 1970s, while inflation has remained at low levels. Not only has recent global growth been high but expansion has also been broadly shared across countries. The volatility of growth has fallen.”

In recent weeks, neoliberal policymakers appear to have finally realized that widespread hunger could ignite a level of protest that threatens the ruling order worldwide. World Bank president Robert Zoellick recently worried on the organization’s website, “33 countries around the world face potential social unrest because of the acute hike in food and energy prices.”

Perhaps these out-of-touch policy wonks should suggest that the world’s poor start eating ethanol, in keeping with their long-standing bourgeois tradition. And U.S. workers now teetering into the neoliberal abyss should consider following their brothers and sisters around the world in fighting back.

[bigron]

Castro and Chávez Attack US Backing For Biofuels

Leaders say diverting crops for fuel starves poor

By Rory Carroll
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19730.htm

13/04/08 "ICH"  -- - Cuba and Venezuela have launched an offensive against biofuels, warning that the US-backed rush towards ethanol will worsen global hunger and poverty.

Fidel Castro has written two newspaper articles in a week voicing alarm at the prospect of countries boosting sugar and corn crops to make ethanol, a fuel that can be used an additive or a substitute for petrol.

By diverting crops to feed cars rather than people, the price of food would rise and the world's poor would go hungry, Mr Castro wrote in the Communist party's official newspaper, Granma.

The columns marked an unexpected return to international policy debate after an eight-month convalescence that forced the 80-year-old president to cede day-to-day control to his brother, Raul.

Mr Castro's ally, the Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, also attacked biofuels in a sharp U-turn that put the two leaders shoulder to shoulder against Brazil and the US, the two big ethanol champions.

Until recently, Cuba and Venezuela were enthusiastic about the fuel and with Brazil's help planned to jointly build sugar mills and ethanol plants, hitching the Caribbean to the "green" fuel bandwagon.

That changed after the US president, George Bush, touted his support for ethanol during a tour of Latin America last month that clinched an ethanol deal with Brazil's president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. The men followed up last week with a meeting at Camp David.

Washington, a foe of Mr Chávez and Mr Castro, has promoted home-grown corn-based ethanol as well as the sugar-based variety produced in Brazil and tropical countries as a way to reduce US dependency on oil. Biofuels are also perceived to be less environmentally damaging.

However critics say the fuel, especially the corn-based variety, is far less green than it appears and that converting swaths of land to provide fuel for cars would push up prices of food crops and meat, since animals eat corn. In the wake of Mr Bush's tour, Mr Castro echoed those arguments. A recent column said 3 billion people would die prematurely of hunger and thirst. "Where are the poor countries of the third world going to get the minimum resources to survive? This isn't an exaggerated number; it is actually cautious." He made a polite but pointed criticism of Brazil.

Mr Chávez also expressed dismay. "When you fill a vehicle's tank with ethanol, you are filling it with energy for which land and water enough to feed seven people have been used." It was unclear whether Venezuela's mooted sugar mills and ethanol plants would go ahead.

Brazil brushed aside the criticism and on Wednesday its state oil firm, Petrobras, signed a biofuel deal with Ecuador's state oil firm, Petroecuador. The issue may cloud a meeting scheduled next week between Mr da Silva and Mr Chávez.

Cuba and Venezuela are joining an unlikely alliance including anti-poverty campaigners, environmentalists, economists and scientists. The Economist, offended by Washington's ethanol subsidies, said it seldom found itself agreeing with Mr Castro. "But when he roused himself from his sickbed last week to write an article criticising George Bush's unhealthy enthusiasm for ethanol, he had a point."

[Nailer]

Here is a link to a map of where food riots are taking place lately. Its getting bad and sad  as people try to feed their famalies and cant.



http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/news/2008/04/food_riots.html
Food riots
A map of where there have been food riots.
April 9, 2008 12:34 PM
Today, the flash point is Egypt (where the cost of food has doubled in a year) but last year Italians marched in protest at the cost of pasta and Moroccans over the price of bread.

The more recent protests include riots in Haiti last week that killed four people; violent protests in Ivory Coast; price riots in Cameroon in February that left 40 people dead; demonstrations in Mauritania, Mozambique, Senegal, Uzbekistan, Yemen, Bolivia and Indonesia.

We've plotted them... but if we have missed any out, please let us know.

[bigron]

More than three billion people condemned to premature death from hunger and thirst

By Fidel Castro

http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2007/marzo/juev29/14reflex.html

143/04/08 "Granma " -- - THAT is not an exaggerated figure, but rather a cautious one. I have meditated a lot on that in the wake of President Bush’s meeting with U.S. automobile manufacturers.

The sinister idea of converting food into fuel was definitively established as an economic line in U.S. foreign policy last Monday, March 26.

A cable from the AP, the U.S. news agency that reaches all corners of the world, states verbatim:

“WASHINGTON, March 26 (AP). President Bush touted the benefits of ‘flexible fuel’ vehicles running on ethanol and biodiesel on Monday, meeting with automakers to boost support for his energy plans.

“Bush said a commitment by the leaders of the domestic auto industry to double their production of flex-fuel vehicles could help motorists shift away from gasoline and reduce the nation's reliance on imported oil.

‘“That's a major technological breakthrough for the country,’ Bush said after inspecting three alternative vehicles. If the nation wants to reduce gasoline use, he said “the consumer has got to be in a position to make a rational choice.”

“The president urged Congress to ‘move expeditiously’ on legislation the administration recently proposed to require the use of 35 billion gallons of alternative fuels by 2017 and seek higher fuel economy standards for automobiles.

“Bush met with General Motors Corp. chairman and chief executive Rick Wagoner, Ford Motor Co. chief executive Alan Mulally and DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group chief executive Tom LaSorda.

“They discussed support for flex-fuel vehicles, attempts to develop ethanol from alternative sources like switchgrass and wood chips and the administration's proposal to reduce gas consumption by 20 percent in 10 years.

“The discussions came amid rising gasoline prices. The latest Lundberg Survey found the nationwide average for gasoline has risen 6 cents per gallon in the past two weeks to $2.61.”

I believe that reducing and moreover recycling all motors that run on electricity and fuel is an elemental and urgent need for all humanity. The tragedy does not lie in reducing those energy costs but in the idea of converting food into fuel.

It is known very precisely today that one ton of corn can only produce 413 liters of ethanol on average, according to densities. That is equivalent to 109 gallons.

The average price of corn in U.S. ports has risen to $167 per ton. Thus, 320 million tons of corn would be required to produce 35 billion gallons of ethanol.

According to FAO figures, the U.S. corn harvest rose to 280.2 million tons in the year 2005.

Although the president is talking of producing fuel derived from grass or wood shavings, anyone can understand that these are phrases totally lacking in realism. Let’s be clear: 35 billion gallons translates into 35 followed by nine zeros!

Afterwards will come beautiful examples of what experienced and well-organized U.S. farmers can achieve in terms of human productivity by hectare: corn converted into ethanol; the chaff from that corn converted into animal feed containing 26% protein; cattle dung used as raw material for gas production. Of course, this is after voluminous investments only within the reach of the most powerful enterprises, in which everything has to be moved on the basis of electricity and fuel consumption. Apply that recipe to the countries of the Third World and you will see that people among the hungry masses of the Earth will no longer eat corn. Or something worse: lend funding to poor countries to produce corn ethanol based on corn or any other food and not a single tree will be left to defend humanity from climate change.

Other countries in the rich world are planning to use not only corn but also wheat, sunflower seeds, rapeseed and other foods for fuel production. For the Europeans, for example, it would become a business to import all of the world’s soybeans with the aim of reducing the fuel costs for their automobiles and feeding their animals with the chaff from that legume, particularly rich in all types of essential amino acids.

In Cuba, alcohol used to be produced as a byproduct of the sugar industry after having made three extractions of sugar from cane juice. Climate change is already affecting our sugar production. Lengthy periods of drought alternating with record rainfall, that barely make it possible to produce sugar with an adequate yield during the 100 days of our very moderate winter; hence, there is less sugar per ton of cane or less cane per hectare due to prolonged drought in the months of planting and cultivation.

I understand that in Venezuela they would be using alcohol not for export but to improve the environmental quality of their own fuel. For that reason, apart from the excellent Brazilian technology for producing alcohol, in Cuba the use of such a technology for the direct production of alcohol from sugar cane juice is no more than a dream or the whim of those carried away by that idea. In our country, land handed over to the direct production of alcohol could be much useful for food production for the people and for environmental protection.

All the countries of the world, rich and poor, without any exception, could save millions and millions of dollars in investment and fuel simply by changing all the incandescent light bulbs for fluorescent ones, an exercise that Cuba has carried out in all homes throughout the country. That would provide a breathing space to resist climate change without killing the poor masses through hunger.

As can be observed, I am not using adjectives to qualify the system and the lords of the earth. That task can be excellently undertaken by news experts and honest social, economic and political scientists abounding in the world who are constantly delving into to the present and future of our species. A computer and the growing number of Internet networks are sufficient for that.

Today, we are seeing for the first time a really globalized economy and a dominant power in the economic, political and military terrain that in no way resembles that of Imperial Rome.

Some people will be asking themselves why I am talking of hunger and thirst. My response to that: it is not about the other side of the coin, but about several sides of something else, like a die with six sides, or a polyhedron with many more sides.

I refer in this case to an official news agency, founded in 1945 and generally well-informed about economic and social questions in the world: TELAM. It said, and I quote:

“In just 18 years, close to 2 billion people will be living in countries and regions where water will be a distant memory. Two-thirds of the world’s population could be living in places where that scarcity produces social and economic tensions of such a magnitude that it could lead nations to wars for the precious ‘blue gold.’

“Over the last 100 years, the use of water has increased at a rate twice as fast as that of population growth.

“According to statistics from the World Water Council, it is estimated that by 2015, the number of inhabitants affected by this grave situation will rise by 3.5 billion people.

“The United Nations celebrated World Water Day on March 23, and called to begin confronting, that very day, the international scarcity of water, under the coordination of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), with the goal of highlighting the increasing importance of water scarcity on a global scale, and the need for greater integration and cooperation that would make it possible to guarantee sustained and efficient management of water resources.

“Many regions on the planet are suffering from severe water shortages, living with less than 500 cubic meters per person per year. The number of regions suffering from chronic scarcity of this vital element is increasingly growing.

“The principal consequences of water scarcity are an insufficient amount of the precious liquid for producing food, the impossibility of industrial, urban and tourism development and health problems.”

That was the TELEAM cable.

In this case I will refrain from mentioning other important facts, like the melting ice in Greenland and the Antarctic, damage to the ozone layer and the growing volume of mercury in many species of fish for common consumption.

There are other issues that could be addressed, but with these lines I am just trying to comment on President Bush’s meeting with the principal executives of U.S. automakers.

March 28, 2007

Fidel Castro.

Translated by Granma International

[bigron]

Biofuels nothing short of disaster

Environmentalists to blame as emissions worsen, world's poor starve
 
Lorne Gunter
The Edmonton Journal
http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/opinion/story.html?id=7ac33c22-ff7f-4108-a61f-a24757c61776

Sunday, April 13, 2008


Note to environmentalists: Remember, you were the ones who demanded biofuels the loudest.

It turns out the production of biofuels such as ethanol and biodiesel is likely to cause far more environmental damage than it prevents, not to mention triggering widespread famine and eating up more rainforest and grassland than beef production ever could.

The production and consumption of biofuels releases far more carbon emissions than are prevented when ordinary gasoline and diesel are burned without first being mixed with corn or sugar cane derivatives.

Even the world's first tentative steps towards increasing biofuel production has caused a doubling of annual deforestation rates in the Amazon.

According to Wetlands International, Indonesia has razed so much wilderness to grow palm oil trees for biodiesel that it has moved from the world's 21st-biggest greenhouse gas emitter to third in just the past three years. Only China and the United States -- in that order -- generate more carbon emissions.

With its rapid conversion of rainforest to cane production for fuel, Brazil has slipped into fourth place.

Turns out the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere by chopping down rainforests and switching grassland to corn, cane, soybean or palm oil production far exceeds that released by burning oil pumped from the ground or extracted from oilsands. The original environmental studies advocating biofuels as a way of curbing greenhouse emissions and cleaning the air hadn't taken this into consideration.

Corn-based biofuels are particularly ineffective. After the ethanol is made, the stocks must be destroyed, thereby releasing all the carbon they took up during their growth.

Then there is the biofuel revolution's impact on world food supplies.

According to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), "37 countries are currently facing food crises." The reasons are complex, ranging from rising fuel costs to floods and droughts.

Still, the great biofuel rush has been a major contributor, as well.

In just the last month, Haiti, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia and Madagascar have suffered food riots. Even Pakistan and Mexico have witnessed unrest over food prices -- Mexico City had tortilla riots -- as grains, oilseeds and corn that once went solely to the food market are now being bid on by fuel suppliers, too. The Philippines, Uzbekistan, Bolivia and Cameroon have also had protests or street violence over food.

Again according to the FAO, the price of food staples such as rice and corn has risen 57 per cent in just the past year, driven as much as anything by the need to find feedstock for biofuel production.

In the developed world, where diets are much richer and more varied, the effect of these increases has been minimal -- maybe five to 10 per cent on a family's grocery bill. That's not easily absorbed by everyone, yet since food makes up less than a third of average family spending in industrialized countries, even a 10-per-cent increase in food would add less than three per cent to most families' cost of living.

But in the developing and underdeveloped worlds, the competition for crops from the biofuel industry has increased family food tabs by as much as half, pricing a traditional basic diet out of some families' grasp. Hence the growing number of countries with food crises. And we have only just begun to see what stresses the biofuel craze will create.

In Europe and North America, bio-

fuels make up less than five per cent of energy consumed. However, either through government edict or the desire of corporations to appear "green," biofuel consumption is projected to double or triple by 2020.

Thanks to biofuel, the World Bank projects global food costs will stay above 2004 levels until at least 2015. Expect more millions to go hungry just to satisfy the desire of industrial-world environmentalists to be seen to be saving the planet.

The sad irony, of course, is that not only is the developed world's green conscience starving the rest of the world, it's creating more environmental harm -- not less -- in the process.

Talk about the road to hell being paved with good intentions. But watch, in typical liberal fashion, green crusaders will look to blame someone else for their colossal error, in this case, likely, greedy corporations and conservative politicians. Indeed, the revisionism has already begun.

Time magazine, long a champion of environmentalism, recently called the biofuel craze "the clean energy scam." But who did it blame for the fraud?

Al Gore, David Suzuki and the Sierra Club? No. Biofuels, according to Time, have become "the trendy way for politicians and corporations to show they're serious about finding alternative sources of energy and in the process slowing global warming."

In other words, George Bush and Big Oil are to blame.

It's true corporations are pouring $100 billion or more a year into biofuel development. Even our own federal Tories have committed $2 billion to the cause.

But whose hectoring, lobbying, advertising and scaremongering created the political pressure that has compelled politicians and executives to go "green?"

The environmental movement. That's who's behind the disaster of biofuels.

lgunter@shaw.ca

© The Edmonton Journal 2008