Global
Famine as a Conspiracy
"There is just too much of a pattern, and too many elements all pointing in the same direction."
Speculators Trying to Buy Control of Food Supply
"Given the meltdown in the housing and financial sectors and the weakness in the U.S. economy, large investors figure that everyone has to eat, and so investing in food production is a sure thing. That means that speculators will drive up food prices, which will lead to other events."
The corporate take over of food supplies
Video
US food groups plan hefty price rises
"US food companies are preparing another round of hefty price increases as soaring commodity costs force them to pass on rises to consumers."
Secret report: biofuel caused food crisis
"Biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75% - far more than previously estimated - according to a confidential World Bank report obtained by the Guardian. The figure emphatically contradicts the US government's claims that plant-derived fuels contribute less than 3% to food-price rises. It will add to pressure on governments in Washington and across Europe, which have turned to plant-derived fuels to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and reduce their dependence on imported oil. Senior development sources believe the report, completed in April, has not been published to avoid embarrassing President George Bush. This report, which everyone in the US and the world should be reading, "...has not been published to avoid embarrassing President George Bush"? These policies favoring biofuel production are causing people to die. The World Bank should be less concerned with "embarrassing Bush" than they should be with telling the truth straight up, period, end of discussion."
Belgian Law To Outlaw Food Speculation
"Belgian Law To Outlaw Food Speculation Blames WTO and Unbridled Liberalization."
The Cost Of Food - 2007 Versus 2008
Floods wipe out US crops
"The Midwest flooding and storms are expected to push US and world food prices higher. Up to five million acres of newly planted crops have been lost at the heart of the world's top grain and food exporter. Prices for corn, cattle and pigs all set records this week owing to the floods, as a world economy already hit by inflation from rising energy prices absorbed the blow."
Rise in food prices sends inflation to 18-year high
"Rising global food prices last month pushed the inflation rate up to its highest for nearly 18 years
... Milk, cheese and eggs have increased in price by nearly a fifth since May last year along with cooking oils and fats. Meat and bread were up by 9% with fish and vegetables rising by 7%. But fruit increased by a more modest 2.4%. Riots have broken out in many poor countries due to surging bread prices. A succession of bad harvests in countries such as Australia, as well as competition for land space from
bio-fuels, have combined to push food prices higher. This is exacerbated by the fall in the dollar, in which most commodities are priced ... The other main reason for the jump in inflation last month was rising energy bills."
Surging Oil and Food Prices Threaten the World Economy, Finance Ministers Warn
"The global economy faces a one-two punch from slowing growth and soaring fuel and food prices, finance ministers from the world’s richest nations warned Saturday, though they stopped short of offering concrete solutions. Finance ministers from the Group of 8 industrialized nations wrapped up a two-day meeting in Japan that was dominated by talk of rising petroleum prices, which have set off street protests across the world. In a statement, the ministers said higher prices of oil and other commodities threatened the world economy at a time when it was still reeling from the collapse of the housing market in the United States."
UK:Fears grow that MRSA variant has entered food chain
"Scientists revealed yesterday that three patients in separate hospitals were infected with the ST398 strain, which is found in factory-farmed pigs in the Netherlands. None of the humans had a close association with farm animals, raising the possibility that the superbug has entered the food chain."
Scientists warn G8 of climate peril to food
"Scientists from Group of Eight countries and the five biggest emerging nations urged next month's G8 summit to ratchet up action against global warming, warning that climate change threatened food and water supplies."
The
United States Has No Remaining Grain or Dairy Reserves
"Larry Matlack, President of the American Agriculture Movement (AAM), has raised concerns over the issue of U.S. grain reserves after it was announced that the sale of 18.37 million bushels of wheat from USDA’s Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust.
According to the May 1, 2008 CCC inventory report there are only 24.1 million bushels of wheat in inventory, so after this sale there will be only 2.7 million bushels of wheat left the entire CCC inventory,” warned Matlack. “Our concern is not that we are using the remainder of our strategic grain reserves for humanitarian relief. AAM fully supports the action and all humanitarian food relief. Our concern is that the U.S. has nothing else in our emergency food pantry. There is no cheese, no butter, no dry milk powder, no grains or anything else left in reserve. The only thing left in the entire CCC inventory will be 2.7 million bushels of wheat which is about enough wheat to make ½ of a loaf of bread for each of the 300 million people in America.”
Food crisis: Britain just nine meals from anarchy
"The scenario goes like this. Imagine a sudden shutdown of oil supplies; a sudden collapse in the petrol that streams steadily through the pumps and so into the engines of the lorries which deliver our food around the country, stocking up the supermarket shelves as soon as any item runs out. If the trucks stopped moving, we'd start to worry and we'd head out to the shops, cking up our larders. By the end of Day One, if there was still no petrol, the shelves would be looking pretty thin. Imagine, then, Day Two: your fourth, fifth and sixth meal. We'd be in a panic. Day three: still no petrol. Note also, as posed in another article today, that Larry Matlack, President of the American Agricultural Movement, has stated that "...the U.S. has nothing else in our emergency food pantry. There is no cheese, no butter, no dry milk powder, no grains or anything else left in reserve. "
UN sounds alarm as Rome hosts talks on food crisis
"UN chief Ban Ki-moon called for a huge rise in food production Tuesday as world leaders opened a summit on the food-price crisis that threatens hunger, poverty and
conflict. In talks clouded by controversy over the presidents of Zimbabwe and Iran, Ban said food output had to rise 50 percent by 2030 to meet rising demand."
Some U.S. Farms Outsourced To Mexico
"Antonio Martinez used to pay smugglers thousands of dollars each year to sneak him into the United States to manage farm crews. Now, the work comes to him. Supervising lettuce pickers in central Mexico, Martinez earns just half of the $1,100 a week he made in the U.S. But the job has its advantages, including working without fear of immigration raids. Martinez, now a legal employee of U.S.-owned VegPacker de Mexico, is exactly the kind of worker more American farm companies are seeking. Many have moved their fields to Mexico, where they can find qualified people, often with U.S. experience, who can't be deported. "Because I never moved my family to the U.S., I was always alone there," said Martinez, 45, who could never get a work permit, even after 16 years in agriculture in California and Arizona. "When I got the opportunity to be close to my family, doing similar work, I didn't even have to think about it." American companies now farm more than 45,000 acres of land in three Mexican states, employing about 11,000 people, a 2007 survey by the U.S. farm group Western Growers
shows ..."
Canadian Family Seed Business Takes On GMO Giant
"Since the dawn of civilization, farmers have saved seeds from the harvest and replanted them the following year. But makers of genetically modified (GM) seeds -- introduced in 1996 and now grown by some 70,000 Canadian farmers, according to Monsanto, the world's largest seed company -- have been putting a stop to that practice. The 12 million farmers worldwide who will plant GM seeds this year sign contracts agreeing not to save or replant seeds. That means they must buy new seeds every year."
Field studies find lower productivity with GM seeds
"Genetic modification actually cuts the productivity of crops, an authoritative new study shows, undermining repeated claims that a switch to the controversial technology is needed to solve the growing world food crisis. The study - carried out over the past three years at the University of Kansas in the US grain belt - has found that GM soya produces about 10 per cent less food than its conventional equivalent, contradicting assertions by advocates of the technology that it increases yields."
Privatisation Making Seeds Themselves Infertile
"Seeds were once for ever. After harvest, a few from the crop would be planted for the following year, and so it went on. Now, biochemical industry giants are making seeds themselves infertile. You sow them this year, and that's it. For next year's crop, you need brand new seeds -- you would have to buy them, of course. Twenty-five years ago, there were at least 7,000 seed growers worldwide, and none of them controlled more than one percent of the global market. Today, after a takeover spree, 10 major biochemical multinationals, including Monsanto, DuPont-Pioneer, Syngenta, Bayer Cropsciencie, BASF, and Dow Agrosciences, control more than 50 percent of the seeds market."
Diet Coke to drop additive in DNA damage fear
"Coca-Cola is phasing out a controversial additive that has been linked to damage to DNA and hyperactivity in children.
Sodium benzoate, also known as E211, is used to stop fizzy drinks going mouldy. Coca-Cola said it had begun withdrawing the additive from Diet Coke in January in response to consumer demand for more natural products."
But the aspartame stays, of course, because partial brain undermining is
better than nothing.
U.S. rice farmers want class action against Bayer
"Germany's Bayer AG is battling to keep thousands of U.S. rice farmers from becoming part of a massive class-action lawsuit over the contamination of commercial rice supplies by a Bayer biotech rice not approved for human consumption."
Commodity traders bidding up food, fuel prices
"Traders share a laugh in the crude oil options pit of the New York Mercantile Exchange, where the price of oil futures swept toward $130 a barrel. The record-shattering run-up in energy and food prices has prompted Congress to consider taking action against speculative investing."
Rice price dives as US and Japan set to unlock grain pact
"Rice prices nosedived today as Japan moved closer to unlocking its massive hidden surplus and bullish supply forecasts routed speculators. The price collapse came as commodity experts called on Japan and the US to urgently unwind one of the biggest “invisible” distortions in global rice markets: a quirk of World Trade Organisation rules that obliges Tokyo to buy grain it does not need and effectively turns millions of tons of high-grade American rice into feed for Japanese pigs. If that distortion were removed, said researchers at the Washington-based Centre for Global Development (CGD), and the 1.5 million tons of unwanted US rice were released from Japan’s storage silos, the crisis that has sent the price of the crop that feeds half the world would be instantly solved. Rice prices, suggested the group’s forecasts, could even halve between now and June.
Standing in the way of that, however, is a rule that prevents Japan from re-exporting its reserves of US rice without permission from Washington – permission that has not been forthcoming until now, but which The Times has learned may be just hours away from being
granted ..." 5/16/08
Rice Prices Rise Despite Record Crop
"World rice production will hit a record high this year but increasing demand and restrictions on exports will keep prices high, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation said on
Monday" 5/12/08
Concentration in the fertilizer market
"Agribusiness giant Cargill and rival IMC Global recently combined their fertilizer production businesses to form the #2 fertilizer company in the world. The new company will be 66% owned by Cargill and 33% owned by
IMC, so essentially controlled by Cargill. IMC's potash and phosphates business is added on to Cargill nitrogen products. The #1 fertilizer company in the world is
Yara, a division of Norsk Hydro (soon to be spun off). That company has sales of around $4.9 billion a year. The new Cargill-IMC company will have sales of around $4.1 billion. Number #3 is
Potash Corp, of Saskatchewan, with sales of around $2.6 billion a year...
also included are: Uralkali Fertilizer, the main Russian supplier, Agrium, the Canadian company just making large acquisitions, a major supplier of nitrogen products, a major distributor in North America,
K+ S AG, a German company spun off from BASF, Mosaic, another Canadian company owned in part by Cargill with strong holdings in potash and phosphate mining,
and even more significant, a trading association called Canpotex Ltd., looks after the Asian interests of
Agrium, PCS, and Mosaic. " Related: Artificial
Shortages of Fertilizer
Corporate Vultures Lurk Behind the World Food Crisis
"A new report from GRAIN, Making a Killing from the Food
Crisis, shows Cargill, the world's biggest grain trader, achieved an 86 percent increase in profits from commodity trading in the first quarter of 2008;
Bunge had a 77 percent increase in profits during the last quarter of 2007;
ADM, the second largest grain trader in the world, registered a 67 percent per cent increase in profits in 2007.
Other companies: ConAgra (US) 30% profit increase, Noble Group (Singapore) 92% profit increase,
Marubeni (Japan) 43% profit increase. Behind the chieftains of the capitalist system are powerful transnational corporations, traders, and speculators who trade food worldwide, determine commodity prices, create and then manipulate shortages and surpluses to their advantage, and are the real beneficiaries of international trade agreements. The
vultures of greed are circling the carcasses of growing hunger and poverty as another 100 million join the ranks of the world's poorest - nearly 3 billion people who live on less than $2 a day. Agriculture is fundamental to the well-being of all people, both in terms of access to safe and nutritious food and as the foundation of healthy communities, cultures, and environment. The answer to the current crisis must be centered on small-scale farmers producing for local and regional markets. It is time for the developing countries to uphold the rights of their people to food sovereignty and break with decades of ill-advised policies that have failed to benefit their people."
Related stories: Making a Killing from Hunger
| Global warming rage lets global hunger grow
Biofuel: Criminal Path Leads To Global Food Crisis
"The United States and the European Union have taken a "criminal path" by contributing to an explosive rise in global food prices through using food crops to produce
biofuels, according to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food. Speaking at a press conference today in Geneva, Jean Ziegler said that fuel policies pursued by the US and the EU were one of the main causes of the current worldwide food crisis. Mr. Ziegler said that last year the US used a third of its corn crop to create
biofuels, while the European Union is planning to have 10 per cent of its petrol supplied by
biofuels. The Special Rapporteur has called for a five-year moratorium on the production of
biofuels. Mr. Ziegler also said that speculation on international markets was behind 30 per cent of the increase in food prices. He said that companies such as Cargill, which controls a quarter of all cereal production, have enormous power over the market. He added that hedge funds are also making huge profits from raw materials markets, and called for new financial regulations to prevent such speculation. The Special Rapporteur warned of worsening food riots and a "horrifying" increase in deaths by starvation before reforms could take effect. Mr. Ziegler was speaking before a meeting today in Bern, Switzerland, between Secretary General Ban
Ki-moon and the heads of key UN agencies. Meanwhile, speaking in Rome today, a nutritionist with the UN World Food Programme
(WFP), said that "global price rises mean that food is literally being taken out of the mouths of hungry children whose parents can no longer afford to feed them." Andrew Thorne-Lyman said that even temporarily depriving children of the nutrients they need to grow and thrive can leave permanent scars in terms of stunting their physical growth and intellectual potential. He said that families in the developing world are "finding their buying power has been slashed by food price rises, meaning that they can buy less food or food which isn't as nutritious."
Corn Futures Advance to Record as Weather Delays U.S. Planting
"Corn futures in Chicago climbed to a record on supply concerns after a government report showed farmers in the U.S., the world's biggest producer, had planted only half as much as a year ago because of cold, wet weather."
Well, here is a double body-blow to the global warming people, first because it is the COLD weather than is the problem here and because their much vaunted biofuels program eroded away the safety margins in US corn production which would have made it far easier to survive a shortage.
United Nations expert condemns growing of food crops to produce biofuels
"A United Nations expert has condemned the growing use of crops to produce biofuels as a replacement for petrol as a crime against humanity."
Grain Shortages, Rising World Food Prices - and Ethanol Backfires?
"President Bush has set a target of replacing 15% of domestic gasoline use with biofuels (ethanol and
biodiesel) over the next 10 years, which would require almost a fivefold increase in mandatory biofuel use, to about 35 billion gallons. With current technology, almost all of this biofuel would have to come from corn because there is no feasible alternative. However, achieving the 15% goal would require the entire current U.S. corn crop, which represents a whopping 40% of the world's corn supply. This would do more than create mere market distortions; the irresistible pressure to divert corn from food to fuel would create unprecedented
turmoil ..."
The Biofuels Scam, Food Shortages and the Coming Collapse of the Human Population
"It was one of the dumbest "green" ideas ever proposed: Convert millions of acres of cropland into fields for growing ethanol from corn, then burn fossil fuels to harvest the ethanol, expending more energy to extract the fuel than you get from the fuel itself! Meanwhile, sit back and proclaim you've achieved a monumental green victory (President Bush, anyone?) all while unleashing a dangerous spike in global food prices that's causing a ripple effect of food shortages and rationing around the world."
Wheat Crop Failures Could Be Total Due to Ug99
Fungus
"David Kotok, chairman and chief investment officer of Cumberland Advisors, said the deadly fungus, Puccinia
graminis, is now spreading through some areas of the globe where "crop losses are expected to reach 100 percent.” Losses in Africa are already at 70 percent of the crop, Kotok said. "The economic losses expected from this fungus are now in the many billions and growing. Worse, there is an intensifying fear of exacerbated food shortages in poor and emerging countries of the world,” Kotok told investors in a research note. "The ramifications are serious. Food rioting continues to expand around the world. We saw the most recent in Johannesburg. "So far this unrest has been directed at rising prices. Actual shortages are still to come.”
Last month, scientists met in the Middle East to determine measures to track the progress of "Ug99,” which was first discovered in 1999 in Uganda."
Note: Africa is a known western testing ground for biological weapons.
Americans Hoard Food As Commodities Speculators Drive Up World Prices
"Farmers and food executives appealed fruitlessly to federal officials yesterday for regulatory steps to limit speculative buying that is helping to drive food prices higher. Meanwhile, some Americans are stocking up on staples such as rice, flour and oil in anticipation of high prices and shortages spreading from overseas. Their pleas did not find a sympathetic audience at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission
(CFTC), where regulators said high prices are mostly the result of soaring world demand for grains combined with high fuel prices and drought-induced shortages in many countries. While farmers here and abroad generally are benefiting from the high prices, even they have been burned by a tidal wave of investors and speculators pouring into the futures markets for corn, wheat, rice and other commodities and who are driving up prices in a way that makes it difficult for farmers to run their businesses. "Something is wrong," said National Farmers Union President Tom
Buis, adding that the CFTC's refusal to rein in speculators will force farmers and consumers to take their case to Congress. "It may warrant congressional intervention," he said. "The public is all too aware of the recent credit crisis on Wall Street. We don't want a lack of oversight and regulation to lead to a similar crisis in rural America." Food economists testifying at a daylong hearing of the commission said the doubling of rice and wheat prices in the past year is a result of strong income growth in China, India and other Asian countries, where people entering the middle class are buying more food and eating more meat. Farm animals consume a substantial share of the world's grain."
Who Is Responsible for the World Food
Shortage? " ... This is the last phase of an era of food-as-a-weapon politics, officially ushered in in 1974, when
then-U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (now Sir Henry KCMG) gave the keynote speech at the Rome World Food Conference, the predecessor to the 1996 Food Summit. In 1974, Kissinger publicly talked of food security, while privately he worked to use food control as a weapon against a target list of
nations ..." Good article by LaRouche. Also, there is the fact that speculation in commodity futures took
off as the rest of the market went into a tail spin. Futures=manipulation.
There are related articles by the same author: Control by the Food Cartel Companies: Profiles and Histories
| The Cartel `Experts' Decide Who Eats
| The
Windsors' Global Food Cartel: Instrument for Starvation | Kissinger's 1974 Plan for Food Control Genocide
| World Food Shortages Crisis Follows Decades of Imposed Import-Dependency
Spectre of Food Shortages Casting Shadow Across Globe
"The spectre of food shortages is casting a shadow across the globe, causing riots in Africa, consumer protests in Europe and panic in food-importing countries. In a world of increasing affluence, the hoarding of rice and wheat has begun. Argentina has delayed the reopening of its wheat export registry until April to protect domestic supplies, and China, a net exporter of corn, rice and wheat last year, has imposed export quotas on grain in order to stem runaway food price inflation. A surge in its inflation index in December was blamed entirely on rising food prices, notably pork, which rose 48 per cent.
Farmers worldwide are worried about feed costs."