Food Prices // Current TV

Emerging Economies 'to enjoy food production boom'

The emerging economies of Brazil, India, China and Russia will enjoy an agricultural... more

ampersand
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Seed Deals Show Clout Monsanto Wields over U.S. Supply

St. Louis, Mo. -

'Confidential contracts detailing Monsanto Co.'s business practices reveal how the seed giant is squeezing competitors, controlling smaller companies and protecting its dominance over the multibillion-dollar market for genetically altered crops, an Associated Press investigation has found.

Monsanto's patented genes are inserted into roughly 95 percent of all soybeans and 80 percent of all corn grown in the United States.

The company also is using its wide reach to control the ability of new biotech firms to get wide distribution for their products, according to a review of several Monsanto licensing agreements and dozens of interviews with seed industry participants and agriculture and legal experts.

Declining competition in the seed business could lead to price increases that ripple out to every family's dinner table. That's because the cornflakes you had for breakfast, soda you drank at lunch and beef stew you ate for dinner most likely were produced from crops grown with Monsanto's patented genes.

Monsanto's methods are spelled out in a series of confidential licensing agreements obtained by the AP. The contracts include basic terms for the selling of engineered crops resistant to Monsanto's Roundup herbicide, along with supplementary agreements that address new Monsanto traits or other contract amendments.

The company has used the agreements to spread its technology - giving some 200 smaller companies the right to insert Monsanto's genes into their separate strains of corn and soybean plants. But, the AP found, access to Monsanto's genes comes at a cost and with plenty of strings attached.

For example, one contract provision bans independent companies from breeding plants that contain both Monsanto's genes and the genes of any of its competitors, unless Monsanto gives prior written permission.

That gives Monsanto the ability to effectively lock out competitors from inserting their patented traits into the vast share of U.S. crops that already contain Monsanto's genes.

The U.S. Department of Justice and at least two state attorneys general are trying to determine whether Monsanto's business strategies and licensing agreements violate U.S. antitrust laws. The practices also are at the heart of civil antitrust lawsuits filed against the suburban St. Louis company by its competitors.'

Continued at link...St. Louis, Mo. - 'Confidential contracts detailing Monsanto Co.'s... more

smallgod
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3 years ago
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7 comments

The spoiled american

I've been a chef now for three years, and in that time I have worked in countless... more

goaliej87
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3 years ago
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0 comments

Raj Patel: The global food crisis

Informative interview with Raj Patel, author of 'Stuffed And Starved'... more

JanforGore
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3 years ago
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2 comments

UK Shoppers want ethical food without paying more

Sales of ethical food, such as organic produce grown without chemicals, and Fairtrade... more

islek
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3 years ago
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0 comments

Dairy On The Rise!!!

Yet another indicator of a tough economy, experts are predicting that the price of... more

TrevTar
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3 years ago
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World hunger now close to 1 billion people

The food crisis has pushed the number of hungry people in the world to almost 1bn, in... more

AwesomeJosh
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4 years ago
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37 comments

1 in 8 Americans go hungry and they aren't who you would think

Just the headline 1 in 8 go hungry caught my eye. That number is just staggering to... more

Yoshi1
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4 years ago
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34 comments

'We're not robbing food from people's mouths'

Beloved of corn growers and reviled by environmentalists, ethanol is a divisive... more

Vierotchka
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4 years ago
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25 comments

Food prices skyrocketing during recession times

There no seem to be a stop to the continual increase of food prices at the same time... more

juanzitosv
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4 years ago
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What you NEED to know if you eat food!!!!!

"In a open letter to the next president, author Michael Pollan writes about the... more

Delta_Wave
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4 years ago
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1 comment

Corn over agave?

Now we know its getting bad.

bigred5
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4 years ago
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6 comments

BIOFUELS TASTE AWFUL, SAY AFRICANS

BIOFUELS are incredibly salty and don't really go with anything, hungry... more

cubbingabout
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4 years ago
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1 comment

Cambodians eat rats to beat global food crisis

Spicy field rat dishes with garlic increasingly seen on menus as boom in sales... more

lecoke
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4 years ago
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2 comments

The Doha dilemma

Wouldn't a dual solution be appropriate? I think that co-operation seems necessary.

notreallybutyeah
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4 years ago
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Defeating Food Price Inflation: A Kitchen Garden in Every Home

Pakistan has been hit by severe food price inflation – the worst in its 61-year history. The prices of many basic food items have more than doubled in the last year and poor families are now spending two thirds to three quarters of their monthly income on their meals alone.

Until last year nearly one third of Pakistan’s population was said to be below the poverty line. This figure has grown as more people have fallen into the poverty trap that is aggravated by the food crisis. The sudden rise in the incidence of suicide is an indicator of the increasing despondency that poverty and unemployment are breeding in the country. Social worker, Abdus Sattar Edhi, who has done enormous work to provide relief to indigent people, says nearly four or five people in the country commit suicide every day and that a large number of these cases can be attributed to the victims’ inability to make ends meet. Some of these incidents were so touching that they made headlines in national newspapers. Bushra Bibi, a mother of two, killed herself along with her two children by throwing everyone before an approaching train.

Although Pakistan’s economy has been in crisis for some time now, the real crunch has come with the rise in food and oil prices. Traditionally, the food intake of most people has been inadequate in the country and as a result malnutrition is rampant. According to Human Development in South Asia 2007, a report by the Mahbub ul Haq Human Development Center, 23 per cent of Pakistan’s people were undernourished in 2003 while 19 per cent of the country’s children were stunted, underweight or in severe health crisis in 2005. Doctors believe that in the last couple of years malnutrition has increased.

Health is the first casualty when food prices shoot up. Suddenly the common man cannot afford to buy a decent meal for his family. But people’s lives are also affected in many other ways. Nadia ekes out a living for herself and her five children by doing part time work in the homes of the well-to-do. Nadia’s husband is a daily wage earner in the building industry. As the economy has faltered, the building sector has slumped, which means Nadia’s husband returns home empty-handed in the evening more often than before. Previously in times of crisis – which were short-lived and temporary – Nadia managed to easily sustain the family by breaking the clay pot in which she kept her savings. Now the clay pot is empty and Nadia worries whether she will be able to feed her children on her income alone. She finds the cost daunting.

If the situation does not improve, Nadia may have to pull her children out of school because a considerable chunk of her income goes into educating her two sons and daughter. She regards her children’s schooling as an investment for the future. “But we need food to live,” Nadia laments. “If I have to divert my children’s school fees to buy food, I will not have much of a choice,” she remarks. That will be the end of her dream to give her children a brighter future.

It is a pity that this misfortune should befall Nadia and others like her in a country where agriculture contributes 24 percent to the gross domestic product. At one point Pakistan was self-sufficient in wheat cultivation, but when production did not meet the country’s demand last year, grain had to be imported. However, with astute economic planning the government can ensure that no person goes to bed hungry.

**Read More**
Pakistan has been hit by severe food price inflation – the worst in its 61-year... more

aswift1
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4 years ago
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Venezuela lifts basic food prices

Prices of foodstuffs from bread to beef have risen by up to 50% in Venezuela after the... more

unclepete
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4 years ago
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15 comments

Sudan capitalises on food exports while receiving aid for starvation in Darfur

Even as it receives a billion pounds of free food from international donors, Sudan is... more

fountaingoats
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4 years ago
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13 comments

McDonald's Tests Changes In $1 Burger as cost Rise

Oak Brook, Ill. -- McDonald's Corp. is testing modifications to its popular $1 double cheeseburger, and higher prices for the sandwich, as it prepares to change its Dollar Menu by next year.

In an interview, Don Thompson, president of McDonald's U.S. business, said the company has tested ways to make the burger less expensive to make. Some restaurants are selling it with one slice of cheese instead of two, and billing it as a "double hamburger with cheese." Others are offering a double hamburger without cheese. Some are selling the traditional double cheeseburger at prices ranging from $1.09 to $1.19.

Company is also considering expanding what it considers the middle tier of its menu, items ranging from about $1.30 to $2. "We know customers are facing tough times in this economy," Mr. Thompson said.

Launched in 2003, the Dollar Menu has been a key driver of sales at McDonald's 14,000 U.S. restaurants and has helped it ride out dips in consumer spending. But recently, franchisees have complained that the menu has brought too much unprofitable traffic into their restaurants.

The biggest question for the eight-item menu is what to do with the double cheeseburger, considered its anchor. High dairy prices have pushed up the cost of cheese, and McDonald's predicts more pressure because its beef costs will be higher this year. Mr. Thompson said if McDonald's moves the double cheeseburger off that menu, there would still be some type of $1 burger.

Internal sales documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal show that, as of late June, sales of the chain's lattes, cappuccinos and other espresso drinks were off their peak in several main markets where they're being sold. Mr. Thompson said "the numbers really don't tell the story."

Lower-priced beverages, including $1.89 iced coffee and a $1 fountain-drink and sweet-tea promotion, have pulled some sales away from the espresso drinks, which range from about $2 to $3. That was something the company hadn't anticipated, he said.

McDonald's overall beverage expansion, adding espresso drinks, smoothies, cold tea, bottled drinks and ice-blended coffee beverages at U.S. locations, is on track to exceed the company's goal of adding $125,000 a year in sales per restaurant, even though it doesn't yet have national advertising behind it, Mr. Thompson said. He sees McDonald's target of the drinks adding $1 billion a year to the company's sales as "definitely achievable." The rollout will be complete at the end of 2009.

Oak Brook, Ill. -- McDonald's Corp. is testing modifications to its popular $1... more

KefKef
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4 years ago
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Britons 'Skipping Meals Due to Money Worries'

The average trip to the supermarket is costing much more than before - which means... more

digitalfever
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4 years ago
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