A United Nations special investigator has accused the US government of pouring billions of dollars into rescuing banks and big business while treating a deepening homeless crisis as if it is "invisible."A United Nations special investigator has accused the US government of pouring... more
Nearly half of all U.S. children and 90 percent of African-American kids will be on food stamps at some point during childhood, and researchers say fallout from the current recession could push those numbers even higher.Nearly half of all U.S. children and 90 percent of African-American kids will be on... more
The conventional wisdom in Washington and in most of the rest of the world is that the roaring Chinese economy is going to pull the global economy out of recession and back into growth. It’s China’s turn, the theory goes, as American consumers — who propelled the last global boom with their borrowing and spending ways — have begun to tighten their belts and increase savings rates.
The Chinese, with their unbridled capitalistic expansion propelled by a system they still refer to as “socialism with Chinese characteristics,” are still thriving, though, with annual gross domestic product growth of 8.9 percent in the third quarter and a domestic consumer market just starting to flex its enormous muscles.
That’s prompted some cheerleading from U.S. officials, who want to see those Chinese consumers begin to pick up the slack in the global economy — a theme President Barack Obama and his delegation are certain to bring up during next week’s visit to China.
“Purchases of U.S. consumers cannot be as dominant a driver of growth as they have been in the past,” Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said during a trip to Beijing this spring. “In China, ... growth that is sustainable will require a very substantial shift from external to domestic demand, from an investment and export-intensive growth to growth led by consumption.”
That’s one vision of the future.
But there’s a growing group of market professionals who see a different picture altogether. These self-styled China bears take the less popular view: that the much-vaunted Chinese economic miracle is nothing but a paper dragon. In fact, they argue that the Chinese have dangerously overheated their economy, building malls, luxury stores and infrastructure for which there is almost no demand, and that the entire system is teetering toward collapse.
A Chinese collapse, of course, would have profound effects on the United States, limiting China’s ability to buy U.S. debt and provoking unknown political changes inside the Chinese regime.
Last week marked a little-known and under-reported symposium held in Rome under the auspices of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation – the World Seed Conference. Although the subject may appear obscure, the conference theme and the issues discussed, including plant variety protection and seed improvement techniques, could not be more important to millions of farmers in the developing world.
Between the heavy acronyms and technical terms used by the UN figures, government officials and industry representatives, the conference illustrated two clear themes; firstly, the desire of Northern-based business to continue a process of enclosure of key farming inputs such as seeds by way of technology. Secondly, a push by these same companies (supported by the US and EU countries) for an extension and tightening of intellectual property rights on plant genetic resources into the national law of poorer countries.
Under the guise of innovation and progress, breeding companies suggest that seed varieties developed in laboratories in the North and then sold to poorer farmers in the South can raise yields in crops, increase nutritional values, reduce pesticide and fossil fuels use as well as conserve biodiversity. In the words of one participant at the conference, his company utilised ‘the art and science of changing the genetics of plants for the benefit of humankind.’
Advocates from industry argue that to safeguard their investment in these manipulated ‘seed innovations’ governments should use a form of legal construction (intellectual property rights) to prevent farmers from re-using and changing seeds that are a ‘product’ of agribusiness. Industry lobbyists also suggest that such monopoly rights should extend to developed plants varieties that business cannot easily control by technology – for example due to natural reproduction.
However, the patenting of seeds, extension of plant variety protection and rollout of a global regime of intellectual property rights for agricultural inputs could have serious consequences for small-scale farmers in the developing world.
Techno-Fixes and Monopoly Control
Firstly, the intellectual property regime that many participants in the Conference wish to tighten and extend to poorer countries (what one participant called ‘the development of a new industry competitiveness on foreign markets’), legally prevents farmers from sharing and saving seeds for later harvests or for future generations.
Under a key intellectual property treaty first signed in the 1960s and last amended in 1991, called UPOV, and the later WTO TRIPS, governments agreed to prevent farmers from saving or sharing seeds with only a few limited exceptions. In countries that have accepted these intellectual property regimes, small-scale farmers have moved increasingly towards the use of imported seeds, suffering from a number of adverse effects including increased debt levels, displacement and worsening food security. Making the situation worse, under intellectual property laws, some governments refuse to subsidise or even prohibit the use of seeds that do not make an ‘official list’ – most often those that were previously shared and exchanged between communities.Last week marked a little-known and under-reported symposium held in Rome under the... more
Rapid growth in developing Asian countries like China and India is driving the global economy on its path to recovery, but trade and currency imbalances need to be addressed to make sure a rebound is sustainable, the International Monetary Fund said Thursday.
..... (more).....
The IMF said Asia's economic rebound was helped by government spending, low interest rates, a recovery in financial markets and renewed interest from industry to rebuild inventories.
The fund warned that rising unemployment and unused capacity will hinder the pace of recovery, and that the rapid growth of credit in China should be monitored to avoid new asset bubbles.
It said the region needed to correct some economic imbalances -- Asian economies need to focus on creating domestic consumer demand rather than relying chiefly on exports.
"More flexible exchange rate regimes would help rebalance growth," the report said.
China, for example, keeps its currency artificially weak against the dollar, boosting the value of its exports, accumulating cash reserves, which it invests in assets like U.S. debt.
Experts have said that an appreciation in its currency would reduce China's reliance on U.S. consumption of its exports, creating a broader and stronger base for economic growth in the region.Rapid growth in developing Asian countries like China and India is driving the global... more
Sustainable agriculture can save biodiversity and the climate. Yet, it only comprises 1% of farming in the U.S. That is a gross oversight on the part of the USDA. This article in pdf form outlines the ways sustainable farmers are making positive changes to the sustainability of Earth. Sometimes technology is not the answer. More small farmers scattered worldwide using sustainable practices to grow local food will bring real jobs, environmental healing, and economic stability. It will clean up the mess industrial agriculture has made at the expense of our environment, health, and economy.
And if you wish to keep abreast of the latest news in the sustainable food revolution, sign up to the Sustainable Agriculture Group and be a part of this food revolution.
Helena Norberg-Hodge launched the Ladakh Project in northern India in 1978 in a bid to reverse the damaging trends of mass tourism and consumerism through promoting development based on local Ladakhi cultural values. The innovative program soon grew into Isec, where Norberg-Hodge and her colleagues had been initiating campaigns around the world to encourage ways of living that are more de-centralized and land-based.
She points out that by subsiding global trade and global businesses, a government is simultaneously subsidizing a path that's encouraging businesses to use more fossil fuel and technology and fewer people. The next result is job insecurity, and very, very intense competitions for scarce jobs. This combination of creating an unrealistic role model, the role model of consumer identity, and at the same time increasing job scarcity, unemployment and worldwide friction and unhappiness.
What Norberg-Hodge advocates is shifting away from these bigger and more global business activities, and toward supporting local businesses worldwide that spend less fossil, and adapted to the natural-biological-cultural diversity and identities. We need to bring the economy closer to home worldwide.
Localizing as an economics of happiness at the fundamental level is about reducing the competition for jobs, by establishing cultural and community role models that are realistic. This might sound utopian, or unrealistic, but the fact is that the unrealistic is to go further and further as we have done up until now.
Helena Norberg-Hodge received the 1986 Right Livelihood Award, aka the alternative Nobel Prize, for her dedication in promoting more peaceful, just and sustainable communities worldwide.Helena Norberg-Hodge launched the Ladakh Project in northern India in 1978 in a bid to... more
I remember there were times in the past when a clear distinction of periodic seasonal cycles per year used to exist. There were winters during a certain fixed period in a year, there were rains during another fixed period in a year and similarly, there were summers during another fixed period in a year.
During winters, I used to enjoy the early chilling mornings along with my quilt and as the day used to progress the la-affaire with the sun used to soar high. I would love to see the shining sky and I would most cherish the scene of sunlight spreading everywhere across the surroundings and neutralizing the chilling effects all around. The rains were like the blessings of freshness. The scenes around me in my community just before the down pore were unforgettable. I always felt that strong buzz in the surroundings just before the start of rains. I remember people used to celebrate rains, they used to dance in the rain, they used to watch the rains with their open windows and doors, they used to party with their amigos in the rain and the whole scene used to be like a special festival. Same joy and an afresh beginning was visible during the summers, everyone was so excited about the summers, the extended days and the summer’s daily twilight. We all used to enjoy every season with the utmost pleasure but things have changed a lot in last few years.
Suddenly, the ice started melting in the polar region, the sea levels started rising all across and the water temperatures in the sea and rivers started rising everywhere around the world.
The UN is warning the global economic meltdown should prompt a major regulatory overhaul and the advent of a new global currency to replace the US dollar as the world standard. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, or UNCTAD, says the dollar’s preeminence worsens existing imbalances and further burdens debt-ridden countries. UNCTAD Director Heiner Flassbeck said the world’s leading economies have failed to introduce regulation that could take on the financial instruments that caused the meltdown.
CLICK LINK FOR FULL ARTICLE.....The UN is warning the global economic meltdown should prompt a major regulatory... more
LG Electronics Inc, the world's second-biggest TV brand, expects LCD TV sales to jump nearly 50 percent next year as demand from emerging countries continues to grow robustly, a top executive said.
(So-eui, R., & Hack, J., 2009, September 5, par.1)
South Korea-based LG, which competes with home rival Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and Japan's Sony Corp, expects to sell around 17 million liquid crystal display (LCD) TVs this year and 25 million in 2010, said Simon Kang, chief executive for LG's home entertainment unit. LG sold 10.5 million LCD TVs in 2008.
(So-eui, R., & Hack, J., 2009, September 5, par.2-3)
"The flat-screen TV market will continue to grow in the second half although it will probably see the growth rate slowing" from the first half, Kang told a news conference..."I am quite confident for the Christmas season and that some kind of momentum will be maintained next year," Kang later told Reuters in an interview on the sideline of the IFA show.
(So-eui, R., & Hack, J., 2009, September 5, par.4-5)LG Electronics Inc, the world's second-biggest TV brand, expects LCD TV sales to jump... more
Yes, I know it sounds ridiculous.Just because a bunch of people use certain words to express themselves in fora(forums) doesn't mean that they're in some way foretelling the future,but...,but fact is that Cliff High was able to predict a number of specific and major events.Well, you'll be the judge of it! No wait, let time be the judge of it!Yes, I know it sounds ridiculous.Just because a bunch of people use certain words to... more
Roubini warns that if policymakers try to fight rising budget deficits by raising taxes and cutting spending, they could undermine any recovery.Roubini warns that if policymakers try to fight rising budget deficits by raising... more
Add Egypt to the growing number of countries seeing the dangers of GMOs and acting accordingly. I would say the US better get its act together as well before it finds itself out in the cold both agriculturally and economically. People on the whole in this world DO NOT WANT GMO, and want food freedom. Perhaps this is the only way to get the point home. Good for Egypt.
_____
Excerpt:
Any agricultural imports to Egypt must have a certificate from the country of origin that the product is not genetically modified and the rule will also apply to Egyptian exports, the official news agency said on Wednesday.
The debate in Egypt over food quality has become politically heated after some Russian wheat was rejected over quality concerns. Members of parliament have been calling for stricter rules and greater agricultural self sufficiency.
Traders expressed surprise at the move, saying some of Egypt's main food imports at the moment included genetically modified products.
Officials could not independently confirm the decision by Agriculture Minister Amin Abaza, as reported by the official news agency MENA.
Abaza was quoted as saying that "it was necessary that all crops imported from abroad and exported from Egypt be accompanied by a certificate from the country of origin stating they are free of genetically modified materials."
"No agricultural products especially wheat, corn and soya bean would enter except after examining samples from the cargo," MENA reported him as saying.
Egypt is one of the world's largest wheat importers and also imports other products such as corn, edible oils and sugar. It exports products such as vegetables and fruits particularly to Europe.
____
Hey Monsanto, better forget about that GM wheat.Add Egypt to the growing number of countries seeing the dangers of GMOs and acting... more
GMOs will also hurt our economy as well as our environment. I am wondering if this is done purposefully to push it on people in Europe without their knowledge.
Excerpt:
* EU buyers voluntarily stop imports of U.S. soy
* Shipments found with GMO varieties MON-88017, MIR-604
* Contaminated shipments were rejected, recalled
* Incidents reported in Spain, Germany
* Trade hopes Brussels will change rules (Recasts, updates with comments from EU spokesman in Washington; adds second byline, dateline, previously MADRID)
MADRID/WASHINGTON, Aug 6 - European Union buyers have voluntarily moved to stop imports of U.S. soy after shipments were found containing traces of genetically modified corn, a spokesman for the EU in Washington said on Thursday.
European trade sources said U.S. soybean meal shipments to Spain and Germany were found with traces of GMO corn, which is prohibited in the European Union.
"The industry has itself decided to stop all imports of U.S. soy, as of now," Mattias Sundholm told Reuters.
"The shipments have been rejected at the EU borders, and have been consigned and recalled when already on the market within the EU, unless they have already been consumed," Sundholm said.
Sundholm could not confirm the quantity or location of the shipments, but said they were found to contain the corn varieties MON-88017 and MIR-604.
Officials from the U.S. Agriculture Department and trade associations have not replied to requests for information.
The incident has raised concerns about bottlenecks in supply of a key feed ingredient for European livestock, which is already pricey.
"The main problem is that EU regulations don't allow marginal amounts, traces of GMOs not authorised by the EU," a spokesman for the Spanish Assocation of Cereal and Products Importers said.
"That puts us all in an uncertain, risky trade situation, and that is most serious for the entire European Community -- trade, livestock production and the economy."
Sources said 50,000 tonnes of contaminated U.S. soybean meal had been unloaded and detained at Tarragona, Spain's largest port. Port officials were not available to comment.
"It still needs to be dispatched and we await a meeting by the European Commission, probably in September, because nothing will happen in August," a port source said.
"The meeting will have to be urgent, because they have had similar problems in Germany."
The EU was the fourth-largest market last year for U.S. soymeal exports, totaling 475,900 tonnes. Shipments so far this marketing year, which began last October, are 374,300 tonnes.
A Spanish agriculture ministry official confirmed authorities had blocked a shipment of soybean meal, but could provide no further details.
One source said another cargo of soybean meal in the Spanish port of La Coruna awaited tests for genetically modified organisms, but port officials were unable to comment.
Spain's feed industry consumes some 5 million tonnes of protein-rich soybean meal a year, all of it imported, and mostly from the United States, Brazil or Argentina.
Soybean meal was quoted at 318-334 euros ($457.3-480.3) a tonne, ex-store, in Tarragona GRAES01>.
A trade source estimated Spanish ports had enough soymeal in stock to supply the animal feed industry for about a month, and said prices could be affected.
A port source said that Spain could not rely on supplies of soy from Argentina and Brazil alone.GMOs will also hurt our economy as well as our environment. I am wondering if this is... more
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said it had blown up pipelines operated by the Anglo-Dutch giant Shell and Italian group Agip in a pre-dawn attack in the Bayelsa state.
MEND, the best equipped of a number of rebel groups operating in the restive southern oil hub, has claimed at least seven attacks since the government's amnesty offer on June 25.
The militants say are on a campaign to cripple the oil industry until their complaints of injustices and inequitable distribution of the oil wealth are answered.
Nigeria's oil unions on Wednesday urged oil workers to be more vigilant in their duty posts as militants stepped up violence in the volatile region despite a government amnesty. Both unions said they hoped a government amnesty offer to rebels in the region would "yield the desired results."
President Umaru Yar'Adua last month declared an unconditional pardon for armed groups who say they are fighting for a greater share of the country's oil wealth for the local people of the Niger Delta.
Although the amnesty offer remains open until October 4, the insurgence has persisted.
Militant attacks in the region have targeted Shell, Agip and the American group Chevron. Hundreds of workers in the oil industry and its support sectors have also been kidnapped.
This week MEND abducted six foreign workers -- two Russians, two Filipinos, a Ukranian and an Indian national -- crew members of a chemical tanker.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) claimed Wednesday that some of the armed youths who responded to the amnesty offer, have been arrested by a special joint military and police unit deployed in the region to quell the violence.
The violence in the Niger Delta has cost Nigeria hundreds of thousands of barrels of crude each day. Coupled with global crude price fluctuations, the toll on Nigeria's economy has been substantial.
The unrest has cut Nigeria's crude output by around 30 percent from around 2.6 million barrels per day in 2006 to 1.8 million now. Africa's most populous country relies on oil for more than 90 percent of its export earnings.
Lamido Sanusi, the central bank chief of Nigeria, the world's eighth oil exporter, on Tuesday said the country's foreign exchange reserves had plummeted by about 10 billion dollars in six months to 43.19 billion dollars as of last week.The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said it had blown up... more
In India, teams of "barefoot solar engineers" are bringing electricity to rural villages. The project -- part of a larger campaign to help Indian villagers be self-sufficient -- trains women to build and maintain solar energy units.
The solar power initiative is run by the Barefoot College in Tilonia, a village in Rajasthan, India. Founded by Indian activist Bunker Roy in 1972, the college helps Indian villagers become self-sufficient and puts special emphasis on developing women's skills.
"Many have been inspired by women in nearby villages who left for Tilonia with hope and returned grasping the power of light," reports Sathya Saran in an article for Ms. Magazine. "Most of the women are unlettered, extremely poor and often widowed or abandoned. But their eyes blaze with newfound confidence."
Rural women from India, Afghanistan, Ghana, and Syria are trained at the college and then dispatched to train other village women -- who in turn pass on their knowledge -- to construct and run solar energy units.
Writes Saran: "these 'Sunshine Warriors' comprise a force for change that the college sends out to transform lives around the world."In India, teams of "barefoot solar engineers" are bringing electricity to rural... more
Teo Ballvé: Is Plan Colombia subsidizing narco-traffickers to cultivate biofuels on stolen lands?
Macaco, whose real name is Carlos Mario Jiménez, was one of the bloodiest paramilitary commanders in Colombia's long-running civil war and has confessed to the murder of 4,000 civilians. He and his cohorts are also largely responsible for forcing 4.3 million Colombians into internal refugee status, the largest internally displaced population in the world after Sudan's. In May 2008, Macaco was extradited to the United States on drug trafficking and "narco-terrorism" charges. He is awaiting trial in a jail cell in Washington, DC.
Macaco turned himself in to authorities in late 2005 as part of a government amnesty program that requires paramilitary commanders to surrender their ill-gotten assets--including lands obtained through violent displacement. Macaco offered up Coproagrosur as part of the deal.
But the attorney general's notice made no mention that Coproagrosur had received a grant in 2004 from the US Agency for International Development (USAID). That grant--paid for through Plan Colombia, the multibillion-dollar US aid package aimed at fighting the drug trade--appears to have put drug-war dollars into the hands of a notorious paramilitary narco-trafficker, in possible violation of federal law. Colombia's paramilitaries are on the State Department's list of foreign terrorist organizations. USAID's due diligence process "did not fail," according to an official response from the US embassy there, because Macaco was not officially listed among Coproagrosur's owners.
Since 2002 Plan Colombia has authorized about $75 million a year for "alternative development" programs like palm oil production. These programs provide funds for agribusiness partnerships with campesinos in order to wean them from cultivating illicit crops like coca, which can be used to make cocaine. These projects are concentrated in parts of northern Colombia that were ground zero for the mass displacement of campesinos.
USAID officials say the projects provide an alternative to drug-related violence for a battle-scarred country. They insist that the agency screens vigilantly for illegal activity and has not rewarded cultivators of stolen lands. But a study of USAID internal documents, corporate filings and press reports raises questions about the agency's vetting of applicants, in particular its ability to detect their links to narco-paramilitaries, violent crimes and illegal land seizures.
In addition to the $161,000 granted to Coproagrosur, USAID also awarded $650,000 to Gradesa, a palm company with two accused paramilitary-linked narco-traffickers on its board of directors. A third palm company, Urapalma, also accused of links with paramilitaries, nearly won approval for a grant before its application stalled because of missing paperwork. Critics say such grants defeat the antidrug mission of Plan Colombia.Teo Ballvé: Is Plan Colombia subsidizing narco-traffickers to cultivate biofuels on... more
Dr. Shiva on the illusion of growth that impedes progress of real growth in financial markets and regarding food sustainability.Dr. Shiva on the illusion of growth that impedes progress of real growth in financial... more
