tagged w/ Food Shortages
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Poverty, repression, decades of injustice and mass unemployment have all been cited as causes of the political convulsions in the Middle East and north Africa these last weeks. But a less recognised reason for the turmoil in Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Yemen, Jordan and now Iran has been rising food prices, directly linked to a growing regional water crisis.
The diverse states that make up the Arab world, stretching from the Atlantic coast to Iraq, have some of the world's greatest oil reserves, but this disguises the fact that they mostly occupy hyper-arid places. Rivers are few, water demand is increasing as populations grow, underground reserves are shrinking and nearly all depend on imported staple foods that are now trading at record prices.
For a region that expects populations to double to more than 600 million within 40 years, and climate change to raise temperatures, these structural problems are political dynamite and already destabilising countries, say the World Bank, the UN and many independent studies.
In recent reports they separately warn that the riots and demonstrations after the three major food-price rises of the last five years in north Africa and the Middle East might be just a taste of greater troubles to come unless countries start to share their natural resources, and reduce their profligate energy and water use.
"In the future the main geopolitical resource in the Middle East will be water rather than oil. The situation is alarming," said Swiss foreign minister Micheline Calmy-Rey last week, as she launched a Swiss and Swedish government-funded report for the EU.
The Blue Peace report examined long-term prospects for seven countries, including Turkey, Iraq, Jordan, the Palestinian territories and Israel. Five already suffer major structural shortages, it said, and the amount of water being taken from dwindling sources across the region cannot continue much longer.
"Unless there is a technological breakthrough or a miraculous discovery, the Middle East will not escape a serious [water] shortage," said Sundeep Waslekar, a researcher from the Strategic Foresight Group who wrote the report.
cont.Poverty, repression, decades of injustice and mass unemployment have all been cited as... more
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A well written piece by Paul Krugman appeared in the NY Times yesterday that gives a truthful view on the current protests we are seeing in relation to food prices and world weather events and the effects of climate change. I have been reporting and writing about sustainable agriculture here for a couple of years now primarily in regards to the effects of climate, speculation, world policy regarding loans and food grown for export, types of sustainable agricultural practices, seed patents and the effects of monoculture GMOs on the world's economy, health, environment and food sovereignty.
It is no overstatement to state that we are in a climate/food crisis. Recent events in Australia, Russia, China, Africa and Latin America for example have not only been a part of rising prices but also in giving us a glimpse of what life will be like in a warming world. Agriculture, its cultivation, its very existence is under threat by an ongoing assault of erratic and intensifiying weather/climate events, pesticides, expansive and destructive industrial agricultural policies and practices that see more land going to growing non food items, lack of food access and the effects of GMOs and the transgenic contamination they bring which has already affected not only the traditional corn varieties of Mexico's culture and livelihood, but crops around the world which works against what we must now be doing to save our agriculture.
As we look to the future our ability to provide for our needs is being made much harder by our own actions. As we see our population approaching a projected 9 billion within the next several decades we must begin to seriously understand the role our actions play in the world we see before us, and the world we will leave successive generations. The ability to feed ourselves and plant seeds that preserve our global biodiversity is being attacked by those who would profit from both their ownership and their demise.
In this century there will be no greater challenge to our species than working to preserve the planet that provides our food, our water, and our lives. What Mr. Krugman states here is not to be taken lightly. Climate change is indeed upon us, and its reach goes far beyond the political differences that have kept this urgent crisis from being faced as it must be now. The protests in Egypt and around the world are warning signs as well as hopeful signs. If we do not deal with the root causes of this crisis including and most importantly climate change, the world of our making will not be one we will be able to inhabit. This does come down to the very seeds we plant in our soils, and in our consciences.
http://water-is-life.blogspot.com/2011/02/droughts-floods-and-food.html
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Excerpt by Mr, Krugman:
"While several factors have contributed to soaring food prices, what really stands out is the extent to which severe weather events have disrupted agricultural production. And these severe weather events are exactly the kind of thing we’d expect to see as rising concentrations of greenhouse gases change our climate — which means that the current food price surge may be just the beginning."A well written piece by Paul Krugman appeared in the NY Times yesterday that gives a... more
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People need to wake up - 2011 has just begun and yet we are already seeing significant price shocks and serious food shortages in many areas of the globe. In fact, violent economic riots are now being reported in Algeria, in Chile and in Mozambique. Food shortages and price increases are also causing political unrest in other nations such as India, Bangladesh and Indonesia. This is a very serious situation, and if the major food producing nations of the world do not have another record harvest this year there is very likely going to be an incredibly serious global food crunch. According to the UN's Food and Agricultural Organization, the global price of food hit a new record high in December. The previous record high for food prices was in June 2008, and we all remember what happened during the summer of 2008. Massive food riots erupted in countries such as Cameroon, Haiti and Egypt. So with price shocks and food shortages already being reported all over the globe, will we see even worse global economic riots in 2011?People need to wake up - 2011 has just begun and yet we are already seeing significant... more
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This strange weather phenomenon, which you will see in the video below, happened in Newfoundland where the waves were actually frozen as they crashed on the beach. This is exactly what one would expect at the end of the warmest year on record, right? Are we freezing because of global warming? The media is still ranting that one of the effects of global warming is colder, wetter winters. Yes and building seven at the world trade center collapsed on its footprint from a burning ember? Or was it from a burning Rolls Royce engine that was catapulted from one of the planes. Was there ever a reasonable explanation for what was obviously a controlled demolition?
Read More: http://globalpoliticalawakening.blogspot.com/2010/12/record-cold-will-result-in-more-food.htmlThis strange weather phenomenon, which you will see in the video below, happened in... more
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Feeling secure with life these days? If you are secure like granite then you should possibly have your head examined and confess all your sins because insecurity is one of the facts of life. After all we might be knocking on the gates of heaven at any moment if we are good little boys and girls; life for any of us could end in the next day.
There are no guarantees in life but one. But to talk about the one solid framework of life one has to get religious, one has to talk about God or what I like to call the light of pure consciousness. No matter what, we can count on the backbone of the universe to shine 24/7 no matter what we are doing or where we are, and that is why it says to seek first the kingdom of heaven because if you do, you discover the eternal light that never fails.
The heart chakra is the security center and its color is green and even our skin turns pale greenish when flashes of insecurity and jealousy envelop us. Insecurity is such an uncomfortable feeling, so much so that people would rather just shut down this emotional/feelings center and not be bothered with all the pain. Often the more someone has the more insecure they actually become because the fear of loss grows as we gather power and wealth.
It is not easy to open up a discussion about humanity’s chances of coming through the next decade or two. There is a high probability event on the horizon that puts billions of souls on the path to the gates that lead from this earth to somewhere else, but global warming is not included in our future destiny, yet President Barack Obama saidhe will look for ways to control global warming pollution anyway.
This is no exaggeration and we need to realize that right at this moment, as we are still comfortable and secure, a cool billion people or more are already in dire straits. There are that many people who are very hungry and starving for the very elements of life, starving for water, food, and shelter. A significant percentage of humanity is already at death’s door. Even in the richest country on the planet, over 40 million are on food stamps.
The drop from July is significant, and very steep, losing more than half of the temperature anomaly since then. The southern hemisphere has dropped the most. Very threatening to global temperatures is the tremendous recent increase in volcanic activity around the world.
READ MORE: http://globalpoliticalawakening.blogspot.com/2010/11/mass-extinction-events-are-we-next.htmlFeeling secure with life these days? If you are secure like granite then you should... more
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Domestically the price of meat, milk, sugar and eggs is already taking a huge upward jump. If the root cause were a single issue, it might be absorbable or at least less damaging. However, multiple factors are hiking food prices and they are only expected to climb.
What's Happening to Our Food?
Small farmers are losing livestock and dairy cows to the economy because they can't afford the uncertainty and animal upkeep. Less production means the price of beef, milk, cheese and anything using these foods all compete for supplies.
Remember the half-billion egg recall in August? It's forced wholesale egg prices to rise nearly 40%. Consider every food that includes whole eggs and egg products. Snowballs roll downhill and so do price increases from producer to wholesaler to store to consumer.
READ MORE: http://globalpoliticalawakening.blogspot.com/2010/11/global-grain-reserves-diminish-us.htmlDomestically the price of meat, milk, sugar and eggs is already taking a huge upward... more
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The Federal Reserve today announced that they will be implementing $600 billion in additional quantitative easing by the end of June 2011. The Federal Reserve will maintain its current policy of reinvesting principal payments from its security holdings and will expand its balance sheet by an additional $75 billion per month. The total announced balance sheet expansion was $100 billion higher than the public consensus of $500 billion. The Federal Reserve will continue to hold interest rates at record low levels of 0% to 0.25%, where they have been for nearly two years.
Read More: http://globalpoliticalawakening.blogspot.com/2010/11/feds-quantitative-easing-to-starve.htmlThe Federal Reserve today announced that they will be implementing $600 billion in... more
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"The next thing that came to me was more felt than seen. It was the understanding that shortly after the crashing of the buildings in New York City (911), commerce ceased. Shopping and buying seemed to stop, and the economy failed throughout the world. Few had any money at all, and those who did have it could not buy anything of worth with it. Gold and silver and other commodities had value and could be traded.
I then saw a man walk into a middle of a crowd of people and drop what seemed like a quart jar full of liquid. The jar broke and the liquid spread. I understood that people nearby had become infected with a disease from the liquid, and they didn't even know it. A day or two later the people became sick and started dying. I saw that this would happen in four particular cities: New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Salt Lake City. The disease started with white blisters, some the size of a dime, appearing the hands, arms and face of the victims. The blisters quickly developed into white puffy sores. Those with the disease would stumble around and fall over dead. Many died within a short time, perhaps 24 hours.
I also saw other people with a flu-like virus that spread more quickly than the first disease. The victims had blood coming from their nose, mouth, eyes, and ears. These people died even faster of this disease than the ones who had the first sickness. These diseases became wide-spread across the United States with hundreds of thousands infected.
Read More: http://globalpoliticalawakening.blogspot.com/2010/11/more-prophecy-from-woman-who-predicted.html"The next thing that came to me was more felt than seen. It was the understanding... more
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My mother-in-law loves to talk. She will spend hours on the telephone informing me about every last detail of her day's activities, no matter how unimportant or trivial. My ears pricked up however when her latest whinge was about the rising price of her weekly shopping bill. "Tomatoes, bread, sugar and meat have all doubled in price in the last few weeks," she exclaimed dramatically. With this year's extreme and hostile weather, which destroyed the harvests in Russia and Pakistan, the cost of vegetables and other staple foods have reached a two-year high in many places – with rice and sugar reaching a record high. This stark increase in the cost of food is not only ruffling the feathers of my mother-in-law and her supermarket cronies, but also many food experts who are predicting that the increasing prices could ignite further political turmoil.
Read More: http://globalpoliticalawakening.blogspot.com/2010/11/rocketing-food-prices-spark-fear-of.htmlMy mother-in-law loves to talk. She will spend hours on the telephone informing me... more
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The world may be on the brink of a major new food crisis caused by environmental disasters and rampant market speculators, the UN was warned today at an emergency meeting on food price inflation.
The UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) meeting in Rome today was called last month after a heatwave and wildfires in Russia led to a draconian wheat export ban and food riots broke out in Mozambique, killing 13 people. But UN experts heard that pension and hedge funds, sovereign wealth funds and large banks who speculate on commodity markets may also be responsible for inflation in food prices being seen across all continents.
July's wildfires in Russia have led to a draconian wheat ban, pushing up prices. (Photograph: Maxim Shipenkov/EPA)In a new paper released this week, Olivier De Schutter, the UN's special rapporteur on food, says that the increases in price and the volatility of food commodities can only be explained by the emergence of a "speculative bubble" which he traces back to the early noughties.
"[Beginning in ]2001, food commodities derivatives markets, and commodities indexes began to see an influx of non-traditional investors," De Schutter writes. "The reason for this was because other markets dried up one by one: the dotcoms vanished at the end of 2001, the stock market soon after, and the US housing market in August 2007. As each bubble burst, these large institutional investors moved into other markets, each traditionally considered more stable than the last. Strong similarities can be seen between the price behaviour of food commodities and other refuge values, such as gold."
He continues: "A significant contributory cause of the price spike [has been] speculation by institutional investors who did not have any expertise or interest in agricultural commodities, and who invested in commodities index funds or in order to hedge speculative bets."
A near doubling of many staple food prices in 2007 and 2008 led to riots in more than 30 countries and an estimated 150 million extra people going hungry. While some commodity prices have since reduced, the majority are well over 50% higher than pre-2007 figures – and are now rising quickly upwards again.
"Once again we find ourselves in a situation where basic food commodities are undergoing supply shocks. World wheat futures and spot prices climbed steadily until the beginning of August 2010, when Russia – faced with massive wildfires that destroyed its wheat harvest – imposed an export ban on that commodity. In addition, other markets such as sugar and oilseeds are witnessing significant price increases," said De Schutter, who spoke today at The UK Food Group's conference in London.
Gregory Barrow of the UN World Food Program said: "What we have seen over the past few weeks is a period of volatility driven partly by the announcement from Russia of an export ban on grain food until next year, and this has driven prices up. They have fallen back again, but this has had an impact."
Sergei Sukhov, from Russia's agriculture ministry, told the Associated Press during a break in the meeting in Rome that the market for grains "should be stable and predictable for all participants." He said no efforts should be spared "to the effect that the production of food be sufficient."
"The emergency UN meeting in Rome is a clear warning sign that we could be on the brink of another food price crisis unless swift action is taken. Already, nearly a billion people go to bed hungry every night – another food crisis would be catastrophic for millions of poor people," said Alex Wijeratna, ActionAid's hunger campaigner.
An ActionAid report released last week revealed that hunger could be costing poor nations $450bn a year – more than 10 times the amount needed to halve hunger by 2015 and meet Millennium Development Goal One.
Food prices are rising around 15% a year in India and Nepal, and similarly in Latin America and China. US maize prices this week broke through the $5-a-bushel level for the first time since September 2008, fuelled by reports from US farmers of disappointing yields in the early stages of their harvests. The surge in the corn price also pushed up European wheat prices to a two-year high of €238 a tonne.
Elsewhere, the threat of civil unrest led Egypt this week to announce measures to increase food self-sufficiency to 70%. Partly as a result of food price rises, many middle eastern and other water-scarce countries have begun to invest heavily in farmland in Africa and elsewhere to guarantee supplies.
Although the FAO has rejected the notion of a food crisis on the scale of 2007-2008, it this week warned of greater volatility in food commodities markets in the years ahead.
At the meeting in London today, De Schutter said the only long term way to resolve the crisis would be to shift to "agro-ecological" ways of growing food. This farming, which does not depend on fossil fuels, pesticides or heavy machinery has been shown to protect soils and use less water.The world may be on the brink of a major new food crisis caused by environmental... more
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Today's guest blogger is JanForGore, who heads up the sustainable agriculture group. Keep an eye out for her regular guest blog posts on Current Green and providing updates on news as it relates to her channel.
Biopiracy is the patenting of indigenous bio-diversity related knowledge. For purposes of this writing, the patenting of natural traits found in plants, which is now described as epidemic. While the rewarding of patents should be based on inventiveness and original creativity, it has become a license for corporations to steal such indigenous traits endemic to nature already naturally cultivated by indigenous farmers for centuries. This is done to make fast cash and to take advantage of the climate crisis and food shortages which ironically are also exacerbated through monoculture industrial methods of what I like to call ‘strip farming.’ Such methods have stripped soil nutrients and carbon essential for sustainability of the land and our climate balance.
Companies such as Monsanto are notorious for using such tactics. One case as an example was recently reported by the Andhra Pradesh Biodiversity Board which sought royalty payments from Monsanto India Ltd. for genetic information it alleges was stolen from Bt bacteria that they then used in the development of Bt cotton, which has now led to much debt, despair, and suicide among farmers in India. This was primarily brought about by TRIPS (Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property) that has been the catalyst for corporate conglomerate takeover regarding biopiracy and GM seed manipulation and monopolization that is threatening the very culture of India by marginalizing their access to seeds and natural traits.
Biopiracy is a threat to biodiversity and the livelihoods and agriculture of indigenous farmers around the world. While some groups have joined together to stop the patenting of indigenous traits they have cultivated for centuries it is hard as corporations have the economic and political upper hand and have warped patent laws in their favor. And for these groups to then seek such patents would be expensive and raise questions regarding equally sharing the benefits of their designs and resources. However, some countries are trying unique ways to stand up for nature and the rich traditions that have preserved the many seed varieties and traits working with nature to sustain our planet and species.
In a world where climate change, food shortages, and water scarcity are already effecting the lives of the poor in much of the developing world and their environment, we must be ever mindful and vigilant of those seeking to cash in on nature by claiming false ownership. Such ownership of natural properties is illegal and unethical and sets the stage for further environmental degradation, the destruction of a natural way of life and sustainable agriculture, and the continued enslavement of farmers to multinational corporations.
Make no mistake about it, this is a war for the very soul of our planet and without farmers being able to save and cultivate the thousands of varieties of seeds that will feed an ever growing population, we will continue towards a monoculture over saturated pesticide laden environment that will not feed us, but poison us. We must be aware of these tactics and fight them.
For more recent information on this topic please reference:
Stop the Biopiracy of Climate Resilient Crops
Biopiracy, GM Seeds and Rural India
Peru's patent win strikes blow against biopiracy
Ecuador Constitution Grants Rights to Nature
Related Content:
Allow American Farmers to Grow Industrial Hemp
Food Matters - The Trailer (VIDEO)
Researchers: Farmers' rights to adapt to climate change ignored Today's guest blogger is JanForGore, who heads up the sustainable agriculture... more
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leahl
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2 years ago
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Corn ethanol? Just how much do they owe the corn industry and Monsanto? Do they realize there is a food crisis going on? And yet, they support MORE corn ethanol that has already been proven to contribute to climate change? And they are still supporting "clean coal!" There is no such thing as "clean coal." This proves they are totally out of touch with the true urgency of cutting Co2 emissions. To say they will have carbon sequestration up and running by 2016 is misleading. We spew 70 plus million tons of global warming pollution into the atmosphere EVERY DAY. Do they even comprehend what that will amount to by 2016? So what good are their "green jobs" making solar panels if people will still be able to get dirty coal energy cheaper? Where is the aggressive stance on movng us to cleaner energy? All I see are the same markers being paid to campaign contributors over caring about the environmental and health effects of burning fossil fuels and also in clearing land to grow corn for fuel instead of food!,0,6179879.story
Corn ethanol? Just how much do they owe the corn industry and... more
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Phosphorus is a mineral we don't even think about, but life on this planet depends on it.
Current farming practices cause a depletion from the natural soil, which also require the farmer to buy fertilzer, with mined phosphorus in it, so it can be put back into the soil.
Sustainable farming practices need to be put back into place before we deplete even more minerals from out diets.
There is some evidence that certain farming practices are being done away with by some farmers: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=no-till but this practice needs to really become the standard, rather than the experiment.Phosphorus is a mineral we don't even think about, but life on this planet... more
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This article is rather long and basically a no brainer for many who post here.
This is a concept many may find totally bewildering, but it can be turned around. However, we had better hurry-up, because the clock is ticking faster each day.
For those that know of the Doomsday Clock...wouldn't it be nice to see it stop?
Excerpts:
"Food scarcity and the resulting higher food prices are pushing poor countries into chaos.
Such “failed states” can export disease, terrorism, illicit drugs, weapons and refugees.
Water shortages, soil losses and rising temperatures from global warming are placing severe limits on food production.
Without massive and rapid intervention to address these three environmental factors, the author argues, a series of government collapses could threaten the world order."
"In six of the past nine years world grain production has fallen short of consumption, forcing a steady drawdown in stocks."
"States fail when national governments can no longer provide personal security, food security and basic social services such as education and health care."
"Failing states are of international concern because they are a source of terrorists, drugs, weapons and refugees, threatening political stability everywhere."
"In contrast, the recent surge in world grain prices is trend-driven, making it unlikely to reverse without a reversal in the trends themselves. On the demand side, those trends include the ongoing addition of more than 70 million people a year; a growing number of people wanting to move up the food chain to consume highly grain-intensive livestock products [see “The Greenhouse Hamburger,” by Nathan Fiala; Scientific American, February 2009]; and the massive diversion of U.S. grain to ethanol-fuel distilleries."This article is rather long and basically a no brainer for many who post here.
This... more
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These are the most powerful countries in the world .
1. US
2. Germany
3. France
4. UK
5. Japan
6. Canada
7. Sweden
8. China
9. Norway
10. Netherlands
The World is on a teeter totter right now. The decisions the world makes in the next few years can make or break us as a civilization. It is my opinion we must change as a people. Becoming more caring toward our fellow earthlings. Change can only happen at the top. I believe that the 10 most powerful countries must lead by example. Many things need addressed, the amount of money spent on weapons is one thing, Farming is another, Energy is a big issue, World Peace, Water, Religious intolerance, Race, Waste, Over Population, Pollution, Hate, all these things have much room for improvement. We have to start somewhere. If we don't we deserve our fate. As one of the most powerful America has to lead but not in the way that she has led. Our leaders need some humility. We all are just people, and someday as it did with the financial state, the world state might change. We should be more prepared for it, if something drastic happens. We know the answers too most of our problems, we just need to implement them. I would like posters to leave suggestions on the above topics, please leave all the hate and partisan BS at the door, don't attack fellow posters no matter how stupid they sound, lets just get along on this one.These are the most powerful countries in the world .
1. US
2. Germany
3. France... more
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Democracy Now's Amy Goodman reports on the world food shortage. Here in the US, two major food chains, (Sam's and Costco), stoked panic this week when they announced they would ration rice sales at their supermarkets. Democracy Now's Amy Goodman reports on the world food shortage. Here in the US,... more
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jimmyp
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4 years ago
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As food prices for staples like beans, corn and rice grow out of reach around the world, hunger in Haiti has become fierce.As food prices for staples like beans, corn and rice grow out of reach around the... more
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Food security fears sweep Asia as huge demand for rice outstrips supply.
With rice a dietary staple for billions of people, analysts are warning of potential social unrest if crop prices continue their relentless rise.
Darcy Lambton reports.Food security fears sweep Asia as huge demand for rice outstrips supply.
With rice... more
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