Global food crisis
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… FULL
Frank:
This can’t be true. Those hysterical conspiracy theorists at globalresearch that you and De dislike warned of this months and months ago. Same with Paul Craig Roberts warning of a police state. That can’t be true. Nor can this from him:
“An American Police State was inevitable once Americans let “their” government get away with 9/11. Americans are too gullible, too uneducated, and too jingoistic to remain a free people. As another Nazi leader Herman Goering said, ‘The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. Tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peace-makers for lack of patriotism and for exposing the country to danger.’”
25 September 2010, 3:32 pmBrianR:
Oh yeah… Duck Duck Go is a tor exit server. If you use Tor the onion router that anonymizes all your computer does on-line all your web searches can be highly obfuscated using Tor to search the web with DDG.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tor_%28anonymity_network%29
26 September 2010, 5:44 pmhttps://www.torproject.org/
Michael Anderson:
Here’s some proof that the food markets are being gamed—goddamn profit on starvation:
http://origin.benzinga.com/10/09/493105/grains-over-gold-yeah-i-said-it
Grains Over Gold. Yeah, I Said It.
“Investors are failing to recognize that both agricultural prices, such as wheat, and industrial soft prices, such as cotton and rubber, are moving in tandem.”
27 September 2010, 1:46 am- Sean Darby, Nomura strategist
Michael Anderson:
More on Speculation:
http://www.agrimoney.com/news/think-like-a-speculator-food-companies-told–2305.html
‘Think like a speculator’, food companies told
If you can’t beat them join them. Food companies should think more like the speculators that many of them have frowned upon to prosper in a new era of “large agricultural price swings”.
1 October 2010, 3:15 pmMichael Anderson:
Oh boy—technocrats leading the way…
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-fg-china-water-20100929,0,6745590.story
China moving heaven and Earth to bring water to Beijing
Reporting from Zhengzhou, China —
“It might be the most ambitious construction project in China since the Great Wall.
The Chinese government is planning to reroute the nation’s water supply, bringing water from the flood plains of the south and the snowcapped mountains of the west to the parched capital of Beijing. First envisioned by Mao Tse-tung in the 1950s and now coming to fruition, the South-North Water Diversion — as it is inelegantly known in English — has a price tag of more than $62 billion, twice as expensive as the famous Three Gorges Dam. It is expected to take decades to complete.”
“The Communist Party has staked enormous prestige on the success of the project, which is supposed be a showpiece for President Hu Jintao’s theories of “scientific development.” Hu is a hydraulic engineer by training who began his career at Sinohydro, the state-owned dam builder responsible for much of the construction.”
1 October 2010, 3:22 pmCurt:
A mere 62 billion. That sound like a heck of a deal to me. Of course who are we to tell the Chinese they also better think about the after effects. I am sure it would not be neccessary anyways. The Chinese experts I am sure have already factored in all of the changes that this project will cause in to thier equations.
2 October 2010, 6:49 amCurt:
Just a small border incident.
14 February 2011, 3:56 pmA few weeks ago I went to a gas station.
In this part of the world those people who drive diesels drive one way across the border and those who drive gasoline vehicles drive the other way across the border to fill up.
Well a few weeks ago when I pulled in to the station I saw that the usual Super 95 and the Super Plus 98 blends of gasoline had been changed to something called E10 which in fine print underneath said was made of at least 10% Ethanol and E5 which said could be up to 5% Ethanol. I put in the E5 and complained about ethanol when I paid.
Double Well when I went back yesterday to the station the old gasoline was back. I spoke with the cashier about it. It seems at least at this station the customers where very hostile to the idea of putting ethanol in their cars.
Sadly it was not because Ethanol raises food prices and dirtys water. Most of the anger against Ethanol was reported by the cashier to be because it lowers gasoline milage.
Oh well right outcome for the wrong reason. I hope that it gets repeated all over.