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caniff
Joined: 03 Feb 2004
Location: All over the map
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 Posted: Tue May 10, 2011 9:02 pm Post subject: The New Geopolitics of Food |
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From the Middle East to Madagascar, high prices are spawning land grabs and ousting dictators. Welcome to the 21st-century food wars
BY LESTER R. BROWN | MAY/JUNE 2011
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/04/25/the_new_geopolitics_of_food?page=0,0
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In the United States, when world wheat prices rise by 75 percent, as they have over the last year, it means the difference between a $2 loaf of bread and a loaf costing maybe $2.10. If, however, you live in New Delhi, those skyrocketing costs really matter: A doubling in the world price of wheat actually means that the wheat you carry home from the market to hand-grind into flour for chapatis costs twice as much. And the same is true with rice. If the world price of rice doubles, so does the price of rice in your neighborhood market in Jakarta. And so does the cost of the bowl of boiled rice on an Indonesian family's dinner table.
Welcome to the new food economics of 2011: Prices are climbing, but the impact is not at all being felt equally. For Americans, who spend less than one-tenth of their income in the supermarket, the soaring food prices we've seen so far this year are an annoyance, not a calamity. But for the planet's poorest 2 billion people, who spend 50 to 70 percent of their income on food, these soaring prices may mean going from two meals a day to one. Those who are barely hanging on to the lower rungs of the global economic ladder risk losing their grip entirely. This can contribute -- and it has -- to revolutions and upheaval. |
Scary prospects.
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| Saudi Arabia is only one of some 18 countries with water-based food bubbles. All together, more than half the world's people live in countries where water tables are falling. The politically troubled Arab Middle East is the first geographic region where grain production has peaked and begun to decline because of water shortages, even as populations continue to grow. Grain production is already going down in Syria and Iraq and may soon decline in Yemen. But the largest food bubbles are in India and China. In India, where farmers have drilled some 20 million irrigation wells, water tables are falling and the wells are starting to go dry. The World Bank reports that 175 million Indians are being fed with grain produced by overpumping. In China, overpumping is concentrated in the North China Plain, which produces half of China's wheat and a third of its corn. An estimated 130 million Chinese are currently fed by overpumping. How will these countries make up for the inevitable shortfalls when the aquifers are depleted? |
There's gonna be a lot more famine amongst the have-nots in the not-too-distant future. |
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visitorq
Joined: 11 Jan 2008
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| Posted: Tue May 10, 2011 10:06 pm Post subject: |
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It's mostly a problem of inflation, not of production. As everyone knows, we vastly overproduce food (esp. in the West), but artificial scarcity is induced to keep prices high. Inflation is the hidden tax on the public caused by governments and banks debasing the major world currencies (including war spending and massive bailouts to the financial sector).
The food markets are also more and more vertically integrated and globally connected, with huge corporate farms and seed producers like Monsanto dominating everything. This is a huge problem, and government subsidies are huge part of it. |
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Junior
Joined: 18 Nov 2005
Location: the eye
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| Posted: Wed May 11, 2011 4:53 am Post subject: |
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| visitorq wrote: |
| It's mostly a problem of inflation, not of production. |
Corrupt/ inept governments are probably the biggest reason at the moment.
But in the years to come it will be climate change, which is already affecting agriculture worldwide.
In the future wars will be fought over things like water.
Because humans are trashing the planet. |
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Menino80
Joined: 10 Jun 2007
Location: Hodor?
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| Posted: Fri May 13, 2011 6:38 am Post subject: |
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| visitorq wrote: |
| It's mostly a problem of inflation, not of production. As everyone knows, we vastly overproduce food (esp. in the West), but artificial scarcity is induced to keep prices high. |
this is just priceless. the supply is TOO BIG! But THEY somehow hoard all of this perishable stock and POOF! THE SUPPLY IS TOO SMALL!!!!
Is this a Rockefeller plot too? I know, I'm sure I'm about to get my 'guts dominated' but please, just do me a favor |
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visitorq
Joined: 11 Jan 2008
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Menino80
Joined: 10 Jun 2007
Location: Hodor?
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| Posted: Fri May 13, 2011 8:51 am Post subject: |
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Rather than addressing Captain Endless Paranoia, I'd like to link to a story about Korea going into Africa to basically buy farmland:
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1861145,00.html
The Breadbasket of South Korea: Madagascar
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| South Korea's Daewoo Logistics this week announced that it had negotiated a 99-year lease on some 3.2 million acres of farmland on the dirt-poor tropical island of Madagascar, off southern Africa's Indian Ocean coast. That's nearly half of Madagascar's arable land, according to the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and Daewoo plans to put about three quarters of it under corn. The remainder will be used to produce palm oil � a key commodity for the global biofuels market. |
this was from 2008, and i believe that the deal was shut down since then in light of a political transition/power grab in Madagascar, but a scary prospect nonetheless, and one that will no go away anytime soon. |
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visitorq
Joined: 11 Jan 2008
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| Posted: Fri May 13, 2011 10:04 am Post subject: |
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| Menino80 wrote: |
| Rather than addressing Captain Endless Paranoia |
You mean rather than address the fact that I just trounced on you and made you look like a complete ass, you'd like to run away and avoid replying (since you can't offer a real reply, except to admit you were wrong). You're not fooling anyone. |
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Fat_Elvis
Joined: 17 Aug 2006
Location: In the ghetto
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| Posted: Fri May 13, 2011 3:21 pm Post subject: |
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| Menino80 wrote: |
| Rather than addressing Captain Endless Paranoia, |
You're just a part of the Big Lie and you're too stupid to know, but he knows. Anything you say that might contradict his point of view is part of the Big Lie too. You're probably a Freemason as well. |
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caniff
Joined: 03 Feb 2004
Location: All over the map
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| Posted: Fri May 13, 2011 3:26 pm Post subject: |
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| Hey Menino and Visitor, is there nothing you two can agree on? |
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Menino80
Joined: 10 Jun 2007
Location: Hodor?
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| Posted: Fri May 13, 2011 6:19 pm Post subject: |
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| caniff wrote: |
| Hey Menino and Visitor, is there nothing you two can agree on? |
no wayzies |
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visitorq
Joined: 11 Jan 2008
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| Posted: Fri May 13, 2011 7:02 pm Post subject: |
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| caniff wrote: |
| Hey Menino and Visitor, is there nothing you two can agree on? |
Did you see the way he burst into the threat and blatantly misquoted me, tried to make a mockery of my position, and then refused to even fess up afterwards? Why would I agree with him on that? He's not even interested in debating (he's even said as much), he's just a complete jackass. |
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caniff
Joined: 03 Feb 2004
Location: All over the map
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| Posted: Fri May 13, 2011 7:44 pm Post subject: |
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| Hey Menino and Visitor, is there nothing you two can agree on? |
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| he's just a complete jackass |
Okay, I think we're making some progress here. Now if we can just get you two to talk to each other rather than at each other, then I really think we can more fully understand the dynamics that are interfering with and getting in the way of a more healthy communication flow.
I'm here to help, but this has to start with the two of you. Are you ready to make this step? |
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visitorq
Joined: 11 Jan 2008
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| Posted: Fri May 13, 2011 11:57 pm Post subject: |
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| caniff wrote: |
| Quote: |
| Hey Menino and Visitor, is there nothing you two can agree on? |
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| he's just a complete jackass |
Okay, I think we're making some progress here. Now if we can just get you two to talk to each other rather than at each other, then I really think we can more fully understand the dynamics that are interfering with and getting in the way of a more healthy communication flow.
I'm here to help, but this has to start with the two of you. Are you ready to make this step? |
I appreciate your concern, but there's really no point trying to reason with a troll (especially not one as obnoxious as menino). Better to ignore him most of the time, and if/when he crosses the line to just put him in his place. Standard procedure. |
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caniff
Joined: 03 Feb 2004
Location: All over the map
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| Posted: Sat May 14, 2011 8:55 pm Post subject: |
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| Can't say I didn't try. |
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