Archive for the ‘food crisis’ Category
Farmer in Chief
Dear Mr. President-Elect,
It may surprise you to learn that among the issues that will occupy much of your time in the coming years is one you barely mentioned during the campaign: food. Food policy is not something American presidents have had to give much thought to, at least since the Nixon administration — the last time high food prices presented a serious political peril. Since then, federal policies to promote maximum production of the commodity crops (corn, soybeans, wheat and rice) from which most of our supermarket foods are derived have succeeded impressively in keeping prices low and food more or less off the national political agenda. But with a suddenness that has taken us all by surprise, the era of cheap and abundant food appears to be drawing to a close. What this means is that you, like so many other leaders through history, will find yourself confronting the fact — so easy to overlook these past few years — that the health of a nation’s food system is a critical issue of national security. Food is about to demand your attention.
Complicating matters is the fact that the price and abundance of food are not the only problems we face; if they were, you could simply follow Nixon’s example, appoint a latter-day Earl Butz as your secretary of agriculture and instruct him or her to do whatever it takes to boost production. But there are reasons to think that the old approach won’t work this time around; for one thing, it depends on cheap energy that we can no longer count on. For another, expanding production of industrial agriculture today would require you to sacrifice important values on which you did campaign. Which brings me to the deeper reason you will need not simply to address food prices but to make the reform of the entire food system one of the highest priorities of your administration: unless you do, you will not be able to make significant progress on the health care crisis, energy independence or climate change. Unlike food, these are issues you did campaign on — but as you try to address them you will quickly discover that the way we currently grow, process and eat food in America goes to the heart of all three problems and will have to change if we hope to solve them. Let me explain.
Jim Rogers – ‘The US dollar is in trouble’
http://www.business-standard.com/india/storypage.php?autono=334370
| SMART TALK: Jim Rogers |
| Jitendra Kumar Gupta / Mumbai September 15, 2008, 0:04 IST |
Legendary investor Jim Rogers is probably the last word when it comes to investments in commodities. Along with George Soros, he co-founded the Quantum Fund in 1970. The fund went on to deliver absolute returns of 4,200 per cent in the decade that followed, while the S&P 500 delivered only 50 per cent during that period.
Rogers correctly predicted China’s resurgence as an economic superpower way back in the 80’s and that crude oil will touch the $100 mark. His last two books, ‘A Bull in China: Investing Profitably in the World’s Greatest Market’ and ‘Hot Commodities: How Anyone Can Invest Profitably in the World’s Best Market’ have been well received.
Rogers was in Mumbai on the occasion of the launch of the Birla Sun Life Commodity Equities Fund. At the conference and in an interview with Jitendra Kumar Gupta, he shared his outlook on commodities and the world economy. Excerpts:
How can one identify the start of an upward or downward cycle in any commodity?
In the late nineties, when I came with the conclusion that the commodity bear market is ending, I could see that no body has build offshore drilling rigs and tugs since 1981, with drilling declining for 15-20 years. I could also see that the inventories of food, which were very high in the mid-eighties, had gone down to nothing.
There was no production or capacities added for decades. I travelled around Asia, enough to know that Asia was booming, so could see that this was all coming together. And, if this is all coming to an end over the next 10-15 years, I will also be able to see the upturn in the commodity cycle. I tried and looked at the big picture for the demand and supply, and some time I get it right. Read the rest of this entry »
Global scourge clips wings of Lebanon’s beekeepers
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
Crucial links in food chain are dying in record numbers
By Esther Krenz Muller
Special to The Daily Star
BEIRUT: Many people think of bees as just another flying pest, but they are essential to modern civilization’s ability to feed itself – and they are dying in unsettling numbers.
“Since 2005, Lebanon’s estimated 10,000 beekeepers have lost roughly one quarter of their 4 billion bees,” Wadih Yazbek, manager of Yazbek Honey Est., told The Daily Star.
Billions more are disappearing all over the world, and researchers are scrambling to find answers. American beekeepers have been hardest hit, with one fourth reporting losses between 50 and 90 percent.
Honeybees, known for their famous figure-eight dance that conveys the location of food to other bees, have been sweetening our lives for thousands of years. Bees are intelligent, social insects used commercially to pollinate 100 major crops worldwide – that adds up to one third of humanity’s food supply, according to the US Department of Agriculture.
Read the rest of this entry »
Food Shock
by Jennifer Barry, GlobalAssetStrategist.com | May 9, 2008
As an American, I’ve taken for granted that I can get just about any food I want at the supermarket. In fact, the number of choices are dizzying. I never really thought about the tenuous chain between myself and my food. Less than 1% of the U.S. population is employed in agriculture, and 40% of these farmers are 55 or older.1 The chain of transportation that brings goods to the stores is tenuous and depends on a few key railways and truck drivers. Supermarkets could experience spot shortages if the proposed trucker strike gains momentum or more drivers quit the business.
Rich countries like the U.S. used to store extra food in case of emergencies. Many grain elevators were built in the Great Plains after World War II for this purpose.2 This stockpile reduced the volatility of food prices. When prices rose, the government released some grain into the market. When costs were low, the Department of Agriculture would support prices by purchasing surpluses. Excesses of wheat, milk, and butter were exported, given away or even destroyed for lack of demand. After the passage of the 1985 farm bill, the USDA divested itself of grain stocks and other foodstuffs.
What happens in the U.S. agricultural markets has a great impact on the rest of the world. America is the “Saudi Arabia” of grain as it is the largest exporter. The U.S. supplies 70% of the world’s corn, and it has little 2007 crop surplus of soybeans and wheat left to sell.3 Many poor countries depend on imports of these staples to feed millions of their hungry citizens.
Ron Paul advisor Peter Schiff’s economic forecast
4/28/2008
Punjab reaps a poisoned harvest
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/7366899.stm
The governments of many poor nations are alarmed at the rise in food prices. There are even problems in the Indian region of Punjab, where science once seemed to have found answers for a hungry world.
The Green Revolution made the Punjab, India’s richest farmland
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The first thing Satpal Singh sees when he walks out of his bedroom door in the morning is a gleaming tractor, without a speck of mud on it.
It is given pride of place and washed down before being put away for the night in its garage built into the middle of his house.
This is a sign of the wealth that has made this the richest farmland in India.
In Mr Singh’s front yard, half a dozen cows chew contentedly on a maize-based mix, processed in his own machine in the corner.
But behind this idyll serious questions are being asked about farming practices in Punjab, which have consequences for the looming crisis in world food supplies.
