OT - Food Riots in Spring

[Cdnwolf]

A grim report prepared by France’s General Directorate for External Security (DGSE) obtained by Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) states that president’s Obama and Sarkozy have “agreed in principal” to create a joint US-European military force to deal exclusively with a Global uprising expected this spring as our World runs out of food.

According to this report, Sarkozy, as head of the G-20 group of developed Nations, called for and received an emergency meeting with Obama this past Monday at the White House wherein he warned his American counterpart that the shock rise in food prices occurring due to an unprecedented series of disasters was threatening the stability of the entire World and could lead to the outbreak of Total Global War.

Just last week French Prime Minister Francois Fillon underlined that one of France’s top G-20 priorities was to find a collective response to “excessive volatility” in food prices now occurring, a statement joined by Philippe Chalmin, a top economic adviser to the French government, who warned the World may face social unrest including food riots in April as grain prices increase to unprecedented highs.

The fears of the French government over growing Global instability was realized this past week after food riots erupted in Algeria and Tunisia and left over 50 dead. So dire has the situation become in Tunisia that their government this morning rushed in massive amounts of troops and tanks to their capital city Tunis and instituted a Nationwide curfew in an order to quell the growing violence.

The United Nations, also, warned this past Friday that millions of people are now at risk after food prices hit their highest level ever as Global wheat stocks fell to 175.2 million tons from 196.7 million tons a year ago; Global corn stocks are said may be 127.3 million tons at the end of this season, compared with last month’s USDA outlook for 130 million tons; and Global soybean inventories will drop to 58.78 million tons at the end of this season, from 60.4 million tons a year earlier.

Robert Zoellick, president of the World Bank, further warned this past week that rising food prices are “a threat to global growth and social stability” as our World, for the first time in living memory, has been warned is just “one poor harvest away from chaos”.

Important to note about how dire the Global food situation has become is to understand the disasters that have befallen our World’s top wheat growing Nations this past year, and who in descending order are: China, India, United States, Russia, France, Canada, Germany, Ukraine, Australia and Pakistan.

From China’s disaster: 2010 China drought and dust storms were a series of severe droughts during the spring of 2010 that affected Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi, Sichuan, Shanxi, Henan, Shaanxi, Chongqing, Hebei and Gansu in the People’s Republic of China as well as parts of Southeast Asia including Vietnam and Thailand, and dust storms in March and April that affected much of East Asia. The drought has been referred to as the worst in a century in southwestern China.

From India’s disaster: A record heat wave and growing water crisis in India are forcing politicians to consider implementing user fees and other measures to conserve water. Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday instructed ministers and officials to prepare a strategic plan to face an impending food crisis as there were signs that the World is to confront a food shortage by next April.

From Russia’s disaster: (10% of total World’s output, 20% for export) they were hit by the highest recorded temperatures Russia has seen in 130 years of recordkeeping; the most widespread drought in more than three decades; and massive wildfires that have stretched across seven regions, including Moscow.

From France’s disaster: The French government lowered their wheat crop forecast by 2.7% over last year due to drought and cold weather.

From Canada’s disaster: Record setting drought has affected their main grain producing provinces in the Western part of their Nation.

From Ukraine’s disaster: (the World’s top producer of barley and sixth biggest of wheat) hit as hard as Russia by fire and drought to the point they have halted all their exports of grains in 2011.

From Australia’s disaster: Fears of a Global wheat shortage have risen after the Queensland area of Australia was hit by calamitous flooding. Andrew Fraser, Queensland’s State Treasurer, described the floods as a “disaster of biblical proportions”. Water is covering land the size of France and Germany. It is expected to reach over 30 feet deep in some areas in coming days.

From Pakistan’s disaster: Floods have submerged 17 million acres of Pakistan’s most fertile crop land, have killed 200,000 herd of livestock and have washed away massive amounts of grain and left farmers unable to meet the fall deadline for planting new seeds, which implies a massive loss of food production in 2011, and potential long term food shortages.

Not only have the vast majority of our World’s top wheat producers been affected, but also one of the main grain producing regions on the Planet, South America, has been hit by disasters too where an historic drought has crippled Argentina and Bolivia, and Brazil, that regions largest Nation, has been hit with catastrophic floods that have killed nearly 400 people in the past few days alone.

Even the United States has been hit as a catastrophic winter has seen 49 of their 50 States covered by snow causing unprecedented damage to their crops in Florida due to freezing weather, and record setting rains destroying massive numbers of crops in their most important growing region of California.

And if you think that things couldn’t get any worse you couldn’t be more mistaken as South Korea (one of the most important meat exporters in Asia) has just this past week had to destroy millions of farm animals after an outbreak of the dreaded foot-and-mouth disease was discovered.

To how horrific the Global food situation will become this year was made even more grim this past month when the United States reported that nearly all of their honey bee and bumblebee populations have died out, and when coupled with the “mysterious” die-off of the entire bat population in America means that the two main pollinators of fruit and vegetable plants will no longer be able to do their jobs leading to crop losses this report warns will be “biblical and catastrophic”.

Chillingly to note is that after meeting with Sarkozy, Obama began implementing his Nation’s strategy for keeping the truth of this dire events from reaching the American people by ordering all US citizens to have an Internet ID so that they can be tracked and jailed should they begin telling the truth.

And so today, as agricultural traders and analysts warn that the latest revision to US and Global stocks means there is no further room for weather problems, a new cyclone is preparing to hit Australia, brutal winter weather in India has killed nearly 130, and more snow is warned to hit America, and we’re not even two full weeks into 2011…may God have mercy on us all.

[Legbreaker]

Weather happens. With regard to Australia, the northern part of the country on average gets hit with about half a dozen decent cyclones every year. Although they do a lot of damage to the impacted regions, they don't really reduce the average rural output of the country as a whole.

I'd say that the article is a bit of an overreaction to what are basically normal events (if a little on the extreme side of normal).

Note that a five second google search found that 2009 was supposed to be the "end of the world" due to food shortages... http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.p...t=va&aid=12252

The planet actually produces much more food than is actually needed, let alone consumed. The problems lie mainly in poor distribution. A reduction of 5, 10, even 25% of production is unlikely to cause everyone in the world to starve (there'd still be enough to feed everyone), provided distribution was effective.

[Fusilier]

OT or not, please don't be posting crap like that here and passing it off as legitimate news. If you really want more conspiracy stories, then why not just stick with Alex Jones?

This story was originally written by fear monger Sorcha Faal, a well known name in the conspiracy theory circuit - who's real name is actually David Booth.

He's an internet hoaxer with the usual articles including the Illuminati, UFOs, dictator Bush, dictator Obama, 2012 crap, time wells and Atlantis, mark of the beast microchips, US concentration camps, Planet X, CIA selling nukes, and every other end of the world plot you can imagine but will never see outside of reliable sources.

It simply isn't true.

[Targan]

Originally Posted by Legbreaker

The planet actually produces much more food than is actually needed, let alone consumed. The problems lie mainly in poor distribution. A reduction of 5, 10, even 25% of production is unlikely to cause everyone in the world to starve (there'd still be enough to feed everyone), provided distribution was effective.

Over the past 10 years the increases in world grain prices haven't been due to a lack of grain, they've been due to increasing amounts of grain being used for purposes other than directly feeding people (such as for feeding livestock for meat production and also for making alcohol as oil prices rise).

[Legbreaker]

I vaguely recall somebody telling me once that the world produces something like 3 time the food actually needed. The excess ends up rotting in fields, landfills, etc.

So why do we have famines and starvation? Because there's no money in shipping that excess to the poorer areas where it's needed. It's economics, pure and simple.

[Abbott Shaull]

Originally Posted by Targan

Over the past 10 years the increases in world grain prices haven't been due to a lack of grain, they've been due to increasing amounts of grain being used for purposes other than directly feeding people (such as for feeding livestock for meat production and also for making alcohol as oil prices rise).

Yeah some of the raises in food prices has been directly linked to certain grains have been used for other purposes than making food sources for people such as feed and making of fuels alternatives. There is also in some place this return to organic production that has also raised prices too.

Like has been pointed out lot of the problem too is also the lack of efficient transportation of the food and making sure the people who are needing it get the food, instead of people who are looking to make profit off it and don't mind if it goes to waste. If you think how much food many food establishment waste regardless if they are for profit, non-profit, governmental throw out on the daily basis too doesn't help.

If their are any riot it will be due to the piss pour distribution set up that we know of today.

[Abbott Shaull]

Uhm Leg the only reason their is no money, is due to the fact that most governments are more willing to pony up money to ship food out of their country, but are very unwilling to feed the poor in their own country. So if you paying to ship grain across the world, but not willing to ship grain around the corner... Priorities are all messed up.

Next thing I grew up in region Michigan that use to be field after field of corn, soybeans, and wheat when I was growing up. This was 30+ years ago, now many of these location are suffering from urban blight due to overgrowth of Lansing-East Lansing and Jackson area, or are now bedroom communities. In many cases for many years the farmers were paid not to grow crops. Of course, their payment were on lower than if they had grown crops, but at the time there was so much overage in an average year they probably end up breaking even or or less. The payment not to grow was money in the bank, and you didn't have wear and tear on equipment either, less of payroll, etc. As lot of these town expanded, some of these farmer made a killing selling portions off their land at time for much higher price than it was worth if they continue to farm it. Gave lot of older farmers a nice retirement fund. While other sold their farms that had been in the family for some over hundred years to corporate framers who were paying lot less for the acreage, but again lot of the older farmer just wanted to get out from under everything.

The recent Housing bubble burst is replay of the Farmers who had gone busted in 1980s and lost family farms after farm due to foreclosures. Ironic that some of these locations are where many of the houses that were prices out of their mind prices are being foreclosed on.

Just some observations.

[Legbreaker]

Governments are not the ones producing, shipping and generally providing the food. They can have an influence on it, but it all boils down to private companies.

If the private sector isn't making any money, then people will starve. Only in a pure communist style environment may the government control all production, processing and distribution.

[Abbott Shaull]

Originally Posted by Legbreaker

Governments are not the ones producing, shipping and generally providing the food. They can have an influence on it, but it all boils down to private companies.

If the private sector isn't making any money, then people will starve. Only in a pure communist style environment may the government control all production, processing and distribution.

Even the purest of Communist States the farmers who worked the collectives were allowed their own small plots to do what they wanted with. So even there were chances for side incomes.

[Legbreaker]

Unless the state took everything they produced and left them only the tiny plots to produce their required food on.
Still, I'm sure there'd have been a bit of local trading carried on - one grows tomatoes, another carrots, etc.

Regarding starvation in Africa, I believe the continent is agriculturally the richest in the world. Unfortunately this richness comes back to bite them in the hard times as many areas simply don't need to store food for the lean seasons (normally there aren't any) so when they get hit with a drought, or war, locusts, etc...

[HorseSoldier]

Even the purest of Communist States the farmers who worked the collectives were allowed their own small plots to do what they wanted with. So even there were chances for side incomes.

I believe that was a later adaptation of communist agricultural schemes. After "pure" communist agricultural efforts yielded disasters like the famines that killed millions in post-Revolutionary China and the USSR.

[Cdnwolf]

WINNIPEG, Manitoba/CHICAGO (Reuters) - Canadian feed wheat is flowing into the southeastern United States in the largest quantities for more than a decade, highlighting tight U.S. corn supplies and a surplus of feed wheat in Canada, several trade sources said.

Wilmington Bulk LLC, a consortium of North Carolina poultry and swine producers including Smithfield Foods, has bought between 100,000 and 200,000 tonnes of Western Canadian feed wheat, industry sources in Canada and the United States said.

Strong demand from ethanol producers has driven corn stocks to a 15-year low, while Canada has more feed wheat than usual after excessive rain last year and untimely frost

[Abbott Shaull]

Yeah they were suppose to build on of the Ethanol plants near here, but I think that project got put on hold. Mainly due to the cost of bringing the corn needed to feed the plant.

Like I state if they had started to do this like 30 years or so ago, they could of kept plenty of farmers in business. *shakes head* Thinking of old farm land from back where my parent live that is now overly priced sub-divisions that now adding to the glut of the housing market.

I am sure there are those on the board more knowledge of the finer details of farming, but it seems to me we waited too long to start this, and we are on borrowed time with this...ugh.

[Fusilier]

Originally Posted by Abbott Shaull

Yeah they were suppose to build on of the Ethanol plants near here, but I think that project got put on hold. Mainly due to the cost of bringing the corn needed to feed the plant.

Is the US the same as a lot of other places that require by law a certain % of gasoline to be ethanol? It's only a relatively small fraction, but part of the rising price of food is from an increasing amount of corn stock being diverted for fuel additives.

[pmulcahy11b]

Originally Posted by Fusilier

Is the US the same as a lot of other places that require by law a certain % of gasoline to be ethanol? It's only a relatively small fraction, but part of the rising price of food is from an increasing amount of corn stock being diverted for fuel additives.

I believe it's done state by state, and only during summer, late spring, and early fall (around here, anyway). The mix is 10% ethanol.

[HorseSoldier]

Yeah, I think Paul is right. There's no federal law I'm aware of, but some states do a mix (and some of the Plains states now dispense primarily ethanol mix at the pumps, much to my initial excitement when driving through there and seeing gas prices plummet when I entered North Dakota . . . only to learn that stuff won't run in my vehicle . . .)

[dragoon500ly]

Originally Posted by HorseSoldier

Yeah, I think Paul is right. There's no federal law I'm aware of, but some states do a mix (and some of the Plains states now dispense primarily ethanol mix at the pumps, much to my initial excitement when driving through there and seeing gas prices plummet when I entered North Dakota . . . only to learn that stuff won't run in my vehicle . . .)

Didn't the Feds just release a new "guideline" authorizing up to 15% ethanol?
Exxon, BP and Chevron announced that they were increasing the ethanol content...at least here in Mississippi