CROPfm Forum

World leaders at a U.N. summit have the opportunity to devise a strategy to stop skyrocketing food prices from adding millions more to the multitudes of those across the globe who already lack enough to eat.
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The Rome-based U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization is hosting the three-day summit, which starts Tuesday, with the goal of averting a looming catastrophe of widening malnutrition and civil unrest among poor people unable to afford basic foodstuffs because of what the World Bank calculates has been an 83 percent increase in prices in the last three years.

When tens of thousands of people staged demonstrations in Mexico last year to protest a 60 percent increase in the price of tortillas, many analysts pointed to biofuel as the culprit. Because of US government subsidies, American farmers were devoting more and more acreage to corn for ethanol than for food, which sparked a steep rise in corn prices. The diversion of corn from tortillas to biofuel was certainly one cause of skyrocketing prices, though speculation on biofuel demand by transnational middlemen may have played a bigger role. However, an intriguing question escaped many observers: how on earth did Mexicans, who live in the land where corn was domesticated, become dependent on US imports in the first place?

This is a fair use clip of the documentary " Nutricide - Criminalizing Natural Health, Vitamins, and Herbs", Dr. Rima Laibow MD

The Codex Alimentarius is a threat to the freedom of people to choose natural healing and alternative medicine and nutrition. Ratified by the World Health Organization, and going into Law in the United States in 2009, the threat to health freedom has never been greater.

When tens of thousands of people staged demonstrations in Mexico last year to protest a 60 percent increase in the price of tortillas, many analysts pointed to biofuel as the culprit. Because of US government subsidies, American farmers were devoting more and more acreage to corn for ethanol than for food, which sparked a steep rise in corn prices.

On July 1, 2007, Robert B. Zoellick became the 11th President of the World Bank Group, which works with 185 member countries.

Prior to joining the Bank, Mr. Zoellick served as Vice Chairman, International of the Goldman Sachs Group, Managing Director, and Chairman of Goldman Sachs' Board of International Advisors from 2006-07.

Fidencio Alvarez abandoned his bean and corn farm in southern Honduras because of the rising cost of seeds, fuel and food. After months of one meal a day, he hiked with his wife and six children to find work in the city.

``We would wake up with empty stomachs and go to bed with empty stomachs,'' said Alvarez, 37, who sought help from the Mission Lazarus aid group in Choluteca in January. ``We couldn't afford the seeds to plant food or the bus fare to buy the food.''

The U.N. chief warned Sunday that the world must urgently increase food production to ease skyrocketing prices and pledged to set up a task force on a crisis threatening to destabilize developing nations.

The cost of food has increased by around 40 percent since mid-2007 worldwide, and the strain has caused riots and protests in countries like Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Haiti and Egypt.

I don't want to alarm anybody, but maybe it's time for Americans to start stockpiling food.

No, this is not a drill.

You've seen the TV footage of food riots in parts of the developing world. Yes, they're a long way away from the U.S. But most foodstuffs operate in a global market. When the cost of wheat soars in Asia, it will do the same here.

Reality: Food prices are already rising here much faster than the returns you are likely to get from keeping your money in a bank or money-market fund. And there are very good reasons to believe prices on the shelves are about to start rising a lot faster.

When tens of thousands of people staged demonstrations in Mexico last year to protest a 60 percent increase in the price of tortillas, many analysts pointed to biofuel as the culprit.

Mit dramatischen Appellen zur Bekämpfung des Hungers in der Welt hat am Dienstag in Rom der Ernährungsgipfel der Vereinten Nationen begonnen. Staats- und Regierungschefs aus mehr als 40 Ländern suchen Lösungen für die globale Lebensmittelkrise. Doch überschattet wird das Treffen von zwei unliebsamen Gästen: Der iranische Präsident Ahmadinedschad und Simbabwes Staatschef Mugabe ließen sich eine Teilnahme nicht nehmen. Und beide schreckten trotz Protesten auch nicht vor umstrittenen Aussagen zurück.

Eine Agrarrevolution und die Erweiterung der Anbauflächen sind beim UNO-Ernährungsgipfel angesichts der globalen Lebensmittelkrise gefordert worden. Doch während dort diskutiert wurde, inwieweit Rohstoffspekulationen an der Preisspirale mitschuldig sind, ist die Finanzwelt bereits einen Schritt voraus. Investmentfirmen und Hedgefonds setzen nun auf den Boom der Landwirtschaft. Anbauflächen in den USA, Südamerika und auch in Osteuropa und Afrika gelten als neue Goldgrube - von der angeblich auch Konsumenten profitieren sollen.

5.7.08 Sen. Comm. on Homeland Security & Govt. Reform on Biofuels & Food Prices