[THS] !!! Crisis in Food Prices Threatens Worldwide Starvation

[Peter Webster]

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19796.htm

Crisis in Food Prices Threatens Worldwide Starvation

Is it Genocide?

By Richard C. Cook

24/04/08 "GlobalResearch" -- - Rising worldwide food prices are
resulting in shortages, riots and protests, promises by governments to
expand food aid, expressions of concern by international bodies like the
World Bank, and stress on household budgets even in developed
countries like the U.S. Did this just “happen” or is there a plan?

Plenty of commentators think they have it figured out and blame such
factors as greater demand for high-end protein menus by the
increasingly upscale populations of China and India , weather factors
relating to global warming such as drought in Australia , and the
diversion of animal feed crops such as corn and soybeans to ethanol
production. L.H. Teslik of the Council on Foreign Relations speaks of
“bubbling inflation and rising oil prices.”

There is also the question of whether a role is being played by
commodity speculation. The idea is that faced with the global financial
crisis and the collapse of mortgage-based securities, investors are
flocking to resource-based tangibles as a hedge against recession and
the decline of the U.S. dollar. Hence gold is at record levels with oil
keeping the same pace. How else to explain, for instance, the doubling
of the price of rice in Asian markets in less than two months? Standard
Chartered Bank food commodities analyst Abah Ofon says, “Fund money
flowing into agriculture has boosted prices. It’s fashionable. This is the
year of agricultural commodities.”

But the idea that speculation is at fault is disputed by no less than New
York Times columnist Paul Krugman, one of the world’s leading
monetary economists, who writes:

    “My problem with the speculative stories is that they all depend on
something that holds production — or at least potential production —
off the market. The key point is that the spot price equalizes the
demand and supply of a commodity; speculation can drive up the
futures price, but the spot price will only follow if the higher futures
prices somehow reduce the quantity available for final consumers. The
usual channel for this is an increase in inventories, as investors hoard
the stuff in expectation of a higher price down the road. If this doesn’t
happen — if the spot price doesn’t follow the futures price — then
futures will presumably come down, as it turns out that buying futures
produces losses.”

Solid data in this area is hard to come by. Probably the chief common
denominator among commentators, especially those advocating a
supply and demand or global warming perspective, is that they have so
little solid information. Thus it is refreshing to find a study that contains
meaningful statistics such as one appearing on the Executive
Intelligence Report website entitled, “To Defeat Famine: Kill the WTO”
by Marcia Merry Baker. One particularly telling item is that after global
food supplies were boosted through the Green Revolution and related
programs lasting into the 1970s, more recently, world food production
has actually declined.

Baker writes, “World per-capita output of grains of all kinds (rice,
wheat, corn, and others) has been falling for twenty years. Whereas in
1986 it was 338 kilograms per person, it went down to 303 by 2006.
This decline in no way has been made up for by increasing amounts of
other staple foodstuffs—tubers, legumes, or oil crops, which likewise are
in insufficient supply.”

Further, “In twelve of the last twenty years, less grain has been
produced than utilized that year (for all purposes—direct human
consumption, livestock feed, industrial and energy uses, and reserves).
Accordingly, the amount of carryover stocks of grain from year to year
has been declining to extreme danger levels. The diversion of food
crops into biofuels is the nail in the coffin. The latest estimate is that
worldwide stockpiles of cereal crops of all kinds are expected to fall to a
twenty-five-year low of 405 million tons in 2008. That is down twenty-
one million tons, or five percent, from their already reduced level in
2007.”

Further, an increasing proportion of food crops is being produced by
large multinational corporations whose power and reach has ballooned
under the World Trade Organization and spin-offs like NAFTA even as
small family-run farms have lost the protection of parity pricing and
been priced out of business. But the data suggest that a) the output of
agribusiness has failed to match the older, more diversified systems of
farming; and b) as nations lose their ability to feed themselves,
agricultural pricing becomes more subject to monopolization.

The loss of agricultural self-sufficiency has been exacerbated in much of
the developing world by International Monetary Fund lending policies.
Under the “ Washington consensus,” entire nations have been forced to
give up agricultural self-sufficiency and convert farmland to export
commodities while displaced rural populations migrate to the slums of
large cities such as Lagos , Nigeria . Today those populations are the
ones most grievously threatened with starvation.

Then what is really going on?

First of all, let’s get rid of the idea that we are seeing “impersonal
market forces” at work. “Supply and demand” is not a “law”—it’s a
policy. If a seller has an article in demand it’s a matter of choice
whether he charges a premium when he offers it for sale. If he’s a
decent, honest soul, maybe he won’t necessarily charge all the market
will bear, particularly if the item is a necessity of life, such as food. Or
maybe there will be a responsible public authority around that will
prohibit price gouging or else subsidize the purchaser, as often happens
in credit markets. Of course public spirited action like this is itself a
declining commodity in a world afflicted with the kind of market
fundamentalism and rampant privatization that has been the rage since
the 1980s Reagan Revolution.

Second, let’s ask the question which any competent investigator should
pose when starting out on the trail of a possible crime: “Who benefits?”
Indeed we may be speaking of a crime on the scale of genocide if the
events in question are a) avoidable; in which case the crime is one of
negligent homicide; or b) planned, where we obviously have a
conspiracy among the contributing parties.

Those who benefit are obviously the ones who finance agricultural
operations, those who are charging monopoly prices for the
commodities in demand, the various middlemen who bring the products
to market after they leave the farm, and the owners or mortgagees of
the land, retail space, and other assets required to conduct the
production/consumption cycle.

In other words, it’s the financial elite of the world who have gained
complete control of the most basic necessity of life. This includes not
only the international financiers who provide capitalization, including the
leveraging of trading in commodity futures up to the 97 percent level,
but even organized crime groups which the U.S. Department of Justice
says have penetrated world materials markets.

And is all this part of a long-term strategy by international finance to
starve much of the world’s population in order to seize their land,
control their natural resources, and enslave the rest who fear a similar
fate? Already millions of people are losing their homes to housing
inflation and foreclosure. Is actual or threatened physical starvation the
next part of the scenario?

And where are the governmental authorities whose job it is to protect
the public welfare both at the national and international levels? These
authorities long ago allowed a situation to develop, including in
developed nations like the U.S. , where people in localities no longer
have the simple ability to feed themselves, even in emergencies. And
not one of the candidates remaining in the U.S. presidential
election—John McCain, Hillary Clinton, nor Barack Obama—has
addressed the food pricing issue. Indeed, all three are part of a
government that has gone so far as to exclude much of the rising cost
of food from measurements of inflation, an innovation that took place
on Bill Clinton’s watch.

It is now April. Already food has run out in some parts of the world. In a
few months winter will come, at least in the Northern Hemisphere. What
will happen then? Are you certain food will be on your table?

And suppose you wanted to make a contribution to your own well-being
and to that of your family and community by going into farming. In
most parts of North America you can look around and see plenty of
underutilized land.

But could you do it? Could you buy or lease land and pay taxes on it
after the galloping inflation of the real estate bubble? Could you get
bank loans for equipment and operating expenses under today’s
constrained credit conditions? Could you afford fuel for your equipment
when petroleum costs over $115 a barrel? Is water readily available
from developed supplies and is electricity available at regulated prices?
Could you purchase anything other than genetically-modified seed?
Would local supermarkets buy your produce when your prices are
undercut by massive corporate distributorships importing food from
abroad? Does the system even exist in your home town for marketing of
local farm products?

And does anyone in power even care?

Well, whether they do or not, “We the People” should care. One of the
worst aspects of the consumer society is the separation between the
individual and the products of the earth we utilize. We always assume
that whatever we need will be there so long as we have money in our
bank account or the ability to charge on a credit card and pay later.

Such assumptions are losing their validity. Back in the 1960s people who
were starting to understand these things began a modest “back to the
land” movement. Today it is time to start one again. Except this time we
need to do it right by demanding government policies that support it.
This means low-cost credit, price supports, affordable utilities, favorable
tax policies, and decisions by government and businesses to “buy local.”
Food production cannot safely be left in the hands of agribusiness and
international finance capitalism any longer.

Richard C. Cook is a former U.S. federal government analyst, whose
career included service with the U.S. Civil Service Commission, the Food
and Drug Administration, the Carter White House, NASA, and the U.S.
Treasury Department. His articles on economics, politics, and space
policy have appeared on numerous websites. His book on monetary
reform entitled We Hold These Truths: The Promise of Monetary Reform
is in preparation. He is also the author of Challenger Revealed: An
Insider’s Account of How the Reagan Administration Caused the
Greatest Tragedy of the Space Age, called by one reviewer, “the most
important spaceflight book of the last twenty years.” His website is at
www.richardccook.com