Joined: May 10, 2007 Posts: 2746 Location: The Entropisphere
Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2008 11:07 pm Post subject: Re: The Spreading Food Crisis Thread (U.S. & World)
OilFinder2 wrote:
Somehow I don't think someone stole 57,000 pounds of chicken because they were hungry.
In fact, I bet they were more interested in stealing the tractor and the trailer than they were the chicken.
They did not steal it because they were hungry, they stole it to sell it. If you are right and they were primarily interested in the equipment (very plausible I would add) then the net effect on those receiveing the food aid is the same... it aint there. _________________ "Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain."
-Friedrich von Schiller
"What I try, may not work. It may be ineffective. It might even turn out in the pages of history to be the exact wrong thing to do, but I'm going to try to do what I c
Joined: Mar 26, 2008 Posts: 1032 Location: Seattle
Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2008 11:11 pm Post subject: Re: The Spreading Food Crisis Thread (U.S. & World)
wisconsin_cur wrote:
They did not steal it because they were hungry, they stole it to sell it. If you are right and they were primarily interested in the equipment (very plausible I would add) then the net effect on those receiveing the food aid is the same... it aint there.
Well that depends on what the thieves do with the chicken. If they give it all away for free to their friends, or even sell it for cheap, it becomes de facto charity anyway. _________________ Abundance - what a concept!
Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2008 11:20 pm Post subject: Re: The Spreading Food Crisis Thread (U.S. & World)
wisconsin_cur wrote:
OilFinder2 wrote:
Somehow I don't think someone stole 57,000 pounds of chicken because they were hungry.
In fact, I bet they were more interested in stealing the tractor and the trailer than they were the chicken.
They did not steal it because they were hungry, they stole it to sell it. If you are right and they were primarily interested in the equipment (very plausible I would add) then the net effect on those receiving the food aid is the same... it aint there.
Right now the average market value on bulk chicken before markup is about $.55 per pound. So perhaps the stolen chicken could be sold at a discount rate on the black market for $.25 per pound for a total of $14,250. So yeah, the stolen chicken was still fairly valuable.
Also, with today's high food prices, I would think that heavily discounted stolen chicken would be much easier to sell than a stolen big rig.
Quote:
However, it would now seem that thieves are taking advantage of this green revolution.
Rhubarb, potatoes and onions were part of a haul stolen from an allotment in Cheslyn Hay, near Cannock, while other sites in the region have also reported thefts of produce
<snip>
Thieves stole potatoes from my own plot and put the stalks back in place so it was two or three days before I noticed _________________ Quis custodiet ipsos custodes.
Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2008 2:35 pm Post subject: Re: The Spreading Food Crisis Thread (U.S. & World)
RonMN quoted:
Quote:
Rhubarb, potatoes and onions were part of a haul stolen from an allotment in Cheslyn Hay, near Cannock, while other sites in the region have also reported thefts of produce
There are many stories of thieves stealing food from gardens during the Great Depression. It is said farmers often slept in their barns to keep people from stealing the milk from the cows, or the entire cow.
People usually only steal food when they are hungry. For a true thief, other things are usually more profitable to steal than garden produce. Hunger goes along with depressions. I wonder what they are going to name this one?
Quote:
However, it would now seem that thieves are taking advantage of this green revolution.
Rhubarb, potatoes and onions were part of a haul stolen from an allotment in Cheslyn Hay, near Cannock, while other sites in the region have also reported thefts of produce
<snip>
Thieves stole potatoes from my own plot and put the stalks back in place so it was two or three days before I noticed
This is precisely why it is important to have a dog...they never sleep. _________________ "There must be a bogeyman; there always is, and it cannot be something as esoteric as "resource depletion." You can't go to war with that." Emersonbiggins
"... hope is a rotten-thighed whore" Niko Kazantzakis
Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2008 2:48 pm Post subject: Re: The Spreading Food Crisis Thread (U.S. & World)
Peak Oil = Peak Food But those in the UAE can't eat sand. Since we gave the world our piggy bank of oil during two World Wars lets set Export controls on the Breadbasket of the US of A. Thats one thing we can still do just about better then any country out there.
Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2008 4:47 pm Post subject: Re: The Spreading Food Crisis Thread (U.S. & World)
Couve wrote:
Peak Oil = Peak Food But those in the UAE can't eat sand. Since we gave the world our piggy bank of oil during two World Wars lets set Export controls on the Breadbasket of the US of A. Thats one thing we can still do just about better then any country out there.
They want Food....Fine.... We want Oil
The UAE has a couple of million food consumers. You have several hundred million oil consumers...... can you see a problem yet?
And errrr, how did you give the world your piggy bank of oil? What does that mean or do I really not want to know?
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Food prices could rise even more unless the mysterious decline in honey bees is solved, farmers and businessmen told lawmakers Thursday.
Farmers say their businesses are feeling the sting of the decline of honey bees.
"No bees, no crops," North Carolina grower Robert D. Edwards told a House Agriculture subcommittee. Edwards said he had to cut his cucumber acreage in half because of the lack of bees available to rent.
About three-quarters of flowering plants rely on birds, bees and other pollinators to help them reproduce. Bee pollination is responsible for $15 billion annually in crop value.
In 2006, beekeepers began reporting losing 30 percent to 90 percent of their hives. This phenomenon has become known as Colony Collapse Disorder. Scientists do not know how many bees have died; beekeepers have lost 36 percent of their managed colonies this year. It was 31 percent for 2007, said Edward B. Knipling, administrator of the Agriculture Department's Agricultural Research Service.
"If there are no bees, there is no way for our nation's farmers to continue to grow the high quality, nutritious foods our country relies on," said Democratic Rep. Dennis Cardoza of California, chairman of the horticulture and organic agriculture panel. "This is a crisis we cannot afford to ignore."
Food prices have gone up 83 percent in three years, according to the World Bank.
Edward R. Flanagan, who raises blueberries in Milbridge, Maine, said he could be forced to increase prices tenfold or go out of business without the beekeeping industry. "Every one of those berries owes its existence to the crazy, neurotic dancing of a honey bee from flower to flower," he said.
The cause behind the disorder remains unknown. Possible explanations include pesticides; a new parasite or pathogen; and the combination of immune-suppressing stresses such as poor nutrition, limited or contaminated water supplies and the need to move bees long distances for pollination.
Ice cream maker Haagen-Dazs and natural personal care products company Burt's Bees have pledged money for research and begun efforts to help save the bees.
The problem affects about 40 percent of Haagen-Dazs' 73 flavors, including banana split and chocolate peanut butter, because ingredients such as almonds, cherries and strawberries rely on honey bees for pollination.
Katty Pien, brand director for Haagen-Dazs, said those ingredients could become too scarce or expensive if bees keep dying. It could force the company to discontinue some of its most popular flavors, Pien said.
Haagen-Dazs has developed a new limited-time flavor, vanilla honey bee, and will use some of the proceeds for research on the disorder. Burt's Bees has introduced Colony Collapse Disorder Lip Balm to "soften your lips while saving honeybees."
The House Appropriations Committee approved $780,000 on Thursday for research on the disorder and $10 million for bee research. The money awaits approval by the full House and Senate.
_________________ "Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain."
-Friedrich von Schiller
"What I try, may not work. It may be ineffective. It might even turn out in the pages of history to be the exact wrong thing to do, but I'm going to try to do what I c
June 30 (Bloomberg) -- Investors should avoid the dollar while commodities are the ``best investment'' for this year, said Jim Rogers, chairman of Rogers Holdings.
Rogers, who in April 2006 correctly predicted oil would reach $100 a barrel and gold $1,000 an ounce, made the comments in a speech in Shanghai today.
The dollar has slipped 6.7 percent against the euro and 5.2 percent versus the yen this year as the Federal Reserve cut interest rates to stave off a U.S. economic recession. Oil prices in New York have doubled in the past 12 months, while gold futures jumped 41 percent.
Avoid the dollar ``at all costs,'' Rogers said. ``The best investments in 2008 are commodities and natural resources. Agricultural prices have much higher to go over the next decade. We have a shortage of everything including seeds.''
_________________ "Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain."
-Friedrich von Schiller
"What I try, may not work. It may be ineffective. It might even turn out in the pages of history to be the exact wrong thing to do, but I'm going to try to do what I c
BANGKOK — At least 29 countries have sharply curbed food exports in recent months, to ensure that their own people have enough to eat, at affordable prices.
When it comes to rice, India, Vietnam, China and 11 other countries have limited or banned exports. Fifteen countries, including Pakistan and Bolivia, have capped or halted wheat exports. More than a dozen have limited corn exports. Kazakhstan has restricted exports of sunflower seeds.
The restrictions are making it harder for impoverished importing countries to afford the food they need. The export limits are forcing some of the most vulnerable people, those who rely on relief agencies, to go hungry.
“It’s obvious that these export restrictions fuel the fire of price increases,” said Pascal Lamy, the director general of the World Trade Organization.
And by increasing perceptions of shortages, the restrictions have led to hoarding around the world, by farmers, traders and consumers.
“People are in a panic, so they are buying more and more — at least, those who have money are buying,” said Conching Vasquez, a 56-year-old rice vendor who sat one recent morning among piles of rice at her large stall in Los Banos, in the Philippines, the world’s largest rice importer. Her customers buy 8,000 pounds of rice a day, up from 5,500 pounds a year ago.
The new restrictions are just an acute symptom of a chronic condition. Since 1980, even as trade in services and in manufactured goods has tripled, adjusting for inflation, trade in food has barely increased. Instead, for decades, food has been a convoluted tangle of restrictive rules, in the form of tariffs, quotas and subsidies.
Now, with Australia’s farm sector crippled by drought and Argentina suffering a series of strikes and other disruptions, the world is increasingly dependent on a handful of countries like Thailand, Brazil, Canada and the United States that are still exporting large quantities of food.
On a recent morning here in Bangkok, sweaty and heavily tattooed dock workers took turns grabbing 120-pound sacks of rice from a conveyor belt and carrying them on their heads to cranes that whisked the sacks deep into the hold of a freighter bound for the Philippines. Most of the one million tons of rice that leaves the dock here each year follows the same spine-crushing routine.
“I’ve been here 28 years,” said the assistant port manager, Suchart Wuthiwaropas. “This is the busiest ever.”
Powerful lobbies in affluent countries across the northern hemisphere, from Japan to Western Europe to the United States, have long protected farmers in ways factory workers in Detroit could only dream of.
The Japanese protect their rice industry by making it nearly impossible for imported rice to compete. The European Union severely limits beef and poultry imports, and Poland goes further, barring soybean imports as well.
The natural results of humans acting when a vital resource comes under tight supply. Again you do not have to have a world-wide shortage before importing nations (or the poor living within) begin to feel the pinch. It is not a matter of having enough, it is a matter of having a large enough surplus that exporters are willing to export at a price the importer can afford.
Quote:
The current dispute over food exports highlights choices that nations have confronted for centuries.
One relates directly to trade: Is it best to specialize in whatever food grows best in a country’s soil, and trade it for all other food needs — or even, perhaps, specialize in services or manufacturing, and trade those for food?
Or is it best to seek self-sufficiency in every type of food that will, weather permitting, grow within a country’s borders?
The usual answer from economists, and the United States’ position for decades, is that the world benefits most if every country specializes in growing (or servicing or making) what it can most efficiently, and trading for the rest.
Rainfall and other limits make it prohibitively difficult for some countries to grow all their own food. “If Egypt had to be self-sufficient in food, there would be no water left in the Nile,” Mr. Lamy said in a telephone interview.
“If every country in the world decided it wanted to produce its own food for consumption,” Ms. Schwab said, “there would be less food in the world, and more people would be hungry.”
But relying on food imports becomes much dicier if other countries are prepared to shut off the tap.
An obscure rule of the World Trade Organization requires members to notify the agency when they restrict food exports. But there are no penalties for ignoring the rule, and not one of the countries that has imposed restrictions in the past year has complied, according to the W.T.O.
Japan and Switzerland are leading a group of food-importing nations so alarmed by restrictions that they are seeking an international agreement preventing countries from unilaterally limiting food exports. The agreement would be part of the current, already-rocky Doha round of trade talks, named for the city in Qatar where negotiations began.
But the proposal ran into a procedural snag right off: food export restrictions are such a new issue that they are only tangentially mentioned as part of the Doha round agenda, which is not easily modified.
In some of the nations concerned about shortages now, past policies have discouraged farming. From Indonesia to West Africa to the Caribbean and Central America, poor countries have frequently cut farm assistance programs and lowered tariffs to balance budgets and avoid charging high prices to urban consumers. But they have found that their farmers cannot compete with imports from rich countries — imports that are heavily subsidized.
As a result, steps that could have taken place decades ago, resulting in more food for the world today, were abandoned. These included changes like irrigation schemes and new crop varieties.
“The subsidies given by developed countries to their farmers have led to lack of investment in agriculture in developing countries” in Africa and elsewhere, Mr. Nath said.
To make matters worse, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund frequently pressured poor countries in the 1980s and 1990s to lower tariffs and to cut farm support programs, mostly to reduce budget deficits.
Indeed, the World Bank concluded in 2006 that not enough attention had been paid to the negative effects of its policy prescriptions on farmers in developing countries.
The current export restrictions, which mainly help urban consumers in poor countries, are the latest blow to farmers in the developing world.
Arfa Tantaway Mohamed, who grows rice on three-quarters of an acre outside the bustling town of Aga in northern Egypt, is frustrated at Egypt’s export ban, which is suppressing rice prices.
“For sure it has a negative impact,” said Mr. Mohamed, 50, as he smoked a Cleopatra brand cigarette during a break from working his fields, while 18 members of his extended family labored nearby.
...
Quote:
One possible compromise not being discussed in the Doha round may be for countries to continue relying on trade for most food imports, but hold bigger reserves in case of crises. World rice reserves, for example, have plunged to 9 weeks’ worth of consumption, from 19 as recently as 2001.
But United Nations officials are wary.
“I would not object to building up reserves,” said Supachai Panitchpakdi, the secretary general of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. “But like foreign exchange reserves, some countries go to huge extremes.”
_________________ "Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain."
-Friedrich von Schiller
"What I try, may not work. It may be ineffective. It might even turn out in the pages of history to be the exact wrong thing to do, but I'm going to try to do what I c
Corn slumps as data show surprise gains in acreage
By Moming Zhou, MarketWatch
Last update: 1:28 p.m. EDT June 30, 2008
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Corn prices slumped Monday, pulling back more than 7% from the record high set at the end of last week, after government data showed farmers planted more corn than expected, offsetting the impact of flooding that has been damaging farmland in the Midwest, the nation's major corn-producing area.
[...]
The Department of Agriculture's latest crop acreage report showed that corn planted area for the 2009 crop season is expected to be 87.3 million acres, 1.3 million higher than the USDA's March report. The report also showed corn growers are expecting to harvest 78.9 million acres, up 100,000 acres from three months ago.
Wheat Plunges as U.S. Report Shows Spring Acreage Increased
By Tony C. Dreibus
June 30 (Bloomberg) -- Wheat plunged the most in 10 weeks after a government report showed U.S. growers seeded more acres with spring crops to take advantage of prices that rallied to a record this year.
About 14.197 million acres were sown in April and May, up 6.8 percent from a year earlier, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said today in a report. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg expected 14.312 million acres. Wheat futures have tumbled 35 percent from a record $13.495 a bushel on Feb. 27.
[...]
Farmers may seed 63.5 million acres with all varieties of wheat in the year that ends May 31, a 5 percent jump from the prior year, the government said. Production is expected to increase 18 percent to 2.43 billion bushels, or 66.2 million metric tons, in the marketing year, the USDA said on June 10.
Wheat Inventories
Inventories of U.S. wheat will more than double to 13.3 million tons by May 31, the government said. Global stockpiles are expected to increase to 132.1 million tons, from 115.1 million.
Corn planted area for all purposes is estimated at 87.3 million acres, down 7 percent from last year. Despite the decrease, corn planted acreage is the second highest since 1946, behind last year's total of 93.6 million acres. Growers expect to harvest 78.9 million acres for grain, down 9 percent from 2007. If realized, this would be the second highest since 1944, behind last year. Farmers increased corn plantings 1.31 million acres from their March intentions.
[...]
Soybean planted area for 2008 is estimated at 74.5 million acres, up 17 percent from last year but 1 percent below the record high acreage in 2006. Area for harvest, at 72.1 million acres, is up 15 percent from 2007. Compared with last year, planted acreage increases are expected in all States, and the U.S. planted area for soybeans is the third largest on record.
[...]
All wheat planted area is estimated at 63.5 million acres, up 5 percent from 2007. The 2008 winter wheat planted area, at 46.6 million acres, is 4 percent above last year but down slightly from the previous estimate. Of this total, about 31.9 million acres are Hard Red Winter, 11.0 million acres are Soft Red Winter, and 3.7 million acres are White Winter. Area planted to other spring wheat for 2008 is estimated at 14.2 million acres, up 7 percent from 2007. Of this total, about 13.4 million acres are Hard Red Spring wheat. The Durum planted area for 2008 is 2.66 million acres, up 24 percent from the previous year.
Looks like the "spreading food crisis" will have to wait. In fact it looks more like we've got Fields of Plenty this year.
Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 12:26 pm Post subject: Re: The Spreading Food Crisis Thread (U.S. & World)
Fields of Plenty?
Oh yes....Plenty of money put into that field!
Check fertilzier prices. Anhydrous ammonia prices will about make a guy pass out. _________________ "Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster, and if you gaze into the
Abyss, the Abyss gazes also into you."
Ammo at a gunfight is like bubblegum in grade school: If you havent brought enough for everyone, you're in trouble
June 1 stocks of U.S. corn were estimated at 4.028 billion bushels, nearly 500 million larger than stocks of a year ago and about 100 million larger than the average trade guess.
[...]
The USDA indicated that it re-interviewed about 1,200 farmers on June 23, 24, and 25 to supplement the data collected in the normal survey procedure for the June Acreage report. The results indicate that producers planted or intended to plant 87.327 million acres of corn for all purposes this year. That is about 1.3 million acres above intentions reported in March and two million acres above the average trade guess. Acreage exceeds intentions by 200,000 in Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Texas and by 150,000 in North Dakota and Wisconsin. Acreage equals intentions in Indiana and is 300,000 less in Illinois and 500,000 less in Iowa.
Corn acreage intended for harvest as grain is projected at 78.94 million, 7.6 million less than harvested in 2007. The difference between acreage planted and harvested for grain is estimated at 8.387 million, about 1.2 million more than normal. Widespread flooding is expected to result in more abandoned acres or perhaps more acres harvested for silage. Yield potential is difficult to predict, but based on improving weather, a benign weather forecast for July, and improving crop condition ratings, potential yield is likely at or above the USDA's June assessment of 148.9 bushels. The 2008 production potential may be between 11.8 and 12.0 billion bushels. Weather conditions over the next three months will determine if that potential is reached.
[...]
Basically, farmers in states outside the flooded areas have planted more corn than expected, which is partially compensating for the loss of acreage in the flooded areas.
Specop_007 wrote:
Fields of Plenty?
Oh yes....Plenty of money put into that field!
Check fertilzier prices. Anhydrous ammonia prices will about make a guy pass out.
Doesn't seem to be preventing farmers from planting more acres, does it. _________________ Abundance - what a concept!
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Then stop driving to work, duh..... 
In fact it looks more like we've got Fields of Plenty this year.
