Posted: Thu May 08, 2008 12:01 pm Post subject: Re: The Spreading Food Crisis Thread (U.S. & World)
wisconsin_cur wrote:
seahorse wrote:
Wisconsin,
I agree with your analogy, but I think its even more limited than that - we're not platoon leaders, we're nothing but a bunch of squad leaders. The immediate family is usually about squad size. Its all one can plan for and around. A squad has to be highly mobile and adaptive to constantly changing conditions. Although like you, my home is my castle, my last bastion of defense, the buck stops here, you know what I'm saying.
Fair enough Sgt Seahorse.
good luck
Ahh, yes...we're a bunch of NCOs with green troops...with no resupply...no reinforcements....behind enemy lines...hostile indigenous population....digging in to fixed positions....
Posted: Thu May 08, 2008 1:19 pm Post subject: Re: The Spreading Food Crisis Thread (U.S. & World)
Quote:
Ahh, yes...we're a bunch of NCOs with green troops...with no resupply...no reinforcements....behind enemy lines...hostile indigenous population....digging in to fixed positions....
Oh Jack, ye of little faith, must we quibble? Why worry about rice when there is long pig? Demoting me to NCO already, on what charge? Last time I looked, I was still a captain. Oh well, if HQ disagrees, then they can send over a runner, the biggest piece of long pig they got, to deliver the message to my "green" band of hungry marauders that I've been demoted, its easier so much easier to wait for long pig to find you than to search it out. "Lines?" Does anyone recognize any lines? If you see lines, then you are at a disadvantage. There are no such protections in life, you know that. "Hostile indigenous population?" I thought that was me. No reinforcements? Who needs reinforcements? Have I run out of ammo?
Joined: Nov 15, 2007 Posts: 288 Location: US East Coast
Posted: Thu May 08, 2008 5:57 pm Post subject: Re: The Spreading Food Crisis Thread (U.S. & World)
On a slightly different note, here is an article about soil health.
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20080508/D90HNJBO0.html _________________ When going through hell, keep going! Churchill
Nothing is ever lost by courtesy. It is the the cheapest of pleasures, costs nothing, and conveys much. E Wiman
I know there’s no solution, so I just enjoy what’s here and I enjoy the journey G Carlin
Chinese companies will be encouraged to buy farmland abroad, particularly in Africa and South America, to help guarantee food security under a plan being considered by Beijing.
A proposal drafted by the Ministry of Agriculture would make supporting offshore land acquisition by domestic agricultural companies a central government policy. Beijing already has similar policies to boost offshore investment by state-owned banks, manufacturers and oil companies, but offshore agricultural investment has so far been limited to a few small projects.
If approved, the plan could face intense opposition abroad given surging global food prices and deforestation fears. However an official close to the deliberations said it was likely to be adopted.
Looks like we have a new imperialist on the block. _________________ "Mit der Dummheit kaempfen Goetter selbst vergebens" -Friedrich von Schiller
Posted: Thu May 08, 2008 9:20 pm Post subject: Re: The Spreading Food Crisis Thread (U.S. & World)
wisconsin_cur wrote:
...
Quote:
Chinese companies will be encouraged to buy farmland abroad, particularly in Africa and South America, to help guarantee food security under a plan being considered by Beijing.
Looks like we have a new imperialist on the block.
I disagree. It's only imperialist if you do it at gun point. If you're paying for it then it's fair game IMHO.
and since the Chinese are sitting on $1.6 Trillion in US currency reserves thanks to their trade surplus it looks like they have a lot of money to spend.
Posted: Thu May 08, 2008 10:13 pm Post subject: Re: The Spreading Food Crisis Thread (U.S. & World)
Novus wrote:
Ludi wrote:
No Food Crisis.
There is still plenty of food in the world. So much, we're feeding it to animals and machines.
This is a money and distribution crisis, as most food crises are.
Semantics, Ludi semantics. The food crisis has hit 2 billion yet it has not really affected America. For one third of the world's population this is quickly turning into life and death. For America which represents maybe 4% of the world's population it is just another thing to put on the credit card.
I used to think that maybe there was enough food for all... until I started thinking of ecological limits if our population continue to grow exponentially... this cann't last forever, and we're close to this limits. Worldwide Famine (..and War, Pestilence, Death) is getting more real, even in the so called "1st world". It's like seeing crap hitting random populations...
this week: 20,000 to 100,000 death in a hurricane... _________________ anagami.net
Joined: Apr 05, 2005 Posts: 1628 Location: Springsteen Country (NJ)
Posted: Thu May 08, 2008 10:31 pm Post subject: Re: The Spreading Food Crisis Thread (U.S. & World)
cube wrote:
I disagree. It's only imperialist if you do it at gun point. If you're paying for it then it's fair game IMHO.
What if you're doing it by bribing local officials to help you obtain that land by either changing or breaking the laws, or having the government take the land that people have worked for centuries by eminent domain and then selling it to China (or US corps)?
Money is just a proxy for violence. _________________ Joe P. United Political Debate
"Only when the last tree is cut; only when the last river is polluted; only when the last fish is caught; only then will they realize that you cannot eat money." - Cree Indian Proverb
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and his top lieutenants on Monday are convening the first meeting of the U.N.’s Task Force on the Global Food Crisis. Ban says it will “study the root causes of the crisis,” and propose solutions for “coordinated global action” at a summit of world leaders in June.
Ban might want to consider convincing the oil-rich nations of the Middle East to provide more than the near-invisible amount of money they currently give to the World Food Program (WFP), the U.N.’s food-giving arm, which is charged with alleviating the food crisis.
WFP internal documents show that the major oil producing nations of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) gives almost nothing to the food organization, even as skyrocketing oil prices and swollen oil revenues contribute to the very crisis that the U.N. claims could soon add 100 million more people to the world’s starving masses.
The overwhelming bulk of the burden in feeding the world’s starving poor remains with the United States and a small group of other predominately Western nations, a situation that the WFP has done little so far to change, even as it has asked for another $775 million in donations to ease the crisis.
Donor listings on WFP’s website show that this year, as in every year since 1999, the U.S. is far and away the biggest aid provider to WFP. Since 2001, U.S. donations to the food agency have averaged more than $1.16 billion annually — or more than five times as much as the next biggest donor, the European Commission.
We are good, we give. They are bad, they soak us for oil profits and do not give. I think we will soon start to see a lot of piling on regarding the evils of OPEC. _________________ "Mit der Dummheit kaempfen Goetter selbst vergebens" -Friedrich von Schiller
While donors squabble, poor countries face riots. But so far, these have had less political impact than many expected. Around 30 countries have suffered protests but only Haiti has seen its government fall. In the Middle East, the part of the world most dependent on food imports, there have been demonstrations and strikes in Egypt, Morocco and Jordan. But all three countries withstood more serious food riots in the late 1970s and 1980s.
In some of the poorest countries, rising food prices have been causing less distress than might have been expected because benefits have also appeared. In Bangladesh, one of the most vulnerable countries, the rice crop is up 10%, prices are about four times production costs and wages for landless peasants are soaring.
Bangladesh has a lot of rural poverty. In countries with millions of urban poor, governments have so far survived demonstrations in part because they are seen to be reacting, whether by issuing ration cards (Egypt and Pakistan) or setting up and expanding social-protection programmes (this is happening almost everywhere, even America). Sometimes, admittedly, reactions are fairly daft. Thailand proposed an OPEC-style cartel for rice, an idea that went nowhere. Many food exporters have gone for beggar-thy-neighbour trade restrictions. Each time one limits or bans food exports, it pushes up world prices—and other governments, equally anxious to keep food inside the country, follow suit. About 30 countries have imposed some form of trade restraint.
Quote:
Food importers don’t have the luxury of making such mistakes. They are buying time by, for example, boosting food subsidies or hiking wages. In Egypt, bread used to be about a fifth of the world price; now it is less than a tenth. Several Arab states have decreed hefty pay rises: 25% for public-sector workers in Syria, 30% in Egypt.
These policies are inflationary and expensive. Oil exporters, or countries like Egypt that benefit from big remittances from them may be able to afford them for a while. Others are not so lucky. In Indonesia, where half the population lives on less than $2 a day, inflation is 9% and food prices are soaring (the price of subsidised rice to the poor was jacked up 60% in April).
_________________ "Mit der Dummheit kaempfen Goetter selbst vergebens" -Friedrich von Schiller
Joined: Jun 13, 2007 Posts: 3631 Location: Minniesotuh
Posted: Fri May 09, 2008 7:56 am Post subject: Re: The Spreading Food Crisis Thread (U.S. & World)
wisconsin_cur wrote:
Quote:
WFP internal documents show that the major oil producing nations of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) gives almost nothing to the food organization, even as skyrocketing oil prices and swollen oil revenues contribute to the very crisis that the U.N. claims could soon add 100 million more people to the world’s starving masses.
Why should OPEC give food aid/money to feed the poor? They can't buy gas or visit the lovely resort town of Dubai.
wisconsin_cur wrote:
We are good, we give. They are bad, they soak us for oil profits and do not give. I think we will soon start to see a lot of piling on regarding the evils of OPEC.
IMHO, the giving by the average American for other countries is going to stop. Look at the recent stories about empty US foodbanks.
With rising food and gas costs, even if the food is available, who is going to want to pay to transport that food-especially if, at the end point, it is confiscated by that country's government or military?
Economic fears have led to a drop in charitable donations
March 21, 2008--A leaky roof at a nonprofit child advocacy agency in Edinburg is a harsh reminder of hard economic times.
So is the short supply of food at the Food Bank of the Rio Grande Valley and the depressed bank account balance of Mujeres Unidas, a nonprofit agency that helps victims of domestic abuse and family violence.
And a number of groups that rely on charitable giving say the donations are drying up just when people are experiencing the most need. …
When the economy goes sour, charities and community organizations are usually hit the hardest, said Daniel Borchoff, president of the American Institute for Philanthropy in Chicago. …
Donations decreasing _________________ "RRrrruuuunnnn!!!" ~Apocalypto
Posted: Fri May 09, 2008 7:59 am Post subject: Re: The Spreading Food Crisis Thread (U.S. & World)
The facts are not as important as the narrative that is being formed, a narrative that will soon take the form of gospel truth. We are good and giving. The world's poor are also victims of OPEC greed which takes our money and does not share it with the most needy.
Soon we may start looking for a hero, someone who will go out and slay the dragon. _________________ "Mit der Dummheit kaempfen Goetter selbst vergebens" -Friedrich von Schiller
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