Fears of grain crops failing, exacerbating food crisis.

"In a year when global harvests need to be excellent to ease the threat of pervasive food shortages, evidence is mounting that they will be average at best. Some farmers are starting to fear disaster.

American corn and soybean farmers are suffering from too much rain, while Australian wheat farmers have been plagued by drought.

“The planting has gotten off to a poor start,” said Bill Nelson, a Wachovia grains analyst. “The anxiety level is increasing.” LINK

IMF addressing food crisis

This is scary stuff- and it's getting worse.

"The head of the International Monetary Fund has warned of dire consequences if the price of food staples continues to rise around the world, suggesting last week's food riots in Haiti could just be the warm-up for much more widespread global unrest.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the IMF's managing director, told a meeting in Washington over the weekend that he foresaw widespread starvation and economic disruption if food prices did not come under control. "The consequences will be terrible," he said.

The IMF is now forecasting inflation rates in developing countries of an average 7.4 per cent this year, up from a January forecast of a 6.4 per cent increase. The price of rice has almost doubled over the past year, and wheat has increased by 130 per cent, including a 10 per cent jump just last Friday.

In Haiti, where food riots led to an emergency cut in the price of rice and the dismissal of the Prime Minister over the weekend, fresh violence erupted as a United Nations peacekeeper carrying food for his unit was dragged from his car in the capital, Port-au-Prince, and shot, execution-style, in the back of the neck. It was the first time a UN peacekeeper had been killed since the current mission to Haiti began four years ago, and suggested a new rage that is unlikely to abate." LINK

Actual headline - "Hungry mob attacks Haiti palace"

"Crowds of demonstrators in Haiti have tried to storm the presidential palace in the capital Port-au-Prince as protests continue over food prices.

"We are hungry," they shouted before attempting to smash open the palace gates.

In recent months, it has become common among Haiti's poor to use the expression "grangou klowox" or "eating bleach", to describe the daily hunger pains people face, because of the burning feeling in their stomachs.

Rising food prices are causing unrest around the globe but in Haiti, one of the poorest countries in the world, the protests threaten to destabilise an already fragile democracy. " link

Rice crisis getting worse- hoarders to be given life imprisonment in Philippines

"With rice prices hitting record highs, tensions are rising across the Philippines.

The government was forced this week to draft in troops to deliver rice to poor neighbourhoods...

The government has warned rice hoarders that they would be given life imprisonment if found guilty - underlining the highly sensitive nature of the issue for the authorities. " LINK

"Rice prices are set to keep rising as demand for the staple is outstripping production, the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) has said.

The price of rice has risen by as much as 70% during the past year, with increases accelerating in recent weeks." link

Behind all those grim headlines (below) is the really scary stuff.

Map is of locations where there have recently been food riots or protests. LINK to tracker


"Food price rises threaten global security - UN





Rising food prices could spark worldwide unrest and threaten political stability, the UN's top humanitarian official warned yesterday after two days of rioting in Egypt over the doubling of prices of basic foods in a year and protests in other parts of the world.



Sir John Holmes, undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs and the UN's emergency relief coordinator, told a conference in Dubai that escalating prices would trigger protests and riots in vulnerable nations. He said food scarcity and soaring fuel prices would compound the damaging effects of global warming. Prices have risen 40% on average globally since last summer.



"The security implications [of the food crisis] should also not be underestimated as food riots are already being reported across the globe," Holmes said. "Current food price trends are likely to increase sharply both the incidence and depth of food insecurity."



He added that the biggest challenge to humanitarian work is climate change, which has doubled the number of disasters from an average of 200 a year to 400 a year in the past two decades.



As well as this week's violence in Egypt, the rising cost and scarcity of food has been blamed for:



· Riots in Haiti last week that killed four people
· Violent protests in Ivory Coast
· Price riots in Cameroon in February that left 40 people dead
· Heated demonstrations in Mauritania, Mozambique and Senegal
· Protests in Uzbekistan, Yemen, Bolivia and Indonesia"


LINK to The Guardian





And over in The NYT, farmers are making too much money to care about the environment. This is the kind of thing that spirals out of control.





"Thousands of farmers are taking their fields out of the government’s biggest conservation program, which pays them not to cultivate. They are spurning guaranteed annual payments for a chance to cash in on the boom in wheat, soybeans, corn and other crops. Last fall, they took back as many acres as are in Rhode Island and Delaware combined.



Environmental and hunting groups are warning that years of progress could soon be lost, particularly with the native prairie in the Upper Midwest. But a broad coalition of baking, poultry, snack food, ethanol and livestock groups say bigger harvests are a more important priority than habitats for waterfowl and other wildlife." LINK

Rice riots soon?

"Across Asia the suddenly stratospheric rice prices have prompted countries to ban exports amid fears that shortages could provoke food riots.

While prices of wheat, corn and other agricultural commodities have surged since the end of 2006, partly because of extra demand for biofuels to offset rising oil prices, rice held fairly steady.

However, prices for the staple food of about 2.5 billion Asian people rocketed two months ago. Thai rice, the global benchmark, which was quoted at just below $400 (£200) a tonne in January rose to $760 (£380) last week.

Aware that shortages of such a vital staple could spell trouble at home, Asian governments have moved to ensure their people get enough to eat at a price they could afford, an insurance policy which has in turn raised prices further."
LINK

Grain, grain everywhere and not a kernel to eat.

"Everywhere, the cost of food is rising sharply. Whether the world is in for a long period of continued increases has become one of the most urgent issues in economics.
“Everyone wants to eat like an American on this globe,” said Daniel W. Basse of the AgResource Company, a Chicago consultancy. “But if they do, we’re going to need another two or three globes to grow it all.”
Rising food prices in the United States are already helping to fuel inflation reminiscent of the 1970s.
And the increases could become an even bigger problem overseas. The increases that have already occurred are depriving poor people of food, setting off social unrest and even spurring riots in some countries.
In seven of the last eight years, world wheat consumption has outpaced production. Stockpiles are at their lowest point in decades.
Around the world, wheat is becoming a precious commodity. In Pakistan, thousands of paramilitary troops have been deployed since January to guard trucks carrying wheat and flour. Malaysia, trying to keep its commodities at home, has made it a crime to export flour and other products without a license.
In the United States, the price of dry pasta has risen 20 percent since October, according to government data. Flour is up 19 percent since last summer. Over all, food and beverage prices are rising 4 percent a year, the fastest pace in nearly two decades."
LINK

US to cut food aid to poorest nations due to ethanol caused 41% increase in cost of grain. Ta dah!

"THE US will drastically reduce emergency food aid to some of the poorest countries this year due to soaring food prices, The Washington Post reports today.
Citing unnamed officials, the newspaper said the US Agency for International Development (USAID) was drafting plans to cut down the number of recipient nations and the amount of food provided to them.
A 41 per cent surge in prices of wheat, corn, rice and other cereals over the past six months has generated a $US120 million ($126.5 million) budget shortfall that will force the USAID to reduce emergency operations, the report said. " LINK

Scary numbers! Happy New Year!

Think gas is expensive?


"Wheat prices alone have risen 92% in the past year, and yesterday closed at US$9.45 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade."

and how about

"The price of corn has risen about 44% over the past 15 months, closing at US$4.66 a bushel on the CBOT yesterday - its best finish since June 1996.
This not only impacts the price of food products made using grains, but also the price of meat, with feed prices for livestock also increasing. "

LINK to full article

Deja-vu

The world is starting to feel like a small town tiny little grocery that is going out of business. Getting a little dusty in the corners, running out of things. At first, it's the unusual, what you were always surprised was there to start with, shoelaces, polar bears, gorillas, the unexpected, the startling. Then as the frantic owners get tired of their late night calculations and begin to give up, it's no bread, or no fish. There's a point too, when you walk in one day, and the scruffed linoleum isn't even swept, and you realize that this place is going to close. The difference though, is that the local grocery will probably be replaced by some shiny chain store, fully stocked with twizzlers and bread and something strange like cellphones or feather roses, and the earth, well, there's nothing to take it's place. So long and thanks for all the fish.