Global Food Crisis 2010/11

Ever since the financial meltdown that occurred in 2007 there has been talk of a food crisis. While many might scoff at the very idea of it there are some who are taking this potentiality seriously - none more so than Olivier De Schutter, the UN's special rapporteur on the right to food. He believes that inaction to halt speculation on agricultural commodities and continued biofuels policies is paving the way for a re-run of the 2008 food price crisis in 2010 or 2011.



When the UN's Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food starts mentioning a food crisis I think it is time to sit up and listen.

“The 2010 Food Crisis is different. It is THE CRISIS. The one that makes all doomsday scenarios come true. The government bailouts and central bank interventions, which have held the financial world together during the last two years, will be powerless to prevent the 2010 Food Crisis from bringing the global financial system to its knees.” - Eric deCarbonnel 2010 Food Crisis for Dummies

However, this is not a new phenomena. The Food Crisis we could be facing has been over thirty years in the making...

The impending Food Crisis didn’t start in 2008, 2002 or even 2000 but in 1973. One year after the “Week That Changed The World.”

In 1973, President Richard Nixon and the rest of the U.S. government, did not promote environmental alternatives to our dependence on fossil fuels but instead came up with Biofuels and a plan to pay Archer Daniels Midland Corporation to turn 450 pounds of corn into the fuel for the 25-gallon tank in our SUV.

The small LCD at the gas pump should show an emaciated person starving to death because the food he needed to survive is being burned up so you can drive your car to the mall.

“It is a crime against humanity to convert agricultural productive soil into soil which produces food stuff that will be turned into Biofuels,” says Jean Ziegler, the U.N. special Rapporteur. - www.daily.pk...

This might be news to some people but there are many that have seen this crisis coming...

The only surprising thing about the global food crisis to Jim Goodman is the notion that anyone finds it surprising. "So," says the Wisconsin dairy farmer, "they finally figured out, after all these years of pushing globalization and genetically modified [GM] seeds, that instead of feeding the world we've created a food system that leaves more people hungry. If they'd listened to farmers instead of corporations, they would've known this was going to happen."

The current global food system, which was designed by US-based agribusiness conglomerates like Cargill, Monsanto and ADM and forced into place by the US government and its allies at the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization, has planted the seeds of disaster by pressuring farmers here and abroad to produce cash crops for export and alternative fuels rather than grow healthy food for local consumption and regional stability. - www.thenation.com...

A global food crisis is hardly an exaggeration - every year 15 million children die of hunger and the World Health Organisation estimates that one-third of the world is starving. To deny there is a problem globally is ridiculous. But with a predicted impending financial meltdown (hyper inflation) this serious issue could hit home in a big way.

The National Inflation Association has produced a new video looking at how hyperinflation can lead to a run on stores. They paint the kind of picture where people are trampling one another to stock up on basic goods, like water, before their dollars lose purchasing power.

Using a recent real-life example from Massachusetts in May of 2010, the clip below shows what empty retail store shelves look like in the US, and also people so desperate for supplies that the National Guard has to be called in to keep the peace. Despite the over-the-top tone of the cautionary tale and the survivalist advice it’s an interesting video.

NIA's six-minute video released today goes into detail about an event that took place just outside of Boston, Massachusetts in May of this year. This story was widely ignored by the nationwide mainstream media, but NIA believes it was one of the most important news events of the first half of 2010. Although this particular crisis in Boston was due to decaying infrastructure, NIA believes a currency crisis will lead to the same type of panic on a nationwide basis. - inflation.us... - inflation.us...

This might seem like scaremongering to some but I think it paints quite a accurate picture of how quickly society can become panic stricken in times of crisis. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst would be my advice.

I can't help but ask; why we are not seeing this in the news? There are a mountain of experts all predicting a major crisis in the coming year/s and yet no-one would be any the wiser unless they actively seek out the information. Is there some kind of media blackout on the issue? I think it's a fair assumption, and if that is the case, then maybe this is far more serious then we all think.

I can't help but think of the recent 2012 film tag-line...

'How would the governments of our planet prepare six billion people for the end of the world?

They wouldn’t.'


Additional
news.bbc.co.uk...
www.marketskeptics.com...
www.euractiv.com...
www.shtfplan.com...
www.shtfplan.com...
World food crisis: Production must rise by 50% says UN Chief
24 Experts Warn of Meltdown 2010

solution: use hemp as biofuel.


even though its more nutritionally dense than corn, its not like people acknowledge it as a food source anyway....might as well use it for SOMETHING.

its got thousands of uses to choose from, this would be a decent start.






....shutup lurker

It's not just bio-fuels. Many farmers in America are letting their fields go wild, back into forest. The government apparently pays them NOT to farm, to keep food prices higher. In other places in the world, like Africa, farmers have been abandoning their fields continuously for years, due to war & displacement. If the African fields were all farmed properly, Africa alone could easily feed the world.

If there is a food crisis, it was created. Sadly, most people will blame over-population, and let billions starve.

www.currentconcerns.ch...

reply to post by LiveForever8

This made me make a connection to a thought I had the other night when watching a documentary on HBO called Gasland. It is about how natural gas is poisoning water and air systems across the US.

It made me think. We need water to live, to water our plants (food), keep us clean (hygiene/ prevent disease), and many other things.

I thought of it as a simple equation I learned in 1st or 2nd grade.

We need: water+ food+ air+ sun = life alive

So what happens when we destroy everything that is needed to live in this world? Maybe there is some truth to that movie quote. How could you possibly prepare the masses?

It does scare me for the future. Why are people not looking out for the future generations? Can they not see the big picture? We live in and on a fascinating planet and all I see is greed and ignorance destroying it. When people realize, it will be to late. All in all, i have a hard time understanding humanity anymore. My veil has been lifted and my eyes are wide open.

I was brought up to respect and help others as much as I can (pay it forward). To plan ahead for the future to be successful. I was taught that the truth is better than a lie, that with truth issues can be worked out for the better, that with telling the truth solutions can be solved by working together. I am finding that not many tell the truth and it is very hard to get ahead by being honest.

So what is the point in hiding things from people? Chaos will happen no matter what. But it is how we find solutions to the chaos that will better humanity. I wish that could be done with truth and without all the greed. Then that's a perfect world and I realize that the small percent of good in the world can't stand up to the masses of evil. There is no such thing as a perfect world. Guess all we can do is prepare the best we can for a bumpy road ahead.

Theres no hope, our water has flouride in it, we have no choice but to drink it or we die.

reply to post by reesie45


I have been on well water over a year now and I can't tell you how much better health wise I feel.... I think its a scam how florid is good and healthy, explain why people on well water live as healthy without it then ????

reply to post by svpwizard


I couldn't agree more. I grew up on well water, in a very small town that consists of state forest and watershed land. Never really got sick ever. Maybe Flu once in awhile, maybe every 2 or 3 years.

Then I went to college, away from well water. I was sick almost always with a cold, flu, etc. I blamed it on all the germs I was surrounded by at school and the mass amount of people I was around. So I never thought anything about it.

Once I got out of college I moved to an area that still had city water. I was sick all the time still. I blamed it on allergies thinking they were developing more as I got older.

Then I moved again and this place, as well, had city water. This is the place that I currently live. I am still sick all the time. My body aches, my nose is always stuffy, I get headaches, and nausea. It's almost become normal to me now. The doctor tells me it's allergies. It's funny cause I stopped taking medication because nothing works. I've had tests done and the doc still says it's allergies and that I work in an environment with a lot of germs, that makes me susceptible to getting sick, but I try everything to keep my immune system up.

When I go home to visit my parents I started to realize (this year) that I am never sick there. My nose clears up, my head is clear, my body doesn't hurt. I love visiting my parents, because I feel great. Then once I get home it's back to normal within a couple of hours.

I do have a filter on my water. I can't afford to buy bottled all the time.

It's funny because I am starting to think that what is in our air and water might be making me sick. So in that case, people use the same air and water to grow our produce and grow our livestock. Is it possible that it could have the same effects on our food?

It would make sense if there is a food crisis then it may have been created by what is introduced to our foods.

I dont think it will only be america starving, many 1st world countries i believe will be starved in order to bring people to the conclusion that we need a "One world government"

I have an odd feeling that this crisis had purposly been in the making for years, just waiting for the right time.

reply to post by LurkerMan


I agree, the systematic removal of marijuana has been an absolute crime, it's beneficial uses are endless.

A great documentary....

reply to post by bettermakings


I agree, the problem is not a lack of food (there is enough to feed the worlds entire population) but a lack of organisation of said food.

Therefore it can only be seen as a 'man made' crisis - sought of unsought.

One thing is for sure; the governments are going out of their way to keep it a secret from the populace...

The USDA has declared half the counties in the Midwest to be primary disaster areas, including 274 counties in the last 30 days alone. These designations are based on the criteria of a minimum of 30 percent loss in the value of at least one crop in the county. The chart below shows counties declared primary disaster areas by the secretary of Agriculture and the president of the United States.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/5387693f42f5.png[/atsimg]

Brown = Secretarial Disaster Area
Light Green = Presidential Disaster Area
Dark Green = Sec/Pres Disaster Area

The same USDA that is predicting record harvests is also declaring disaster areas across half the Midwest because of catastrophic crop losses! To eliminate any doubt that this might be an innocent mistake, the USDA is even predicting record soybean harvests in the same states (Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Alabama) where it has declared virtually all counties to have experienced 30 percent production losses. It isn’t rocket scientist to realize something is horribly wrong.

And it is not just the American Government that is trying to play down the possible food crisis, as this extract from an article in Asia Times proves...

… some experts and governments, in full cognizance of the facts, want us not to create panic and paint a picture of parched crops and a looming food crisis. This, they say, would push up food prices unnaturally, lead to hoarding and ultimately result in a situation where many more millions across the world would go hungry. And whether it is the developing world or the developed, it is those at the bottom of the pyramid who are the most affected in such scenarios.

This leads to a confusing divide between reality and government pronouncements, or even between the perspectives of government departments. - www.atimes.com...