Global Food Chain Stretched to the Limit

Global Food Chain Stretched to the Limit

www.msnbc.msn.com

Strained by rising demand and battered by bad weather, the global food supply chain is stretched to the limit, sending prices soaring and sparking concerns about a repeat of food riots last seen three years ago.

"We are entering a danger territory,"...

...As supplies tighten, prices surge. Earlier this month, the FAO said its food price index jumped 32 percent in the second half of 2010, soaring past the previous record set in 2008.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Some people would have us believe the problem is "overpopulation."

But no. It's not "overpopulation" that's causing the food crisis, it's economic policy.

The real problem is that post-NAFTA, our nations stopped keeping food reserves. It was decided that the "market" should determine who eats and who doesn't.

Pre-NAFTA, our nations had 10-20 years of staple foods stock-piled in physical 'food reserves' - NOT pretend food in 'futures trading.' But our nations stopped stock-piling physical food reserves.

"Free Trade" policies said that the predictable shortages, called "supply shocks," should be handled by international trade aka global corporations.

Growing government interest and support for food reserves has been evident in various international forums of late. At the same time, policymakers have been slow to act, reluctant to move away from twenty or more years of economic orthodoxy that has insisted supply shocks are best resolved through international trade alone. Many governments are exploring new ways to develop stronger and more resilient local, regional and national food systems. Food reserves can be a critical component of those reforms.

Food reserves are an ancient idea, a sensible response to the fact that although the demand for food is constant, the supply can vary wildly depending on weather, markets and other factors. The recent food price crisis led to a resurgence of interest in food reserves as a tool to stabilize prices and supplies.

All in all, looks like a depopulation strategy come to fruition. Calente's predictions are solid, imho.

An American Think-tank is predicting food riots in the US by 2012:

Celente says that by 2012 America will become an undeveloped nation, that there will be a revolution marked by food riots, squatter rebellions, tax revolts and job marches, and that holidays will be more about obtaining food, not gifts.

"We're going to see the end of the retail Christmas....we're going to see a fundamental shift take place....putting food on the table is going to be more important that putting gifts under the Christmas tree," said Celente, adding that the situation would be "worse than the great depression".

"America's going to go through a transition the likes of which no one is prepared for," said Celente, noting that people's refusal to acknowledge that America was even in a recession highlights how big a problem denial is in being ready for the true scale of the crisis.

FYI - Calente's record is solid too.

Celente, who successfully predicted the 1997 Asian Currency Crisis, the subprime mortgage collapse and the massive devaluation of the U.S. dollar, told UPI in November last year that the following year would be known as "The Panic of 2008," adding that "giants (would) tumble to their deaths," which is exactly what we have witnessed with the collapse of Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns and others. He also said that the dollar would eventually be devalued by as much as 90 per cent.

The consequence of what we have seen unfold this year would lead to a lowering in living standards, Celente predicted a year ago, which is also being borne out by plummeting retail sales figures.

The USA's food reserves were totally tapped out by 2008, and haven't been replenished.

U.S. Food Reserves 'Tapped Out'

“According to the May 1, 2008 CCC inventory report there are o nly 24.1 million bushels of wheat in inventory, so after this sale there will be o nly 2.7 million bushels of wheat left the entire CCC inventory, …[urlcryptogon.com...]the U.S. has nothing else in our emergency food pantry. There is no cheese, no butter, no dry milk powder, no grains or anything else left in reserve.[/url] The only thing left in the entire CCC inventory will be 2.7 million bushels of wheat which is about enough wheat to make ½ of a loaf of bread for each of the 300 million people in America.”

www.msnbc.msn.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Well I already knew NAFTA was treason, for no tribunal can exist over the head of a soveriegn nation to conduct its own business without it being treason, nor corporate ones at that. That in itself makes the entire contract, forms, and every clause in it NULL AND VOID. Thats basic law by the way. If any legal document has ONE clause, or ONE sentence that is a crime or illegal, the entire thing is null and void! Basic baby law that they teach beginners.

They've been planning on starving billions for a long time, and if anyone complains and steps out of line instead of dying quietly they have FEMA and Martial law ready????

The irony is we don't even need money, we can just DO things, plant gardens together, negotiate with others and get things going, and fire any politiician who stands in the way. Line up by the millions with bullhorns in front of their offices.

Unity_99, I absolutely agree with your post and would star it 1000x if possible...

I don't want to sound alarming but people better prioritize soon.

For those that think this isn't taking place, please heed my words.
Goto your local grocery store and watch prices as I have.
Sugar is up, flour and canned food.
Everything is creeping up weekly.
It will be in everyones best interest to at least make sure your family is ok.
Those that procrastinate will suffer.
Plain and simple.

There's no more time for ignoring the facts.
Do yourself a favor and get some things to last a few weeks.
Worst case, you won't have to shop for a while...

I hate to see panic and chaos, but when people get hungry.... Bad things happen.

Originally posted by havok
Goto your local grocery store and watch prices as I have.

For some reason I haven't seen it yet, maybe it's coming, I don't know. One thing that seems astronomical is the price of bread but I thought it's just price gouging because I haven't seen flour go up all that much. Anyway I live in Earthquake territory so I have to keep food and water reserves on hand in case of a major earthquake.

It's probably not such a bad idea to keep food reserves on hand even if you're not in earthquake territory. Canned goods last for years and some dry foods last even longer.

To Serve Man

Food riots, squatter rebellions, tax revolts, job marches -- there's a familiar ring to all this.

How can we face such difficult times and survive? Who can save us from the catastrophes ahead?

I think we know where the smart money is...

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/451bdc4998c4.jpg[/atsimg]

It's not "overpopulation" that's causing the food crisis, it's economic policy.

That certainly can't be repeated enough Sofi. It seems that people have these images stuck in their minds when it comes to this issue. In the West, people only imagine truly starving people in Africa or India, and probably aren't ready to accept the possibility that food might become an issue one day for the West as well.

Along with the images of skinny starving children, we have images of a "sea of people", usually from India or China. It's easy to see why so many people connect these ideas, and assume that overpopulation must be the cause of starvation.

And yet, as you point out, it is ECONOMIC POLICY that is the problem! In other words, things are being done, and not done, that are soon going to result in a crisis we won't be able to ignore anymore.

I don't know if Calente is right, about food riots, but he has been right before, and if there is a shortage in the US, for example, what will that look like? In the inner city, where poverty and violence are already part of daily life, is it so hard to imagine "one last straw" that erupts into flames?

We have had a community garden in our area the past couple of years, and it has been a great success. The food grown is available at around store prices, and yet it is fresh as can be. No pesticides are used, although they can't legally call it "organic" unless various conditions are met. Anyone can volunteer to work in the garden, and obtain credits to get food for their efforts. The corn was to die for! I have little time to work in a garden, but I certainly supported it with my purchases. "Profit" is plowed back into the project to ensure continuous expansion. It began as one acre, was three acres last year, this year it will probably expand to five or six.

Yes, that's small, but people are learning about gardening that otherwise would not have, and some are taking that new confidence back home. At least in our small segment of the community, we have something to fall back on, and I'm sure this will only get bigger as more learn of it.

Anyway, anther S & F for this great thread!

JR

Global food chain stretched is it? I do not believe it for a moment. For one thing, if the food supply was stretched, then a hell of a lot of people in the UK and US would be a damned sight skinnier, since industrialised and modern nations would have the hardest time aquiring food, not being so used as other nations to growing thier own.
When supplies are stretched, that means that less food can be produced in total. That doesnt result in price rises. That results in food RATIONING. We here in Britain know all about that, since its a matter of history here, with many of our older population still capable of remembering days where they had but a small knob of lard, half a loaf of bread and a carrot between six people, or some ridiculous situation like that. If the supply was stretched, the governments of the world would have been rationing it, suspending fast food retailers right to purchase raw product, and increasing the amount of product available for people to cook themselves, and rationing that to the point where only very little were available per household to keep supplies going that little bit longer. Not to mention, the laws regarding farming would have changed by now. We wouldnt have see a case like that of the American farmer who was fined for growing too much produce on his land (yep, its a matter of law what you do with your own agricultural land now folks!) or any of the prattle from food standards idiots about how you shouldnt grow or consume your own fruit , veg, or meat products.
Here in Britain we would be out in our gardens and putting our backs into it and getting the earth dug over for planting IF there WAS a supply issue. There may be in time to come, that much is certain, but there isnt NOW . What there is now, is an awful lot of corperate monstrosities , charging about, buying eachothers businesses, and making a hash of supplying produce. The global freeze shouldnt have affected an appropriately managed food supply system this quickly, because the stocks of raw materials for foods are supposed to be stockpiled in case of emergancy !!
This is bunk. The only thing about the thread that I can agree on, is grow your own, and use no pest control but time and care. These things will drive the cost of food down, because retailers and producers will see thier bottom lines collapse , and will either fold and bow out to allow fair minded sellers to come in thier stead, or merely be eradicated from the picture all together, with farmers selling direct to individual small traders and large households, without the need for chains or multimillion pound business empires.

reply to post by Majic

Not to take away from the seriousness of this.
But whenever I hear of this information I also think of that movie.



My family has been farming for generations. When I started raising a family, one of the first things I did was make sure we had room for a vegetable garden. Not only has it fed us, my kids have grown to understand the importance of nutrients in their diets. Oh yes they still go for the cheetos and coke. But for the most part they will pick up an apple over a McD's turnover.

Even if you don't live in an area where you have a yard. You can still grow things in pots.
Its a good feeling to know that you can survive on your own. And the money you save is tremendous.
During the winter when I want fresh vegetables, I dread going to the store and buying them. It actually makes me mad. The quality is not good. They don't taste rite.

We'll be sparing the flowers this spring, focus on potatoes, onions and whatever other veg that will store well over winter and grow in abundance on a small plot of land.

Food For Thought

reply to post by crappiekat

Yeah, I suppose it's rather crass to joke about it, but the predictions definitely have that familiar feel to them.

The reality is that there are a lot of factors which affect global food production and distribution, and as Sofi pointed out, economic policy is a major contributor.

I also think it's important to consider that there are many, many other factors that affect food prices and availability, including such things as oil prices (which affect fertilizer, equipment, production and transportation costs), subsidies, regulations, taxes, weather, disasters, wars, pestilence, disease, etc.

Once food is produced, there are highly complex and interrelated factors that determine how it is distributed and how much it costs. As an ironic example, long-term international food aid programs can artificially depress domestic food production and weaken local economies, building dependence, which can then be exploited by the donor as a tool for political control (i.e., famine as politics). It is, in fact, a hallmark of such programs.

On a broader scale, food producers, distributors, governments and consumers are always in competition in a world food market that can be dazzlingly complex and ruthlessly unforgiving.

It is precisely because so many factors are involved that I'm skeptical of predictions that don't account for the huge number of variables. I'm not saying that's the case here, just that it's easy to be misled by extrapolation, and that predicting the future is not as easy as we'd like.

Personally, I think it's highly probable that we'll see these predictions come true on some scale, but the extent is harder to project. With so much economic uncertainty racking the globe and so many things that can go wrong, there does seem to be strong potential for major worldwide food problems. And indeed, there are already plenty of ongoing problems right now.

However, as I hope my attempt at levity implies (and hopefully doesn't offend, instead), I still think it's best not to get too bent out of shape, because there's very little any of us (even world leaders, as powerful as they may seem) can really do to stop what's coming.

Rather, I think our best bet is to prepare for the worst, hope for the best, and try to keep a sense of humor, because without that, there really would be no hope.

Its definitely due to over-population. The more people that exist the more food is necessary even if Nato/Nafta kept reserves even that becomes dwindled.

Its just pure logic/reason to deduce that this planet can only support X amount of people. 1 or 2 kids is cool, but then ego gets in the way and lust creates 12-19 kids.

We need to shadow what nature does and create a balance of a Birth to Death ratio. I'm completely against purposeful depopulation, but Im all for control measures like only being able to have a certain amount of kids.

Either way Nature gets the last say. Famines, floods, crop failures will decide who eats and who doesn't and a balance will come into play regardless

Lol...global food chain strain...


You want to maintain healthy eating in America for a long, long time?

Solve this problem.

Half of US food Goes to Waste

No different for most western nations.

Our food production could drop substantially if we brought the amount of waste down, to what is considered "acceptable" for most other types of production (materials, chemicals, etc.), to between 5-10%.

With no change to the average consumer!

End the waste.

Originally posted by dominicus
Its definitely due to over-population.

Nope. Please - read the thread - majic's post just above is quite good at explaining more of the 'factors.'

... even if Nato/Nafta kept reserves even that becomes dwindled.

Nations STOPPED keeping reserves - now it's distribution for profit only.

Either way Nature gets the last say. Famines, floods, crop failures will decide who eats and who doesn't and a balance will come into play regardless

I agree. ...But we were manipulated into not covering our butts. Used to be everyone stock-piled, not just nations. There always are droughts or early frost or floods or something - and people always planned ahead. Now,,, no one does. We're at the mercy of the distributors, just like they planned it.




reply to post by Majic


S&

reply to post by Majic

As an ironic example, long-term international food aid programs can artificially depress domestic food production and weaken local economies, building dependence, which can then be exploited by the donor as a tool for political control (i.e., famine as politics). It is, in fact, a hallmark of such programs.

Yes my point exactly. Not only do food-aid programs depress domestic food production, but another impact of this is that the weak, hungry, and uncomfortable now become strong, full and comfortable leading to more sex, mating, and a bigger populations surrounding the provinces where food-aid is given resulting in the need for more food-aid.

What needs to be done is limited food-aid with the introduction of environmental scholars that show the people how to reinvest and restructure the land, herds, fishing, and self sustainable knowledge.

Even with all the mentioned factors by Majic I still say the world is over populated and we seem to be a plague to its natural beauty and resources. A plague which has as its leaders those who are corrupt and greedy and let nothing stand in the way of more profits including the health of the earth.

reply to post by dominicus

I still say the world is over populated and we seem to be a plague...

You really should try and get informed about this important issue. Even though you seem emotionally married to the concept of "overpopulation", it might not hurt to consider the possibility that it is a fiction, created by TPTB for a purpose. THEIR purpose. (Which will not come out well for the rest of us, in all likelihood...including you?)

For starters, you might look into the global fertility catastrophe. Having the "feeling" that you have too many neighbors, and maybe even a good gut-feeling, that most should die, well, the idea may not hold up to scrutiny.

And if it all was a lie, how would you feel if billions died, for nothing more than our master's selfish and twisted desires? And how would you feel if you, and your family perhaps, were also chosen to die? I suspect that dying for a lie isn't at the top of most of our lists.

JR

If this happens nostradomus predicted it

The underground economy must fourish to defeat the overbearing corporate food giants.
We need to trade and barter more with each other.
We need to produce for EACH OTHER what each needs...
There has to be aa retrenchment and a rethink of what is deemed nessessary to a healthy balanced life.
Alternatives from a century ago, many of them tried and true, with modern technology and materials etc throw into the mix...
Every home should have a plan to survive some length of time independantly...however long that would be depends on what you can put aside for it.....but regardless of that, every family or whatever group, should be looking towards becoming more interdependant and less dependant on others.

reply to post by JR MacBeth

You really should try and get informed about this important issue. Even though you seem emotionally married to the concept of "overpopulation", it might not hurt to consider the possibility that it is a fiction, created by TPTB for a purpose. THEIR purpose. (Which will not come out well for the rest of us, in all likelihood...including you?)

I understand that the population numbers put out there may be manipulations by tptb. However for the last 30 years there has been a steady incline which for the most part has always happened in historical data when ever a society gets established and has access to food.

Just look at the history books.

ALso we have examples in history books like many Native cultures not only in the US but Inca tribes and tribes all over the world that out grew their own resources which led to famine, starvation, and decimation of the population.

This is factual historical data which is many times carved into rock by those tribes showing what happened. Are you saying tptb carved that info in the rock? Come on man!!!!!

For starters, you might look into the global fertility catastrophe. Having the "feeling" that you have too many neighbors, and maybe even a good gut-feeling, that most should die, well, the idea may not hold up to scrutiny.

Fertility catastrophes? They happen all the time. SOme natural and some caused by man. That doesn't mean I feel most should die. There is tons of empathy and sorrow here seeing how plague mother earth and slowly strangle her. She will naturally take care of over population and I understand that when that happens it may even cost me my own life, which I am perfectly at peace with were it my time and were that my cause.

And if it all was a lie, how would you feel if billions died, for nothing more than our master's selfish and twisted desires? And how would you feel if you, and your family perhaps, were also chosen to die? I suspect that dying for a lie isn't at the top of most of our lists.

Death is a natural part of life. If billions die for lack of food, then it is what it is ....the natural equalizer of earths actions. Has nothing to do with some master. If me and my family die because of lack of food then it is what it is. AGain death is natural and we are completely under the control of fate, destiny, and the natural order of things or laws of nature.

I wouldn't be so quick as to conclude the population number necessarily as a lie. We can even economically see proof for those numbers when nations like China and the Koreas are running out of their own natural resources and are now having to import from others.

The proof is all around and rather obvious.

reply to post by dominicus

If billions die for lack of food, then it is what it is ....the natural equalizer of earths actions. Has nothing to do with some master.

NOT the earth's actions - the actions of a few global corporations positioning to secure their position in world government.

...It's the corporations who destroyed Africa, NOT the indigenous peoples. And it's the corporations who are destroying the earth, not the "population."

Please, pay attention to what JRMacBeth is saying.