Speigel: Graph; food crises protests and restrictions

Source of image: http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,grossbild-1149977-547198,00.html

The link only leads to the image Not the story.

The Image was published at the end of April

Natural News: The Economics of World Hunger, explained

Source: http://www.naturalnews.com/023387.html See also : http://foodcrisis.wordpress.com/

The economy in Southern Spain: personal observations

I rely on the tourist trade in Andalucia, having been here three years, there has been a noticable decline each year, but this year is 25 per cent of last years tourist dinero. So less money and less people. Restaurants are down by far, and every other tourist trade. The Spanish economy is reportedly suffering, with a big slide in housing prices, 20% and more. The tourists and the expats are mostly of the ‘expect more gloom’ mood. Spain also has rural non commercial destinations where there is little consumerism. But if relying on the commerce of tourism be ones way of life, then right now it is looking terminal. With inflation noticable (particularly with food), and vacant seats and shops on the increase, it feels like the end of capitalism. Keynesian roadworks are everywhere, and the infrastucture is amazing (compared to the UK). But a whole way of life, of living off of tourists seems to be evaporating. The west is seeing the end of Reagonomics/Thatcherism, free trade and markets are starting to be scrutinised. Where’s the trickle down part? (picture from: http://www.nerja.to/nerja_beaches.htm the picture is only true symbolically)

Check your water footprint online

From http://greenresistance.wordpress.com “The University of Twente, in the Netherlands, has created a novel online calculator for water www.waterfootprint.org - able to calculate the impact of individuals and countries on global water reserves. The site brings to attention all the water we consume without realizing it. For instance, you can discover that a single cup of coffee requires 140 liters of water: the water required for the cultivation and processing of the coffee beans. A kilo of beef needs 16,000 liters of water: not just the water drunk by cattle but in particular the water for growing, harvesting and processing cereals and feeds. And so on: an apple - 70 liters; a glass of beer - 75 liters; a slice of bread - 40 liters; one kilo of cheese - 5000 liters; a kilo of chicken - 3900 liters.” (thank you ’slow food’ and rami) Note: Spend some time here -> calculating your water footprint and your extended water footprint

and also here -> http://www.waterfootprint.org/?page=files/productgallery&product=apple

Graph of wheat prices, Guardian

Bio Fuels Cost of Oil Weather extremes   One recent study by the Reserve Bank of Kansas City suggests that oil prices have 10 times the impact on food prices than the cost of cereals.   I suspect the Indians are right and we should not be eating Beef. It is anyway not an efficient use of the calorific value of the land. Inefficient on about a ratio of 8 to 1.

Employer: There is nothing you can do, that we need.

There is nothing you can do, that we need. Said the employer to the job applicant. And that was the death knell of capitalism. Not for manufacturing. Not for the financial markets And you couldn’t do the agricultural work. People were encouraged to look at religion and the Army. Some did, some didn’t. They could feel like welfare. Suddenly 30% of the people had nothing to do. Governments offered free internet and free cable TV. No one was happy. Self sufficiency, barter, offering individualistic services helped, qualifications were meaningless. Experts at first compared the situation to 1930’s. It soon became apparent, this was different. The worlds factories were in Asia. The resources were overseas. Because of inflation; the financial system didn’t work, and no one trusted the financiers, in fact no one trusted anyone. And the Multinationals limbered on like Dinosaurs awaiting extinction. Ultimately nationalism appeared, but even that was mirky, 5 to 20% of western populations were foreigners. Waging wars went out of fashion, simply because they not only created enemies where they went, but they also created enemies amongst previously non belligerent countries. Alignments said this loudly: SCO, BRIC, even the UN and the EEC. Life started looking bizarre: Peasant subsistence with Internet and satellite dishes. Oil consumption did go down, and people became less mobile. In big cities like Chicago and New York donkeys became popular again

Food quiz: 10 questions (and answers)

1/ What fatty food has no cholestoral?

2/ How can you make a fruit ripen faster?

3/ Of the six tastes in Ayurveda (Sweet, Sour, Salty, Pungent, Bitter & Astringent) which taste is most likely to be found in an herb?

4/ Garlic and egg yolks are high in what mineral?

5/ Eating before sleeping is healthy or unhealthy?

6/ A food with a seed in it is called what?

7/ What food grows without a need for sunlight?

8/ What food is famous for cleaning the digestive track?

9/ Which type of cooking is most unhealthy?

10/ What type of salt has all the minerals and no toxins?
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.
.
.
.N o
.C h e a t I n g
.L o o k a t t h e e n d
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.
.
1/ avacado, 2/ Put it with bananas, 3/ Bitter, 4/ Sulphur, 5/ Unhealthy, 6/ Fruit, 7/ Mushroom, 8/ Psyllum husks (linseed husks, Isabgol in Indian food shop) 9/ Deep fried, 10/ Rock salt.

Food Crisis, Alarm bells ringing.

Food crises,

Over the last week, there has not been a major publication that has not featured the growing global food scarcities.

Compared to food, all other issues are irrelevant.

I can imagine large vehicles being attacked, because their fuel hunger is inflating the price of food, through biofuel’s grain requirements.

Democracy and capitalism, will have no significance, and society’s paid guards of soldiers and police will blur into humans.

Perhaps it will herald the end of centralisation and large conglomerates, maybe we will reenter the world of small communities.

Anyway the alarm bells are ringing everywhere, even with Global warming there are dissenters and different points of view. But about growing food shortages and a bleak outlook no one is arguing.

All our governments pronouncements will sound more and more empty.

The anger will be focused on Capitalism, from fertilisers degrading land quality, to factories polluting the water, to ‘exports’ taking the food away.

Holistic health practitioners have been arguing that eating foods when they are out of season that have come from far away is not healthy. It probably is not very efficient, Mono crops like bananas or whatever being grown for export.

We have just lived through a time of abundance with some curious political

IMF head gives food price warning

The BBC and the IMF have made this a top news story.

Two pillars of the establishment. Who normally champion a ‘business as usual’ approach. They are now ringing alarm bells. It would seem we are on the threshold of massive change.

The challenge will crystalize into a choice between material desires and food. The food being compassion, the material being self interest.

It raises more questions: population growth, Islam, Judaism and Catholicism all enshrine the birth of many children. BTW prior to the old testament, there were fertility cults. So religion will need to take a stance.
Also going organic. When faced with starvation may not be attractive. The dreaded GM?…

And a major culprit to our woes is eating animals, at least 8 times less efficient than growing crops. Plus the amount of methane given off by cows is huge, comparable to the use of fossil fuels
Will we change?
Maybe less beef will mean less wars?

The head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned that hundreds of thousands of people will face starvation if food prices keep rising.

And he also said: “so it is not only a humanitarian question”. Meaning conflict and economic trade.

Food abundance is history

Food abundance is not true anymore for a variety of reasons, I made a posting 2 days ago .
It was the discovery after the second world war, that the ingredients for gun powder were useful as fertilizer  that started modern Industrialised agriculture.
Rice prices have gone up %50 in the last two weeks. Six countries have instituted export restrictions on rice: Already China, India, Egypt, Vietnam and Cambodia have imposed tariffs or export bans
Tony Karon speculates that food riots are  the missing link for the downfall of unpopular regimes. …”revolutions succeed precisely in that moment when the soldiers and policemen paid to defend the existing order look into the eyes of the enemy confronting them, on the streets, and they see themselves, their families and neighbors, and the states power to enforce its rule evaporates.”
And he is talking about Egypt.
Hell with capitalism flailing all over the place, maybe food shortages will cunjur up a new way, a new system of exchange. Free trade has its limits. And food supplies will be the first to be protected. The first to cause civil unrest, and that means people questioning the system.
Let us not forget, part of macrobiotic eating is; to eat food that is grown locally. It is healthier.
The EU is already reappraising its BIoFuel program.

More and more food price protests

Today at http://greenresistance.wordpress.com/

why the rise in food prices?

Food prices are increasing globally. Thailand recently declared a ban on the export of rice, and India declared a ban on the export of non-basmati rice.

Here’s an excellent, simply-written editorial in the New York Times (of all places) that hits the nail on the head:

Grains Gone Wild

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There have been protests in many many countries recently, currently in Egypt. And before that Senegal, El Salvador, Mexico.

Well I just Googled this Reuters page from April 1st listing eight countries with recent food protests.

Castro was the first person I heard, saying that BioFuel is no solution.