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/

Dow plummets 3%, Oil record high 138.5$.

Will it be black Monday (on Monday). Even if the Dollar is crashing and banks are failing. Life will continue, the States may begin to be like Argentina after the crash. Barter will get stronger. The rest of us will continue, albeit with some uncertainty. The press, the president and officials will say it is just a blip. But it is the beginning of the end for Free Market Capitalism, (and monopoly money) and for the Multinational that is not beholden to a country. What went wrong? Messianic instincts! The idea of shaping a legacy was so powerful, bigger than any individual’s common sense. And so at the height of power, people over extended themselves. The NeoCons could see this threat of recession as an opportunity to further their war aims, but a sudden crash could derail war intentions because it will cause social unrest in the US. Increasingly out on a limb is how authority looks, like in a bubble wrap. Like Nixon was. And in the midst of a revolution based on the internet. People all over the world sharing knowledge and attitudes. One of these Mondays there will be a crash. All the major traders will be recognised as rogue traders, without any concern for cum uppence day. The worst part is: in the end everything was contingent on Iraq. Now the western financial system is sinking at the bottom and at the top. These people are in no condition to go to war. They might know how to start a war, with multiple maps and plans. But they have no clue as to what the enemy can do, nor do they know who all of the countries that would join the enemy are. Nor could they be relied upon to make a sane judgment in a crises. Whatever supporters they think they have, they do not include the populations of any country, except perhaps Israel. The NeoCons have lost, it has manifested in the economy. How much more folly are we going to allow?

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.

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?
.
.
.
.
.N o
.C h e a t I n g
.L o o k a t t h e e n d
.
.
.
.
.
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.

Capitalism won’t end

Capitalism ends when Money is worthless.

Irrespective of the warning shots that are around, we are still beholden to money. While inflation is apparent, and loose money seems rarer, it is still a very functioning system.
Even when countries suffer hyperinflation, they still use paper money, although we could guess more bartering will go on.
Nevertheless there is some type of end game developing. Food shortages and ever abundant weaponry, widening gap between poor and rich. And mans inhumanity to all living things.
Imagine mayhem with a still functioning capitalism.
No country is able to extricate itself from globalisation. And globalisation is free capitalism. No Albanias, no closed systems.
However food is a different story, export bans are increasing.
So at the very least we can have money and weapons.
The stock markets could collapse, so could financial institutions. It is arguable if they actually create any wealth. And insider trading as a crime, is a contradiction in terms. In other words it is the norm.
Capitalism has now brought us biofuels. The ramifications defy language. How does one explain the results of bio fuels?
When the hungry riot and revolt, will they be called AlQueda? Or what? What bogey word will be devised?

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.