Hugo Chávez on the world food crisis - a "massacre" of the poor

and it ain't by chance either... it's by design...

Soaring food prices are a "massacre" of the world's poor and are creating a global nutritional crisis, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Tuesday, calling it a sign that capitalism is in decline.

His comments came only hours after the United Nations' World Food Program called more expensive food a "silent tsunami" that threatens to plunge more than 100 million people on every continent into hunger.

"It is a true massacre what is happening in the world," Chavez said in a televised speech, citing U.N. statistics about deaths caused by hunger and malnourishment.

"The problem is not the production of food ... it is the economic, social and political model of the world. The capitalist model is in crisis."

[...]

Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage, visiting Caracas to meet with Chavez and other allied leaders on Wednesday, accused developed countries of spurring food prices through biofuels.

"Developed countries want to feed the cars of the rich with food -- this is the irrational world we live in today," Lage said, echoing Chavez's frequent accusations that Washington's promotion of biofuel is boosting prices of staples like corn.

don't think for one single second that this wasn't planned...

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World food shortages may provoke riots

hungry people are desperate people... we're sitting on a powder keg with this one...

A global rice shortage that has seen prices of one of the world's most important staple foods increase by 50 per cent in the past two weeks alone is triggering an international crisis, with countries banning export and threatening serious punishment for hoarders.

With rice stocks at their lowest for 30 years, prices of the grain rose more than 10 per cent on Friday to record highs and are expected to soar further in the coming months. Already China, India, Egypt, Vietnam and Cambodia have imposed tariffs or export bans, as it has become clear that world production of rice this year will decline in real terms by 3.5 per cent. The impact will be felt most keenly by the world's poorest populations, who have become increasingly dependent on the crop as the prices of other grains have become too costly.

it isn't just rice, either... it's wheat, corn, and soy as well... look at what took place in argentina the past few weeks over soy...

but, it isn't until the last third and second to the last paragraphs of the article - paragraphs 14 and 15, to be precise - that you get a picture of what's REALLY going on...

Analysts have cited many factors for the rises, including rising fuel and fertiliser expenses, as well as climate change. But while drought is one factor, another is the switch from food to biofuel production in large areas of the world, in particular to fulfil the US energy demands. A continuing change in the global diet is also putting a further squeeze on rice. In China, for example, 100 million rural migrants to the country's big cities have switched from a staple of wheat to rice as they have become wealthier.

Rapid recent price increases are also likely to have a dangerous secondary effect of stoking further inflation in emerging countries, which are already suffering from record oil prices and surging agricultural commodity prices.

"fulfill u.s. energy demands"... haven't i heard that somewhere before...?

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Argentina's president wants to keep citizens fed but she's between a rock and a hard place

what's happening in argentina is a microcosm of the crisis that's threatening food supplies, particularly for the most vulnerable, throughout the world...

the push to biofuels has caused, in argentina as in many other places, a massive rush to clear uncultivated land (driving through the argentine pampa, there are massive fires every few kilometers where cleared natural vegetation is being burned) for soy production, and an equally massive shift to producing soy in lieu of other food crops... a lot of the big players (most notably cargill, the biggest privately-held company in the world that most people have never heard of) are adding vast chunks of land to their already vast holdings, leaving global agricultural production in ever fewer hands... cargill already owns most of its own world-wide distribution network - ports, storage facilities, ships, barges, railroad cars - and that vertical integration, from seed to soil to harvest to shipment to mill, insures a virtual monopolistic control...

the consequences of this is that world food and agricultural commodity prices are soaring world-wide, and national leaders, like cristina fernandez de kirchner, are acutely aware that their citizens, particularly the poor, are at great risk of not being able to afford to eat... thus the export tax increases on soy and similar taxes on rice that have recently been levied in countries such as thailand and vietnam, and on wheat, corn, rice, and soybeans in china in an effort to keep food in the country instead of being exported...

argentina is an agricultural powerhouse, but its farmers, like the rest of its citizens, are fed up with government interference and have been for some time, and their traditional show of frustration is a strike, usually in the form of blockading roads and interfering with the flow of commerce... that's precisely what we've been seeing in the past few weeks after cristina announced the increase in agricultural export taxes...

Almost three weeks of roadblocks by farmers have caused food shortages, paralyzed grain exports from agricultural powerhouse Argentina and turned into a major political conflict for President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.

The center-left government said it would give small farmers a rebate on new, higher taxes for soy and sunflower seed exports, as well as other benefits such as compensation for transportation costs for small farmers far from markets.

[...]

But farm leaders said in a news conference they would continue protests that have blocked highways and held back farm goods since March 13, making beef, dairy, chicken and produce scarce in the capital.

here's cristina's dilemma...

The president said on Monday it was important for Argentina to make sure soy did not crowd out other crops that are important for the domestic market.

She said the higher taxes on soy exports would help control inflation on food items in Argentina and added that unbridled soy production could deplete soil quality and has caused deforestation.

imho, she's trying to do the right thing in an impossible no-win situation...

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