Food price rises are "mass murder": U.N. envoy

[Joanne98]

Source: Reuters

VIENNA (Reuters) - Global food price rises are leading to "silent mass murder" and commodities markets have brought "horror" to the world, the United Nations' food envoy told an Austrian newspaper on Sunday.

Jean Ziegler, UN special rapporteur on the right to food, told Kurier am Sonntag that growth in biofuels, speculation on commodities markets and European Union export subsidies mean the West is responsible for mass starvation in poorer countries.

Ziegler said he was bound to highlight the "madness" of people who think that hunger is down to fate.

"Hunger has not been down to fate for a long time -- just as (Karl) Marx thought. It is rather that a murder is behind every victim. This is silent mass murder," he said in an interview.

Ziegler blamed globalization for "monopolizing the riches of the earth" and said multinationals were responsible for a type of "structural violence".




Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSL2069830020080420

---

Gee. Everybody's talking about Karl Marx lately. I wonder if he's coming back in style?

[madrchsod]

1. panic in the streets to run up the price--disaster capitalism

[OKthatsIT]

48. Disaster UN-WTO-IMF

Let's stay in focus, folks.

[freedomnorth]

2. Malthus inspired Marx (nt.)

[Fractured]

3. I hope not. (Marx, that is)

[freedomnorth]

5. Marx simply pointed that it is not morally sustainable to let people starve

starvation is byproduct of capitalism, you seem to be content with it. I guess until you feel hungry.

[barb162]

16. There was also a lot of starvation under Mao, Pol Pot , Stalin, etal

It's not just capitalism. People starved for thousands of years before the rise of capitalism.

[pattmarty]

17. Yeah sure, but the problem TODAY IS CAPITALISM, so let's fix it.

[barb162]

18. The rise in the world's population is the main problem not capitalism

Too many people with too little arable land. I think the UN needs to talk about population control again, petroleum based fertilizers, etc. And climate change is a big factor. Capitalism doesn't have much to do with it at all. See below



http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7340214.stm
"The first reason why prices are rising is growth in the world's population, which is expected to top nine billion by the middle of the century."

[Hannah Bell]

22. The developed world is at zero population growth. The developed

world uses 80% of the world's resources. The developed world's free trade agreements are designed to destroy third world agriculture & induce dependence on 1st-world commodities.

[barb162]

24. Are China and India in the developed world to you?

If not, how does the "developed" world control their agriculture?

[Hannah Bell]

26. China and India are both basically self-sufficient in grain.

They're classified as "developing" at the moment.

The "developed" world, as a condition of its "free trade" agreements, mandates, among other things: 1) reductions of grain store levels & gov't price supports to farmers, 2) target quotas of grain purchase on the international market, 3) opening of domestic ag sectors to foreign competition.

Large nuclear powers have a bit more leeway to evade the terms of such agreements than small states like Haiti or Iraq, both of which were once self-sufficient in basic foodstuffs within the past 30 years.

[NickB79]

47. China self-sufficient in grains? Not quite

"Before the 70-million-ton drop in China’s grain production from 1998 to 2003, the country was producing a modest exportable surplus of 5–10 million tons a year. (See Figure 8–3.) Now this has changed. By 2003, grain production had fallen 56 million tons below consumption. With the harvest upturn in 2004, the shortfall improved but still stood at 35 million tons. 39

China has been covering its grain shortfall in recent years by drawing down its stocks. After peaking at 326 million tons in 1999, China’s carryover stocks of grain plummeted to 102 million tons in 2004. (See Figure 8–4.) At this level, stocks amount to little more than pipeline supplies and cannot be drawn down much farther. This means that within another year or two shortfalls will have to be covered entirely by importing grain. 40 "

snip

"In late 2003 and early 2004, Chinese wheat-buying delegations purchased 8 million tons of wheat in Australia, the United States, and Canada. Within two years China went from being essentially self-sufficient to being the world’s leading wheat importer. In March China made small purchases of rice from Thailand and Viet Nam for immediate import, suggesting that the internal rice situation, at least in some localities, was also beginning to tighten. In late August 2004, Beijing sought to buy 500,000 tons of rice from Hanoi, but was told that, given the export restrictions designed to ensure domestic rice price stability, Viet Nam could not deliver any rice until early 2005. 42"

http://www.earth-policy.org/Books/Out/Ote8_5.htm

With their increasing demand for meat, their grain surpluses are evaporating. A friend of mine just returned from China last summer after visiting family for a month. She was amazed that every meal now has meat in it, something she never saw as a child in the early 90's.

[Hannah Bell]

50. Yes, self-sufficient. Changes in the ratio of imports to exports are policy

decisions, due to market conditions & trade agreements, not inability to produce.

"Chinese government policies on wheat production have shifted several times during the past two decades, as policy makers strive to satisfy both national security concerns and market needs. In the 1980s, the country imported as much as 13 million tons. Then, in 1995, Chinese policy-makers decided that the nation should be self-sufficient in grain. To this end, local officials raised the price they would pay for wheat, an incentive that led to huge wheat harvests in 1997-98 — harvests that were more than double those of the early 1980s. With such bin-busting numbers, inventories soared and imports dropped off the charts (Hsu 1).

Gradually, stockpiles were reduced and imports, from the United States and elsewhere, resumed, though they have not recovered to the level of the 1980s. Production has fallen, a reflection of a reduction in incentives and of farmers switching to other cash crops, such as horticulture products and cotton, which bring a better return. A soil and water conservation program that provides incentives to farmers to revert cropland, particularly sloped or otherwise fragile fields, to natural vegetation has also led to reductions in sown area (Lohman 4). The Chinese government has also shifted from a call for complete self-sufficiency to one of primary self-reliance, where farmers would produce 85 percent or 90 percent of China’s wheat needs instead of 100 percent (Jiang and Gifford 4).

China's heavy production of low-quality wheat has necessitated imports of high-quality wheat. In turn, China has been able to export wheat, often of feed quality, to a number of countries, with South Korea, North Korea, Vietnam, Hong Kong and the Philippines representing the largest markets."

http://www.asiakan.org/ag_products/wheat_production_china.shtml

[pattmarty]

32. Don't agree. And, is that POPULATION CONTROL that you are advocating??

[roamer65]

38. We will have population control either way.

Either we let this situation fester and control the population growth via World War III or we get a handle on population growth now through aggressive birth control and sex education measures. Which way will it be? (I ask rhetorically)

[entanglement]

45. Malthusians have one of three "solutions" (1) genocide (2) mass sterilization or (3) slow die-offs

Of course, they always advocate these "solutions" for poor, dark-skinned people in the developing world of whom there are apparently too many for their liking. Once such a ghoulish 'solution' has been effected, their plan is to carve up the remaining resources and live happily :puke: ever after. Hard to find a fouler combination of murderous intent, greed, racism, classism and ruthlessness.

[Fractured]

34. You have it backwards my friend;

no one has ever starved under capitalism. In fact, capitalism has created the highest standard of living in that mankind has ever known. On the other hand, millions have starved and continue to starve under marxism.

[Hannah Bell]

39. Most of the world is capitalist. Most of the world is poor.

People who starved under capitalism:

Irish famines: Irish peasants starved while British landlords shipped out food & ag production for the British markets.

Bengal & other Indian famines under British rule.

Just for starters.

[freedomnorth]

44. Marxism is not economic model per se

could you clarify your statement?

[fasttense]

46. What about America in the 1930s? We had capitalism and

Americans starved to death every day. Most dictatorial countries have capitalism in some form or another and they have starving people too. How about North Korea?

Capitalism does not stop starvation.

[BigDaddy44]

49. Wow, what a detailed and brilliant analysis

NO ONE has EVER starved under capitalism? Well there's our solution right there folks. If we're all capitalists all of our food problems will instantly vanish. What problem is next on the docket Fractured?

[pattmarty]

8. Why the fuck not???????

[Fractured]

35. Because one could end up as "brilliant" as you are.

[Name removed]

43. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[54anickel]

4. Gotta "feed the greed" - it's become all-consuming now...

The ever increasing need for money and power, it consumes what was our free time, it has certainly been testing the virtues and morals of the middle and lower classes as they attempt to discern what to do with their limited resources; It has pretty much consumed the virtues and morals of the upper class as it makes them more and more amoral - sort of like the corporations that own us all. Given person-hood, they've become all-consuming. Instead of corporations working for us as a society/humanity, we're working for them.

[Lorien]

10. Indeed. It's not just the corporations either. Individual greed

has helped to bring us to this point too. A friend of mine who works in the Antarctic studying climate change said that there was a very noticeable jump in CO2 levels when Americans became obsessed with SUVs and other huge vehicles in the early 1990s. Obviously, that also means more oil was being consumed. another uptick happened when Chinese and other Asians started consuming more red meat because of the popularity of McDonald's in their countries. While vehicles contribute 17% of the global warming gasses, meat production contributes 18%. it also takes 3-4x the land and water resources to raise a cow as it does to raise a human being.While globalization and corporate policies are much to blame, nearly all of us have hand a hand in this to some degree.

[barb162]

15. Good points. And there's just a lot more people too

and some are burning fossil fuels, cutting down forests, etc.

[Lorien]

21. Yep. Supply and demand-but the fundies will NEVER accept that fact

Tell a Right Winger that the planet is overpopulated and you'll immediately get the "There's plenty of food; it's just a matter of distribution". They can't conceive of the notion that our resources are FINITE. After all, God will provide, right? I ask them; if you put four rats in a box with a bag of grain and vat of water and they reproduce, it's only a matter of time before the number of rats exceeds the availability of their resources and they begin to eat one another.Our species has already pushed the environment to it's breaking point; we've exhausted vast amounts of farmland to the point that it's become desert, and we are slashing and burning so many forests that the planet will soon be unable to "breathe without it's lungs". None of this would be happening if we would have worked towards Zero Population growth back in the 1960s when the idea was introduced. Unfortunately, many governments (our own included) push the idea that bigger families are better-especially for the economy. And in countries where women are without rights population explosions are unending.Humanity simply refuses to wake up on the issue.

[Hannah Bell]

23. The developed world is at zpg. The developed world uses 80% of

world resources, &, for example, has turned iraq from a grain self-sufficient country into one of the top-ten markets for US grain.

There IS enough food, it's a fact.

"Hunger has not been down to fate for a long time -- just as (Karl) Marx thought. It is rather that a murder is behind every victim. This is silent mass murder," he said in an interview.

Ziegler blamed globalization for "monopolizing the riches of the earth" and said multinationals were responsible for a type of "structural violence".

"And we have a herd of market traders, speculators and financial bandits who have turned wild and constructed a world of inequality and horror. We have to put a stop to this," he said.

[Lorien]

27. The developed world is NOT at ZPG.

in the US alone the population increases by 2.8 million EVERY YEAR. Considering that an American uses 8-10 times the natural resources that a person living in the third world does, this is a real problem.Google "desertification" and you'll soon understand why there IS NOT enough food in much of the world-and there will be less in the future. Add in peak oil and you have a very, very serious hunger issue on your hands.

[Hannah Bell]

30. The US fertility rate (live births/per woman) is 2.1. Birth rates in

Europe & Japan are below 2. Population growth in all these countries is due primarily to immigration. China is at 1.75 (China = 1/4 the world's population).

Yes, each person in the developed world uses 8-10 times the resources a person in the poor, higher-fertility developing world does. Precisely my point. We have low birthrates & high resource use. They have higher birthrates & lower resource use. Is the birthrate the problem, or the resource use?

But we're told resource use MUST continue to increase, otherwise the global economy will tank. Disconnect here, would you say?


I've seen the production figures. There's no food shortage. There's an income shortage, & a financial regulation shortage.

[Lorien]

40. Resource use AND birth rate are BOTH huge problems

Unless we reduce both our species-and most others-will NOT survive more than a few more generations.


www.zpg.org . Read up.

[Hannah Bell]

41. I "read up" 40 years ago. If 30% use 80% of the resources,

& 70% use 20%, that means getting rid of the low-breeding 30% = 70% more available resources.

Getting rid of the high-breeding 70% = 20% more available resources.

Just math.

[barb162]

25. Great post.

You're one of the few (I think) people on DU who sees population growth for the real problem it is. A lot of times some around here consider it racist to even suggest population growth. I'm scared for this planet. I think one of the worst situations will be low-lying countries like Bangladesh and when the seas rise, where are they going? Countries around there are already crowded.
As we run out of arable land or put housing on it, or there is desertification, etc., I just don't know where the food will come from to feed more millions every year. Stories about food and fresh water crises will be so common, it'll be like reading about the sun coming up every day. It'll get totally crazy.

[Hannah Bell]

28. The world birthrate is 2.5 children per woman.

The recent spate of reports of food riots have nothing to do with food shortage. Middle-class Haitians & Indians have no trouble getting food, & news reports from Haiti mention food being available in public markets.

Poor people got hit with a doubling of prices in a few months, & they can't pay.

The hike in world food prices occurred concurrent with the global real estate meltdown & credit crunch, with an influx of money into grain markets. Cargill's profits doubled this year.

[dger11]

33. Zero population growth would have worked on principle. But

everyone would need to be on the same page, not just Western governments. Food shortages represent a feedback cycle run amok. A country with an agrarian culture must produce large families to remain sustainable. Globalization has brought cheaper food sources to third world agrarian cultures at the expense of their own means of production. The large-family culture (patriarchal) that is no longer necessary remains in place, however. The result is an exploding population dependent on food that can't be produced by their own infrastructure, which has been downgraded and destroyed by global competition. With competition for fossil fuels on the rise, disaster is inevitable.

[54anickel]

37. While I don't agree with the RW Cornucopian theories, I do think there

is an issue with the distribution of wealth and resources. Not sure what the answer is....now that we've tipped into catastrophic mode, hoarding and greed will feed upon each other - every man for himself in this "I got mine, go getch-yer own" paradigm.

Mama may have, papa may have
But God bless the child thats got his own
Thats got his own
He just worry bout nothin
Cause hes got his own

[NashVegas]

6. Time to Register Commodities Traders

With the following requirement: proof of ownership of a distribution network.

[flashl]

7. K&R

[arundhatiroyfan]

9. K & R.

[ananda]

11. Karl Marx..

.. had much to say that was and still is
valid and compelling.

He is NOT a style.

[1776Forever]

12. To me this goes to hypocrisy of those in power in our country who say they are Christian -

To me one of the biggest sins in the world is hypocrisy -

Why Are So Many Christians Hypocrites?
by Rich Deem

What did Jesus say about hypocrisy and hypocrites?

http://www.godandscience.org/apologetics/why_are_christians_hypocrites.html

By far, of all preachers and prophets of the Bible, Jesus had the most to say about hypocrisy and hypocrites. Since He didn't mince any words on the subject, but directly confronted the religious hypocrites of His day (the scribes and Pharisees), they hated Him intensely - eventually having Him arrested on trumped up charges.

Here is a list of some of the hypocrisy that Jesus spoke against:

* Giving to the poor to be recognized by others
* Praying in public to be recognized as "God's man"
* Letting everybody know you are fasting to get recognition by others
* Complaining about other's behavior when yours is even worse.
* Pretending to honor God through lip service only
* Testing other people to try to make yourself look superior
* Deceiving people from knowing God
* Repressing the poor and widows
* Teaching proselytes to be hypocrites
* Tithing (giving to the church), but neglecting justice and mercy
* Doing everything for show, while really being self-indulgent and unrighteous
* Treating stock animals better than fellow human beings
* Being able to analyze the weather, but unable to distinguish between right and wrong

...........

Does that remind you of someone????????? Bush maybe???????????? Does me - :grr:

[barb162]

19. Uhmm, Christians don't control the world food supply.

You look at the two largest populations on the planet, China and India, and there aren't many Christians there.

[1776Forever]

29. When you look at the heart of what has happened in the last 7 years one can see the abuse

that has given us the greed and the thievery that has taken the money right out of those who would have been fed. This is what I think made this happen mainly from the greed in the United States Corporate choices encouraged by our current administration. We have left out the true faith that Jesus has taught as the Christian faith in our current leaders like Bush and Cheney and others who profess to follow and have seen hypocrisy take over their thinking to the point where our country has fallen from the leader of the world to be followed and revered to a country to be looked down upon. I pray we can change that path in the next administration!

[ohio2007]

13. Report: Iran's president says oil prices too low ( expect a surge in food prices )

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3274798&mesg_id=3274798


these OPEC countries should "feed the world" with price cuts in all the petroleum based agricultures of the third world.............domino effect now in play

[The2ndWheel]

14. Can't stop, can't continue

[Pavulon]

20. Jack up oil

and this is the result. As the petro states continue this path they will make E85 and biodiesel sustainable. That will lead to a destruction of supply increasing the cost of the remaining pool.

Can't eat oil.

Time to push hydrogen fuel cell. Only one way to get that much electricity. Not bird choppers or solar, nuclear.

[ckramer]

31. Don't forget another mass slow murder by the Fed's lowing of interest rates

which caused the current subprime housing and financial crisis.

[InkAddict]

36. Not correct - deregulation caused unfettered greed to pervade the

financial networks - the banks, Wall Street, commodities, and real estate. American policies developed by Mr. Friedman and touted through the IMF, World Bank, and enforced by rogue CIA (left unaccountable and unrestrained) who purposely made bad siutations worse, manhandling resolveable temporary situations with terms of physical violence only organized crime bosses would admire. LIHOP!

[Doctor_J]

42. Hopefully we hoi polloi can band together and wrest the world

from these people before they kill us all off.

[killbotfactory]

51. ...

“We need a Nuremberg to put on trial the economic order that they have imposed on us, that every three years kills more men, women and children by hunger and preventable or curable diseases than the death toll in six years of the second world war.” - Fidel Castro