Global food shortage fears as Russia extends wheat ban

[TalkingDog]

Source: Telegraph

The export ban from such a key global exporter sent wheat prices to 231.5 euros a tonne, just short of last month’s two-year high of 236 euros, sparking worries of a crisis in global food supplies.

A rise in the price of state-controlled food, water and electricity prices have sparked protests in Mozambique where seven people have been killed and hundreds left injured after clashes with police. The price of a loaf of bread is due to rise by 25 per cent on September 6.

The Rome-based FAO said that their emergency meeting was called due to “an enormous number” of inquiries over concerns “about a possible repeat of the 2007-08 food crisis”

...

The rising prices around the world have raised concerns about a return to the political instability in 2008, when Haiti, Kenya and Somalia were among those that saw rioting over the cost of living.

Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/7978954/Global-food-shortage-fears-as-Russia-extends-wheat-ban.html

[Joanne98]

1. And the speculators are driving up the price of wheat.

[madrchsod]

2. the third world pays for the first world`s greed

it worked for them with the rice famine and the huge shortage of oil so now it`s wheat.

[bherrera]

5. The third world should learn to feed itself

I find it somewhat surprising that nations with undeveloped economies don't even focus on trying to increase their food production to be self sufficient, and depend on wheat exports from Russia, a nation with a territory found in cold and polar areas, to feed them. Don't you find this to be quite unwise?

[TalkingDog]

7. How "wise" would you consider this:

http://www.otherworldsarepossible.org/another-haiti-possible/haitian-farmers-commit-burning-monsanto-hybrid-seeds

The Peasant Movement of Papay (MPP) has committed to burning Monsanto’s seeds, and has called for a march to protest the corporation’s presence in Haiti on June 4, for World Environment Day.




I'm pretty sure it's not the farmers who are the issue. They are well aware of the mechanics and processes of raising food. Nobody willingly starves themselves.

So it must be the politicians and the monied who make decisions regarding the importation of food and subsequently make money from those decision.

[AlphaCentauri]

8. is not that simple

take in account that the first world controls all patent over agricultural machinery, seeds and also the mass production of food.
Farmers in the third world can't get machinery unless they buy it from a transnational company.

[Lightning Count]

10. I'm not agreeing with the above poster, but why do you need machinery to farm?

Horse or ox and plow worked well for many years.

[AlphaCentauri]

15. That's right when the population was may be a third of what it is today n/t

[Lightning Count]

16. Through all the starvation has there really been a population explosion in Africa?

I'm asking because I don't really know.

[AlphaCentauri]

17. Most likely the lack of massive food production and population growth

do we know any stories about people starving in africa before 1940? I don't know any.

[killbotfactory]

9. IMF and the World Bank pressure them to grow export crops

And most developing nations do business with those entities. It makes financial sense until the export crop they specialize in drops in price, or an import crop they are dependent on greatly increases in price, and they can't afford to buy enough food on the world market.

[Lightning Count]

12. An important lesson. Don't take IMF money or just default on the loans.

You'll be better off.

[KamaAina]

13. The first world should allow them to

IMF/World Bank policy forces most developing nations to focus on cash crops like coffee, sugar and cocoa, rather than such mundane tasks as feeding themselves. Case in point: Thirty years ago, Haiti was virtually self-sufficient in rice. Now it all comes in bags from the U.S.

[formercia]

3. Not supply and demand

Supply and speculation.

Speculation in basic commodities should be outlawed.

[TalkingDog]

4. Amen!! and I'll say it twice! n/t

[cstanleytech]

6. I do not think that is likely to happen though.

Assuming that such a ban would survive the court challenges to it that doesnt mean other nations would stop the practice so unless it was an international ban any such ban country by country would be pointless to do imo.

[Lightning Count]

11. wrong spot

nt

[cstanleytech]

14. Thats ok *smile*

Edit: I do that type of thing myself from time to time.