High food prices said foretaste of climate shocks

[cory777]

Source: Reuters

OSLO, March 11 (Reuters) - Leaps in food prices linked to drought in Brazil or floods in Australia may be a foretaste of ever greater shocks to be caused by climate change, according to a commission named on Friday to find ways to fix the problems.

The international group of 13 experts will try to come up with ideas in the next 10 months to help agriculture cope with global warming, blamed by the U.N. panel of climate experts mainly on mankind's emissions of greenhouse gases.

John Beddington, Britain's chief scientific adviser who will chair the commission, said it would advise governments on issues such as U.N. climate negotiations and in preparing an Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in mid-2012.

"Extreme weather like the droughts in Russia, China and Brazil and the flooding in Pakistan and Australia have contributed to a level of food price volatility we haven't seen since the oil crisis of 40 years ago," he said in a statement.

Read more: http://af.reuters.com/article/commoditiesNews/idAFLDE7291Q020110311

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[WCGreen]

1. Start a garden...

[dipsydoodle]

4. Albeit for a completely different reason

that's how Cuba learned to cope.

If you've never watched Power Of Community there's a copy here : http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1721584909067928384#

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

8. Or expand your garden...

... that was my first thought at reading the headline. Been growing tomatoes and peppers for the past 10 years, but may expand or make another garden for beans, herbs, etc...

[aquart]

2. Just saw the tsunami destroy cultivated fields in Japan.

No idea how long it will take to restore those fields.

[dipsydoodle]

3. I noticed that too

as it swept across pristine fields. Tragic isn't it.

[Hannah Bell]

5. bullshit.

[notesdev]

6. In this case the problem is definitely man-made

But it was not caused by climate. This particular problem was caused by two things:

1 - batshit insane policy on ethanol eating up over a third of the US corn crop
2 - batshit insane financial policy coming out of the Federal Reserve

[Denninmi]

7. Also, the predatory financial system that allows such things.

When a handful of elites are allowed to view food as just another commodity to speculate with in order to make oodles of money, while people literally starve to death because of it, something is really, really wrong.

The more I see of this whole big picture unfolding worldwide, the global crisis in food and energy, climate change, all of the political crises we are undergoing in the Middle East and right here in the good old USA, the more I begin to see the wisdom in what a lot of Marx wrote. It certainly wasn't well implemented, but the principles behind it make a lot of sense.

[sendero]

9. +1...

...when you print dollars they seek hard assets. In this case precious metals and other commodities, including food and oil.