In these two videos Jayati Ghosh, whom I interviewed for Stuffed and Starved and whose mind is filled with whip-smart insight, offers a short primer on why financial market speculation drove up the price of food in 2008, and why it’s likely to again. Very simply, there is once again money with which traders can gamble – courtesy of the bailouts – and while people are tired of bailing out banks, governments can’t credibly say that they won’t intervene in food markets. So there’s tremendous moral hazard. Traders know that when it comes to futures in food, they can’t lose. A different story, obviously, from the 1 billion who are already hungry. They’re losing every day. The majority of them: women and girls. Watch Jayati’s videos below, or read the transcript, courtesy of the good people at The Real News Network. [Updated with functioning video links, via IB]
4 Replies to “Another Food Price Crisis On the Way”
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you have great ideals supported by a brilliant understanding of economics & with that combination you could change the world for the better, but every great proponent of radical ideas that could benefit the least well off is eventually tested by the most well off, so i pray you stay true to your beliefs
Raj,
Forgive me if you think I am being too much. I am really fed up with so much totally useless and completely UNNECESSARY suffering–and the ones perpetrating it.
This Indian woman speaks truth. She is a Sadhu. Her eyes and ears clearly reveal this.
Over the years, it seems that no matter what good ideas are put forth, no matter what topics are debated as to their pinpointed dysfunctions and the cure, the answer is always the same as to WHAT the real problem IS. There is a Criminal Cartel of Greedy Thugs who manipulate us ALL via MONEY and WAR, as well as all the items within those two broad categories such as ENERGY, FOOD and FALSE ADVERTISING.
All these dysfunctions are fully interconnected. The recent daylight HEIST of several trillion dollars, which our children, grand children and great grand children will pay for, is totally interconnected with the present manufactured SPECULATIVE BUBBLE concerning the most basic human right—FOOD. This is just a REPEAT of the same old same old “management technique” that many have come to view as “normal.” No, it is fully ABNORMAL and CRIMINAL.
The people’s of the world ALLOW bubble after bubble because they have been duped into thinking that those who control all the world’s money are some kind of “experts.” Actually, they are “experts” in only one thing, selfish crime.
These so-called “World Shakers and Movers” are the worst criminals to ever appear on the face of the earth. They are able to maintain their control by deception, fraud, violence, lying, obfuscation, fraudulent “scientific” statistics and out and out thievery. The falsely so-called “Justice System” is totally in their pockets as well as politics as usual, which go on every day up in the Great Brothel On the Potomac and its subsiderary whore houses all over the planet.
Evidently those highly educated and supposedly “informed” ambitious ones who wish to climb the ladder of “real success” greatly admire their $$$ Puppet Masters who have managed to scratch and claw their way to the top of the power pyramid by stepping over the bodies of countless human beings–many of these jerks having been born into this paradigm and inculcated with the vain traditions of their fathers who went before them. The up and coming clones of this suicidal world paradigm, who continually dance this tango of evil, stand in great AWE of their Money Masters. And this, in spite of the fact that the $$$ Puppet Master are 100% morally corrupt. They continually show themselves to be completely amoral and immoral, to the point of psychosis I would say, since all their actions continually involve violating the most basic human rights of every human being on earth.
To simply put a bandaide on symptom after symptom, which focuses strictly on the RESULTS of the problem instead of the REAL SOURCE of the problem, which is no longer a mystery as it was for a long time, has done no more than slightly slow down this abomination that depends upon trickery and deception to maintain its prestige as “good businessmen” and sound pillars of the church, synagog, Lions Club and community, who many still listen to as a “guiding light.” Hello?
So, Raj, how do YOU think we can PRACTICALLY deal with the source of the problem? I know many are thinking about armed revolution at the moment and that is utterly foolish and insane, a reflection of the source problem, because, for one thing, THEY ARE 100% OUTGUNNED COMPLETELY. For another they are trying to solve a problem on the same level as the problem which even Einstein said was foolishness.
I totally forgive these World Controllers in my heart, however they do need to be behind BARS where they belong so that they can no longer damage society. A plush hotel is fine with me. A elegant place where they can learn to appreciate music, art, history and how to GROW A GARDEN. Perhaps they will finally understand that there is a MUCH better way. That is always a possibility and I am for rehabilitation not “punishment.” I am certainly against the death penalty, even in their case where HIGH TREASON has been committed on a regular basis.
The only thing I can come up with as a solution is the great need of AWAKENING to the CAUSE of the problem which was so clearly stated by this wonderful Indian woman and many others also, including you.
These criminals can only exist and commit their crimes because WE THE PEOPLE ALLOW them to do that. However, they are so ENTRENCHED into this basic paradigm of world culture, and have been for such a LONG time, and have been able to pull the wool over so many people’s eyes for so long, that nullifying their present rapidly escalating and suicidal downward spiral seems impossible–with anything less than a complete transformation of consciousness, bringing a wiser understanding of reality and HOW this Universe actually functions and operates.
Now, these are some of my ideas. What are yours?
namaste
Hello,
The following extract was printed in dairy outlook some time ago.
It indicates that high food prices actually assist local economies.
This is a view that was also shared to me by a gentleman who ran project Flood (milk in India) He is currently lecturing part time in southern India.
My view is that when food prices are forced down by export subsieies from other countries, there are negative effects all around. If it is not profitable for people to make food because they are undercut by artificially cheap goods, then there is little hope for farmers. I have been watching this for many years with our relatively affluent Australian dairy industry. Here, an average size farmer has to have at least 300 cows to make a profit, this compares to 50 or so cows in Europe.
Certainly manipulation by financial instruments does not help, but direct manipulation of world prices by subsidies really makes it difficult.
For what it is worth the New Zealand product is not subsidised but the shear scale of their farms together with their factories means they can match the subsidised product from Europe. When the european export price rises, so does the NZ prices.
all the best
Andrew in Australia
1. Interesting Debate on the benefits of subsidies.
But perhaps some not so pleasant facts to add. Local raw milk production in Malawi responded to high Milk Powder prices on the world markets in 2006 and 2007 increasing by over 15% annually, 2008 was a commendable 27% increase in raw milk production. This was replacing cheap powder imported from the EU and Oceania zones marketed in consumer packs as small as 25g up to 25kg in various brands (Cowbells and NZWP just to mention a few) pre 2006. This increased raw milk production filled the gap locally and added up to 1100 new farming families to the local producer pool of over 6000 farmers averaging 1.5 cows per farmer. These 1100 farming families represent households totally over 6600 Malawians, (excluding the extended family) going by 6 people per household that are supported by this erstwhile enterprise of dairying. This has translated to a significant growth of the local manufacturing base in Malawi now providing a stable market for this raw milk. However with the reinstatement of subsidies cheap powder will enter the market and be marketed at well below the local equilibrium market price at the consumer level, while at the raw milk level it becomes more cost effective for the local manufacturer to use powder for production (to remain viable and competitive), resulting in no market for the farming family milk and a subsequent decline in raw milk prices leading to viability challenges for the dairy enterprise etc etc. Ultimately the farming family livelihood is extinguished and has to rely on food aid to survive, which food aid is provided by EU and other partners!? You don’t have to be Einstein to figure this one out!
Regards
Edwin Chilundo
Malawi
Einstein once said, “you cannot solve a problem on the level of the problem.” In my own experience, and the experience of many others, this is true. What is required to address any problem is thinking OUTSIDE the box.
In the case of FOOD as well as many other items, the “box” is a 100% criminal cartel based upon selfish greed which desires megalomaniac control over the bodies, minds and souls of men, women and children. This can only exist because WE the people ALLOW it to exist. You see, we have fully bought the lie that BIG is best. Mark Twain said, “there are lies, damn lies and STATISTICS.” Instead of paying attention to HOW nature actually works, we pay attention to self-styled “government experts” who work on behalf of the status quo whose only God and philosophy is $$$ and the continual increase of it into their pockets. Walking over the bodies of millions is business as usual. We have been long trained to turn a blind eye to this and many have come to believe that it is the only way to do anything. Good, better, best, big, bigger, biggest.
The fact is, this is an overall SYSTEMIC problem. However, it has now reached a point of suicidal self-destruction and this huge hoax is no longer sustainable. It is on a downward spiral to its own self-destruction. Our present civilization is finished because of its own corruption and heart petrification.
The terrible ongoing abomination which has recently occurred in the Gulf of Mexico is the fruit, the outcome, of this total dysfunction–just as a nuclear fireball is the fruit of our falsely so-called “science.”
The answer to the world food crisis is LOCAL farming. We must stand with those ordinary people around the world who have always known this.
Today, I read an article in Truthout which everyone should read:
http://www.truthout.org/haitian-farmers-commit-burning-monsanto-hybrid-seeds59616
As for me and a few others in my community here in Missouri USA, we see a gigantic WORLD-WIDE food crisis looming in the near future. And yes, we here in the US WILL be effected also. So, we are encouraging and helping people to dig up their golf course lawns and PLANT FOOD. We are boycotting stores which sell poisons and GMO products. We are sharing and preserving heir loom seeds. We feel that this is the ONLY sane thing to do. This travesty involving the most basic of human rights–FOOD–is unnecessary and completely contrived, just like the recent economic thievery. The parasitic $$$ Vampires of this world can become irrelevant when we the people quit feeding their despotism and simply stand up for what is right. Some things are worth dying for.
namaste