Climate Activists to Dairy Summit: ‘Get a real job on a real farm’

Camp for Climate Action Aotearoa

Media Release: 9th November 2010

Camp for Climate Action Aotearoa invites the corporate farmers of the World Dairy Summit to get a real job on a real farm

In response to yesterday’s Federated Farmer’s press release telling protestors of the World Dairy Summit in Auckland to “Get a real job like farming” Camp for Climate Action Aotearoa suggests that Federated Farmer’s listen to their own advice.

Camp for Climate Action Aotearoa spokesperson Gary Cranston says “we support the actions of small scale farmers all over the world who are already living sustainably, feeding their communities and defending their climate-friendly farming practices from mega-scale agribusinesses.”

“As a stream of greenwash spews from the World Dairy Summit into our rivers small-scale farmer’s livelihoods are not only threatened by climate change, they’re also threatened by industrial agriculture itself and the kind of money-making false solutions that the world’s agribusiness giants are pedalling at the UN climate negotiations and through John Key’s Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases.”

World Bank: ‘Speculation in food behind price increases’

from Spectrezine
15 September 2010

A recent World Bank report reveals that speculation was a major cause of the huge increase in food prices during 2007 and 2008. While banks raked in huge profits, hundreds of millions of people, most but by no means all of them in developing countries, suffered hunger as a result of rising prices.

Jean Ziegler, special rapporteur for food rights for the UN, called the food crisis at the time 'silent mass murder', saying that it was entirely attributable to human activity.

As Dutch Socialist Party MP and development spokesman Ewout Irrgang says, “Human activity could also put an end to the hunger casino. Re-regulation of agriculture is therefore vital. Speculators must be banished from the food market. This could be achieved, for example, by a ban on speculative financial instruments in food commodities where there is no over-riding interest, or through limits on the amounts that speculators can gamble on food prices. Also worthy of consideration are the introduction of a tax to put a brake on speculative financial operations, and the regulation of the futures market.”

New Socialist Restaurants Bring Venezuelans Good Food at Fair Prices

By Edward Ellis
from Correo del Orinoco International
via Venezuela Analysis

Providing the Venezuelan population with good food at fair prices is the principle goal behind the inauguration of seven new socialist arepa restaurants in the country, confirmed Commerce Minister Richard Canan last Saturday.

During a tour of a recently opened government run restaurant in the neighborhood La Rinconada in Caracas, Canan highlighted how these new facilities are breaking with older models of doing business in Venezuela.

“The creation of these socialist arepa restaurants allows us to demonstrate to capitalist businesses that it is possible to have a venue where food can be sold at a fair price and not as a commodity, as it is under capitalist concepts”.

Video: Raj Patel on the battle for the world food system

Raj Patel, author of The Value of Nothing and Stuffed and Starved, interviewed by Jill Hickson and Simon Cunich for Green Left Weekly and Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal. 

The battle for the world food system: an interview with Raj Patel from Jill Hickson on Vimeo.

The battle for the world food system: an interview with Raj Patel from Jill Hickson on Vimeo.

The lessons of climate history: implications for post-carbon agriculture

by Dan Allen
Post Carbon Institute's Energy Bulletin
17 May 17 2010

“The facts stare us in the face, yet we do not display sufficient humility…In a new climatic era, we would be wise to learn from the climatic lessons of history.”

- Brian Fagan

“All our lives utterly depend on just six inches of topsoil and the fact that it rains.”

- Anonymous wise person

SUMMARY: Populous civilizations require agriculture. Agriculture requires climatic stability. Industrial civilization is rapidly eroding climatic stability. This can’t end well. But…there’s some stuff we can do, and we have to try. So shut off your damn computer, get outside, and start building some agricultural resiliency!

AGRICULTURE? HUH? THAT'S ALL YOU GOT?

Every so often, one of my suburban New Jersey high-school students asks me what I think will be the biggest problem associated with climate change. Knowing they’re asking the question from a human-centered perspective, I respond simply, “Agriculture might not work if we change the climate.”

They usually just sort of stare blankly back at me and say, “Hmmmm.”

In other words, they don’t get it. “Agriculture? That’s it? That’s all you’ve got? Like farms and stuff? Cows and tractors? But aren’t we in the Information Age now? Isn’t it all about technology these days? Isn’t agriculture so…ummm…last century?”

I think that these kids – like the majority of Americans, really – just don’t understand what is at stake with this whole climate-change thing. I don’t think they understand that we are – that EVERY populous civilization necessarily is – fundamentally an AGRICULTURAL civilization. Agriculture is still now, as it has been for millennia, THE foundation of our species. A population of our density obviously cannot get by on hunting and gathering. So agriculture it is. (Well…for now, at least.)

And despite our fossil-energy-fueled bravado, agriculture is still, as it has always been, a very tenuous endeavor. Even though we’ve ‘progressed’ to having fossil-fuel-powered machines tending the fields instead of humans, we are STILL dependent for our very existence on six inches of topsoil and the somewhat-predictable, relatively-benign climatic regime we’ve enjoyed for the past 10,000 years.
The fact that agriculture in the US has become so thoroughly removed from the everyday thoughts of most of our industrial population does not make its future prospects of any less concern. In fact, quite the contrary. Despite our currently-overflowing supermarket shelves, packed refrigerators, and prodigious waistlines, an honest and thorough look at our coming agricultural challenges is enough to make one literally shake in their boots.

Global food bubble on the way?

Jayati Ghosh: Food prices set to surge due to Wall Street speculation






From The Real News network

Bio

Dr. Jayati Ghosh is Professor of Economics and currently also Chairperson at the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Educated at Delhi University, Jawaharlal Nehru University and the University of Cambridge, England, her research interests include globalization, international trade and finance, employment patterns in developing countries, macroeconomic policy, and issues related to gender and development.

The Oil Intensity of Food

by Lester Brown from Grist 25 June 2009 Although attention commonly focuses on energy use on the farm, agriculture accounts for only one fifth of the energy used in the U.S. food system, The modern food system that evolved when oil was cheap will not survive as it is now structured.

Continue

The Oil Intensity of Food

by Lester Brown from Grist 25 June 2009 Although attention commonly focuses on energy use on the farm, agriculture accounts for only one fifth of the energy used in the U.S. food system, The modern food system that evolved when oil was cheap will not survive as it is now structured. Today we are an oil-based civilization, one that is totally dependent on a resource whose production will soon be falling. Since 1981, the quantity of oil extracted has exceeded new discoveries by an ever-widening margin. In 2008, the world pumped 31 billion barrels of oil but discovered fewer than 9 billion barrels of new oil. World reserves of conventional oil are in a free fall, dropping every year. As I note in my latest book Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization, discoveries of conventional oil total roughly 2 trillion barrels, of which 1 trillion have been extracted so far, with another trillion barrels to go. By themselves, however, these numbers miss a central point. As security analyst Michael Klare notes, the first trillion barrels was easy oil, “oil that’s found on shore or near to shore; oil close to the surface and concentrated in large reservoirs; oil produced in friendly, safe, and welcoming places.” The other half, Klare notes, is tough oil, “oil that’s buried far offshore or deep underground; oil scattered in small, hard-to-find reservoirs; oil that must be obtained from unfriendly, politically dangerous, or hazardous places.” This prospect of peaking oil production has direct consequences for world food security, as modern agriculture depends heavily on the use of fossil fuels. Most tractors use gasoline or diesel fuel. Irrigation pumps use diesel fuel, natural gas, or coal-fired electricity. Fertilizer production is also energy-intensive. Natural gas is used to synthesize the basic ammonia building block in nitrogen fertilizers. The mining, manufacture, and international transport of phosphates and potash all depend on oil. Efficiency gains can help reduce agriculture’s dependence on oil. In the United States, the combined direct use of gasoline and diesel fuel in farming fell from its historical high of 7.7 billion gallons (29.1 billion liters) in 1973 to 4.2 billion in 2005—a decline of 45 percent. Broadly calculated, the gallons of fuel used per ton of grain produced dropped from 33 in 1973 to 12 in 2005, an impressive decrease of 64 percent. One reason for this achievement was a shift to minimum- and no-till cultural practices on roughly two fifths of U.S. cropland. But while U.S. agricultural fuel use has been declining, in many developing countries it is rising as the shift from draft animals to tractors continues. A generation ago, for example, cropland in China was tilled largely by draft animals. Today much of the plowing is done with tractors. Fertilizer accounts for 20 percent of U.S. farm energy use. Worldwide, the figure may be slightly higher. As the world urbanizes, the demand for fertilizer climbs. As people migrate from rural areas to cities, it becomes more difficult to recycle the nutrients in human waste back into the soil, requiring the use of more fertilizer. Beyond this, the growing international food trade can separate producer and consumer by thousands of miles, further disrupting the nutrient cycle. The United States, for example, exports some 80 million tons of grain per year—grain that contains large quantities of basic plant nutrients: nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. The ongoing export of these nutrients would slowly drain the inherent fertility from U.S. cropland if the nutrients were not replaced. Irrigation, another major energy claimant, is requiring more energy worldwide as water tables fall. In the United States, close to 19 percent of farm energy use is for pumping water. And in some states in India where water tables are falling, over half of all electricity is used to pump water from wells. Some trends, such as the shift to no-tillage, are making agriculture less oil-intensive, but rising fertilizer use, the spread of farm mechanization, and falling water tables are having the opposite effect. Although attention commonly focuses on energy use on the farm, agriculture accounts for only one fifth of the energy used in the U.S. food system. Transport, processing, packaging, marketing, and kitchen preparation of food are responsible for the rest. The U.S. food economy uses as much energy as the entire economy of the United Kingdom. The 14 percent of energy used in the food system to move goods from farmer to consumer is equal to two thirds of the energy used to produce the food. And an estimated 16 percent of food system energy use is devoted to canning, freezing, and drying food—everything from frozen orange juice concentrate to canned peas. Food staples such as wheat have traditionally moved over long distances by ship, traveling from the United States to Europe, for example. What is new is the shipment of fresh fruits and vegetables over vast distances by air. Few economic activities are more energy-intensive. Food miles—the distance that food travels from producer to consumer—have risen with cheap oil. At my local supermarket in downtown Washington, D.C., the fresh grapes in winter typically come by plane from Chile, traveling almost 5,000 miles. One of the most routine long-distance movements of fresh produce is from California to the heavily populated U.S. East Coast. Most of this produce moves by refrigerated trucks. In assessing the future of long-distance produce transport, one writer observed that the days of the 3,000-mile Caesar salad may be numbered. Packaging is also surprisingly energy-intensive, accounting for 7 percent of food system energy use. It is not uncommon for the energy invested in packaging to exceed that in the food it contains. Packaging and marketing also can account for much of the cost of processed foods. The U.S. farmer gets about 20 percent of the consumer food dollar, and for some products, the figure is much lower. As one analyst has observed, “An empty cereal box delivered to the grocery store would cost about the same as a full one.” The most energy-intensive segment of the food chain is the kitchen. Much more energy is used to refrigerate and prepare food in the home than is used to produce it in the first place. The big energy user in the food system is the kitchen refrigerator, not the farm tractor. While oil dominates the production end of the food system, electricity dominates the consumption end. In short, with higher energy prices and a limited supply of fossil fuels, the modern food system that evolved when oil was cheap will not survive as it is now structured.

Union members flock to sign GST-off-food petition

EPMU and SFWU members sign RAM's popular GST-off-food petition at a mass union meeting in Manukau. 250 signatures were collected in short time.

People were very interested in RAM's new leaflet advertising the Greater Auckland stopovers of the People's Procession to Parliament.

To get copies of People's Procession leaflets email grantmorgan@paradise.net.nz

Maori Party call to address food poverty

Maori Party media release Tariana Turia, Co-leader of the Maori Party 26 August 2008 The dramatic 7.6% rise in food prices announced yesterday by Statistics NZ is but another factor in the hardship being endured by more and more New Zealanders says the Maori Party. "It is the basics that are hurting our families the most" said Mrs Turia. "We're not talking about luxury items - families have suffered price hikes of 89.4% for butter; 19.6% for bread; 59.3% for cheddar cheese; and 10.2% for milk ­ core items in the weekly shopping basket". "But the biggest worry has been the impact of a 3.6% increase in fruit and veges ­ an increase which low income families have been struggling to meet over this long winter" said Mrs Turia. "All the research tells us that under the persistent pressure of other costs such as fuel and housing, people are being forced to make a choice whether healthy food is worth it" said Mrs Turia."Massey University's Dr Emma Dresler-Hawke and Otago University's Professor Jim Mann have both come out with independent studies, concluding that if Government wants to make healthy food choices affordable, they must give serious consideration to removing the GST off food". "The Maori Party supports the call from the Public Health Association and the National Heart Foundation for GST to be removed from the nutritious basics of the New Zealand diet ­ fruit, vegetables, milk". "The excuses put forward by other parties, that it would be administratively challenging, or would involve some investment ­ are just excuses" said Mrs Turia. "If we are seriously concerned about the health and wellbeing of New Zealanders ­ and the Maori Party is ­ then taking GST off the basic food elements of the household grocery list ­ is an easy way to make a difference" said Mrs Turia.

Fastest growing party registered by Electoral Commission

RAM media release
30 July 2008

Yesterday the Electoral Commission agreed to register RAM - Residents Action Movement. (See EC email below.)

RAM is the fastest growing party in New Zealand. We have gained 3,000 members since late February 2008, when RAM decided to switch from being a Greater Auckland local body coalition to being a countrywide people's movement that contests parliamentary elections.

On average, RAM has gained 150 new members every single week since we decided to go countrywide. Not even the Big Two parties, Labour and National, can claim this recruiting success.

"At our RAM tables, the grassroots are telling us how worried they are about meeting their bills, and also how upset they are that both Labour and National are only looking after the rich people," said Grant Morgan, chair of RAM.

RAM will be fielding a long party list in the 2008 General Election as well as standing in a significant number of electorates.

RAM has issued our Ten Commandments - ten policy priorities - which offer immediate "common sense" improvements in the lives of grassroots people.

Heading the Ten Commandments is our call for GST to be removed from food. RAM's GST-off-food petition has already attracted 20,000 signatures. We will be taking the petition to MP's in a two-week People's Procession to Parliament in late September/early October.

"The People's Procession to Parliament will be a chance for the grassroots to get a fairer taxation system as well as having their voice heard in the election campaign, which is usually dominated by spin from the big political machines," said Grant Morgan.

For more information, contact:

Grant Morgan
Chair of RAM - Residents Action Movement
021 2544 515
grantmorgan@paradise.net.nz


See RAM's TEN COMMANDMENTS

Rising Prices Reinforce Need for Food Security Policies

by Martin Khor

from Institute of Science in Society

15 July 2008

The new key to food security is self-sufficiency, not trade, and policies are needed to expand local food production and invigorate the agricultural sector particularly in developing countries.

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"Why can't the Government lift the GST on everyday living items, e.g. food and petrol?"

UNITYblog editorial 5 July 2008 The cost of petrol is spiking upwards again and likely to reach $2.50 per litre. Working people are really hurting. A recent letter from the NDU express asks the question: "Why can't the Government lift the GST on everyday living items, e.g. food and petrol?". The correspondent goes on to say: "I travel 70km per day to get to work. I estimate the cost of petrol plus wear and tear on the car is around $150 per week. Take this off our lousy wage. And we have to ask ourselves, is it worth getting out of bed at 5am five days per week or financially are we in the same boat if we stay at home and collect the dole? What's the government going to do?" This crisis for working class people is going to be a big election issue. RAM is continuing to build the "GST-off-food" campaign, which will run right up until election time. The response has been overwhelming on the streets of working class suburbs across the country. The extent of grassroots anger means there's the opportunity to turn this demand into a real mass movement that the politicians in parliament cannot ignore.

Secret report: biofuel caused food crisis

"Biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75% - far more than previously estimated - according to a confidential World Bank report obtained by the Guardian." by Aditya Chakrabortty for The Guardian, July 4, 2008 http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jul/03/biofuels.renewableenergy

Some commonly asked questions about the GST-off-food petition

RAM's "GST-off-food" petition has received upwards of 12,000 signatures at stalls like the one above. Some unions are also circulating the petition amongst their members.

Below are some commonly asked questions about removing GST from food for distribution in union and other social justice networks. Please feel free to copy and paste into an email to send to your own contacts. Or make up a quick leaflet to give to workmates and friends. Copies of RAM's "GST-off-food" petition is avaible from RAM's website.

Will sellers just lift their prices if GST is removed?

While sellers have a degree of flexibility in regard to managing their profit margins, they are not a law unto themselves. Customers ultimately dictate the course of a business, and New Zealand has a very competitive retail environment. If GST-off-food became a reality, Kiwis would not tolerate retailers or their suppliers not removing the 12.5% tax on their food items. There would be a mass exodus to sellers who didn't hike their prices, forcing the others to retreat. And remember, removing GST from food provides a PERMANENT benefit. Prices will always be cheaper by the amount of the GST than it would otherwise be if this 12.5% tax remained. In fact, as food prices rose over time in line with general inflationary trends, the amount of the benefit of removing GST would grow in value.

What about the loss in tax revenue?

The income tax cuts promised by Labour and National (which benefit the wealthy more than the rest) are significantly greater in terms of lost revenue than would be the removal of GST from food. And there is greatly increased GST revenue being generated as a result of record fuel prices and the rise in the cost of other goods and services. These rises will tend to offset the removal of GST from food. Anyway, New Zealand needs to move away from the GST flat tax, since it is so unfair to low-to-modest income Kiwis. The poorest person in the land pays exactly the same amount of GST on a litre of milk as the richest person. GST is the product of Rogernomics and the whole Business Roundtable agenda. We need to return to progressive tax systems where the rich pay a fairer share, possibly including a financial transactions tax which would capture greedy speculators in the tax net which they now escape under GST.

Should tax reform be part of a union's strategy?

Each union is working hard to improve the living conditions of its own members by campaigning for better collective agreements. And by campaigning for upwards adjustments to the politically legislated minimum wage, the union movement as a whole is trying to improve the well-being of every worker in the land. This combination of industrial and political campaigning has always been a feature of the NZ union movement, and long may it continue. The GST-off-food petition fits right into this union strategy. It is a political campaign supported by some unions and many union members that aims to improve the lives of low-to-modest income families struggling to pay the bills. Many are now simply unable to afford good food no matter how well they budget. This is a social justice issue. As one Maori woman worker said when signing the GST-off-food petition in Mangere: "Taxing food is like taxing the air we breathe." By supporting the GST-off-food petition, your union will earn the gratitude of all Kiwi battlers, which will pay off in terms of cross-solidarity in the future.

GM will make global food crisis worse

Two competing scenarios are unfolding for the future of farming around the planet: organic & local versus industrialised & dependent on seed-varieties owned by multinational corporations. Linked into industrialised farming is the "bad science" of genetic modification (GM), which makes many crops dangerous to life as well as less productive. Our food security demands a return to local and organic farming.

Lecture by Dr. Mae-Wan Ho at the conference, TRADITIONAL SEEDS OUR NATIONAL TREASURE AND HERITAGE, 17 May 2008, Warsaw, Poland.

Dr. Mae-Wan Ho is the co-founder of The Institute of Science In Society The Brave New World of GM Science In 1994, I met some of the most remarkable leaders in the Third World: Tewolde Berhan Gebre Egziabher (Institute of Sustainable Development, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia), Martin Khor (Third World Network, Penang, Malaysia), and Vandana Shiva (Navdanya, New Delhi, India), who persuaded me to look into genetically modified organisms (GMOs), especially GM crops, which they rightly saw as a special threat to small family farmers. The biotech industry was promising miracle GM crops that would boost yield to feed the world, improve nutrition, and clean up and protect the environment. Monsanto's Flavr Savr tomato, the first GM crop, had just been commercialised, though it turned out to be a complete flop, and was withdrawn several years later.

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A Hunger for Justice

by Health Unionist

So it’s happening already. Rising food prices in this country are “making people more prone to sickness”. That’s what food specialists say in a recent Dominion Post article Families' health hit as food costs soar.

The Wellington managing director of Foodstuffs (Pak’N’Save, New World and 4 Square supermarkets) rattles off the usual suspects behind the price rises. Poor harvests, high fuel costs, higher demand from Asia, biofuels. You have to dig a little deeper to get the full picture, which corporate managing directors can’t, and won’t tell you. Poor harvests are linked to climate change, which rolls on unabated thanks to corporate opposition to measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Oil prices are rising for the same reason. High oil prices, in turn, make it profitable for corporate agribusinesses to grow crops for biofuels instead of food. “Higher demand” from Asia is actually driven by the growth of a small, wealthy middle class, mainly in China, which has a taste for meat. Grain is now being diverted to animal feed, to produce meat for this lucrative new market. The corporate elite behind the food crisis, which is now growing here in New Zealand as the Dominion Post reports, have no answers. Neither do all the mainstream political parties which serve them. It’s an absolute disgrace that National, ACT, Labour and the Greens all reject such a simple, immediate step as scrapping GST on food. Ultimately, there is no global food shortage. There’s only a shortage of politicians willing to stand up to the corporate agenda. RAM (Residents Action Movement) has the answers that the corporate elite and all the mainstream politicians lack. RAM is building a grassroots movement that puts people and the environment before the almighty dollar – starting by scrapping GST tax on all our food.

Pakistan: Thousands demonstrate against price rises

by Tariq Mehmood Over 3,000 supporters of Labour Party Pakistan took part in a rally at Lahore against the ongoing neo-liberal policies of the present Pakistan People's Party government. They chanted slogans against price hikes, American imperialism and demanded an immediate end of policies dictated by imperialist companies and financial institutions. There were similar demonstration in 30 other cities of Pakistan including Islamabad, Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta, Hyderabad, Multan, Moro, Dault Pur and Layya. Labour Party Pakistan organized the demonstration and rallies with support from trade unions, social movements and peasant organizations as a day of national action against price hikes. They also demanded an immediate restoration of top judges and the resignation of general Musharaf. The Peshawar demonstration by LPP was broadcasted live by private television channel ARY World. Over 400 participated in the demonstration, including over 100 women. At Karachi, over 250 activists demonstrated at Regal Chouck. They were shouting slogans against American imperialism and its policies towards the colonial countries. At Islamabad, over 150 demonstrated at Aab Para Chouck against price hikes and demanded a living wage of at least 12,000 Rupees for all the workers. They demanded action against bosses who are attacking workers forming trade unions in different parts of the country. At Lahore, over 1,000 women participants led the demonstration, including the main leadership of Women Workers Help Line, a working class women's organization. The main Mall Road was blocked for over two hours as the rally passed thought his most busy and prestigious road. Thousands on both sides of the road cheered the demonstrators. This was the largest demonstration against price hikes so far in Pakistan by any political party. Mall Road was red with all the waving red flags for a long, long time. The demonstraters raised slogans in favour of Socialism, saying that Socialism is the only answer to the problems facing the working class. "Capitalism has failed in solving the basic problems of the masses. It is a message of consistent price hikes and unemployment. We have to change the system and develop a party able to prepare a Socialist revolution," declared Farooq Tariq while addressing the public rally at Lahore. "We demand a minimum wage of 12,000 rupees with an introduction of an unemployment benefit for all adult unemployed. We want an end to privatization and cancellation of the foreign debts. Reduce military expenditures and spent it on the people," Farooq Tariq said. He demanded action against the owner of New Khan private bus company who have sacked 80 workers for forming the first trade union in the company. Several trade union leaders including Moeen Nawaz Punno, Muhammed Yousaf Baluch, Bushra Khaliq, Azra Shad and Mehmood Butt also spoke at the occasion. Leaders of the lawyer's movement also addressed the rally, while activists of the Communist Mazdoor Kissan Party participated in the demonstration. There were many slogans directed against general Musharaf. All the main print and electronic media were present to record events. Labour Party Pakistan has announced a further demonstration this month along the same lines, and is taking an active part in the long march planned by the lawyers movement starting 10th June from Sukhar in Sind. Labor Party Pakistan

www.laborpakistan.org

Sky-rocketing oil and food prices - the latest investment bubble?

Are sky-rocketing food and oil prices due to global shortages, or the result of a speculative rush of billions of dollars into commodities trading? According to many economic commentators it's the latter. The sickness of the system that we live under is that a "speculative boom" in commodity prices is seeing poor people starve, and is causing enormous stress to cash-strapped working people across the world. The latest investment bubble has been created by the largely unregulated trade in what's known as commodity futures. How this works is explained by Petrino DiLeo, in an article

Gambling with the Futures from US Socialist Worker.
DiLeo writes: "Futures are [...] traded by individual investors and financial institutions, based on a gamble as to whether the price of the goods will rise or fall. Today, traders of exchange-traded funds, hedge funds and other speculators far outstrip the actual buyers and sellers of commodities. As a result, these speculators have generated a big demand for futures contracts, therefore helping send the prices of underlying commodities upward." Mike Whitney in a recent article titled
 
The Great Oil Swindle: How much did the Fed really know? also argues that it's unregulated futures trading that's sending the price of oil (and food) upwards. And that a lot of this investment is coming from US banks who've been bailed out to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars by the US Federal Reserve after the collapse of the housing and sub-prime mortgage markets. These big banks, argues Whitney, are trying to speculate their way out of the financial crisis through investing in oil and food futures. Not only are these banks the recipients of corporate welfare of truly historic proportions, but what they're doing with that money is inflicting pain and suffering on the majority of the world's population. Whitney claims the rising cost of oil "is a hoax cooked up by the investment banks and hedge funds who are trying to dig their way out of the trillion dollar mortgage-backed securities (MBS) mess that they created by turning garbage loans into securities." He quotes another financial analyst who calculates that at least 60% of the current price of oil comes from futures speculation by hedge funds, banks and financial groups, who are using unregulated futures exchanges to avoid public scrutiny. While perhaps overly dismissive of the current and future impact of Peak Oil, Whitney's analysis is compelling. The bigger picture is that trillions of dollars circulate the globe daily looking to be invested in shares, property, currency, commodities, and phony markets created to gamble on price or interest rate fluctuations, which points to the fact that the real economy - the one where goods or services are produced and purchased for actual use - is not delivering the profitable returns the capitalists want. This underlying economic crisis could not be avoided forever, and is now impacting on the global economy in a big way. What's important for us to realise is that this economic crisis is rapidly intensifying a global political struggle, where the naked self-preservation of the rich elites comes up against the rising anger of grassroots people. Like any war - which is what this indeed will be - it will be decided by superior organisation, strategy and will. Our side needs to build the political structures within individual countries and internationally to mobilise the world's grassroots majority in this historic struggle.  

UNITYblog directs readers to articles presented on the right-hand sidebar under the heading 'Building a broad left party' as a contribution to how we can organise.

John Minto - Plenty of food for all

by John Minto from Workers Charter May 2008 Rising food prices around the world have dominated the news for the past several weeks. Riots have taken place in many countries as prices rise beyond what families can afford. Here in New Zealand the rising price of dairy products is at the sharp end, but for the world’s poorest it’s the price of grain which is critical. So with food prices rising there must be a shortage, right? Surely it means more people competing for the same amount of food. This is the conventional view from the market but it’s not true. There is no shortage of food in the world. The problem is the price. The world’s poorest can’t afford to pay for food which is why every night 850 million humans go to bed hungry with this number rising rapidly. Last year the grain harvest worldwide was 2.1 billion tonnes. It was five percent higher than the previous year so with more food surely the price should be falling. But no. Less than half of this bumper harvest is available as food for human need. Most of the rest goes to feeding animals for meat production (760 million tonnes) and providing the growing demand for biofuels (100 million tonnes) So there is plenty of food but the poor can’t afford it. Hungry kids in developing countries can’t compete with SUV drivers in countries like New Zealand or the appetite for meat in developed countries spurred by the growing middle class in India and China. We are all surely now aware that the grain needed to produce a single tankful of biodiesel for an SUV would feed a family in a developing country for a year. There have been the predictable calls for genetic engineering to improve food production but just as with the so-called green revolution in the 1960s this is a façade. It is the free market policies demanded of developing countries which go to the very heart of the problem. Pricing food on a world market favours those who can pay more to sustain a higher standard of living with the ‘non-food’ use of food. But there are good-news stories amid the gloom and suffering. We are in the middle of Fairtrade fortnight promoted by Trade Aid. It should be an encouragement to all of us to do even the small things we can as individuals to promote a better world in defiance of traditional market forces. What makes Fairtrade products different is that they are imported from certified producers, usually co-operatives, which ensure a better return direct to the growers. For example coffee growers in Guatemala and Ethiopia typically receive 10% to 15% more for their products from Fairtrade buyers. In some cases, depending on the world price for coffee, growers have gained up to three times what they otherwise would have received via local markets. Likewise buying Fairtrade olive oil, dates and almonds from Palestine supports local communities under oppressive occupation. The benefits go much further. More local schools and medical clinics being built. Sustainable development is taking a big step forward in areas where Fairtrade products are sourced at fairer prices. These products are now widely available but our supermarket chains are reluctant to stock them. Next time you are in the supermarket look for the Fairtrade logo and ask the staff what fair trade products are stocked. A small dig in the market ribs of those addicted to profit-based economics will help lots of people get a fairer go. Another good news story is Uganda. Amid the world food crisis this country in central Africa which has had such a bloody, turbulent transition from colonial rule is largely riding out the food crisis by ignoring years of bad advice. Uganda’s rice output has increased two and a half times since 2004 and is expected to reach up to 180,000 tonnes this year. Amid rising food prices globally the cost of rice in Uganda is much the same as it was before the food crisis. The reason is tariffs. Against the neo-liberal advice from the likes of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund tariffs have increased the price of imported rice and dramatically stimulated local food production. The country is much closer to self-sufficiency and food security and points the way forward for developing countries. There's a lesson here for New Zealand too. John Minto is the editor of Workers Charter, a monthly broad left paper. To subscribe email admin@workerscharter.org.nz Subs are $40 a year (10 issues). Also read:

• MARXIST FORUM: The Global Food Crisis - Fact or Fiction?
• Ticker Tape Ain’t Spaghetti
• FOOD CRISIS: "The greatest demonstration of the historical failure of the capitalist model"
• FOOD CRISIS (Part Two): Capitalism, Agribusiness, and the Food Sovereignty Alternative
• Solutions to the food crisis: immediate demands and longer term goals