State of the Economy: Problems Around the World

What’s the state of our economy? Well, let’s just say things aren’t looking so hot. This video from GOOD magazine outlines the problems facing the U.S. and the world.

From YouTube:

If we’re addicted to oil, our twelve-step program should begin with admitting that we have a problem. As the price of oil creeps higher, finding new energy sources is more important than ever. But the search for alternatives, combined with environmental disruptions, is putting new pressures on other essentials like food. There are some things that are going well in the world. Right now, the economy is not one of them.

Animation & Design by Chris Weller
Directed by Max Joseph
Music: “Genesis” by Justice

Rising Food Prices May Help U.S. War on Drugs

In a strange and unexpected twist, the rising costs of food may help the United States on its long-running battle against illegal drugs. Farmers in Bolivia are replacing coca, cocaine’s raw ingredient, with food crops in many instances. The United States has long tried to get Bolivian farmers to substitute coca crops with food crops, providing incentives, but Bolivian president Evo Morales fought the attempts. Morales defends the right to grow the plant, which has a traditional use as a mild stimulant with medicinal qualities. However, farmers are beginning to see benefits to growing food.

From The International Herald Tribune:

The Chapare region’s coca growers’ union, of which Morales is still president, is requiring each of its 35,000 members to plant one hectare of rice this year as part of a government plan for coca farmers to plant 50,000 hectares of rice. The region, a stretch of central Bolivian foothills, now raises just 9,000 hectares of coca.

If they limit their coca crop to a cato, growers are entitled to loans of 3,600 bolivianos to plant rice, corn and other increasingly lucrative foodstuffs, and even a grant of 14,400 bolivianos to build a house.

The amount of rice that the coca union is requiring could earn the same as a cato of coca, though it requires six times the land and a lot more labor. But the price of rice has tripled in Bolivia since last year and is continuing to rise.

Rice also feeds a hungry domestic market, whereas the U.S.-backed crop replacement efforts promoted export products like bananas and pineapples and pitted the Chapare’s poor farmers against global agribusiness giants like Dole and Chiquita.

If the farmers find that producing domestic food crops rather than coca is profitable, more may abandon coca growing. That would ease pressure on the United States government, who have long tried to find ways to beat cocaine at the source.

Well, rice and cocaine are both white, and both come in plastic baggies…

Link [International Herald Tribune] via [Wannabe Hippy]
Photo credit: Flickr user azrainman

‘Colony Collapse Disorder’ in Bees Could Affect Food Prices

As if we needed another thing pushing up the cost of food, it’s now looking like the mysterious malady facing bees across the world may affect food prices as well. We need bees to pollinate crops in order to grow fruits, vegetables and grains. We need to grow this food in order to feed our livestock. So, when the bees aren’t pollinatin’, we’re facing big problems.

From The Huffington Post:

About three-quarters of flowering plants rely on birds, bees and other pollinators to help them reproduce. Bee pollination is responsible for $15 billion annually in crop value.

In 2006, beekeepers began reporting losing 30 percent to 90 percent of their hives. This phenomenon has become known as Colony Collapse Disorder. Scientists do not know how many bees have died; beekeepers have lost 36 percent of their managed colonies this year. It was 31 percent for 2007, said Edward B. Knipling, administrator of the Agriculture Department’s Agricultural Research Service.

“If there are no bees, there is no way for our nation’s farmers to continue to grow the high quality, nutritious foods our country relies on,” said Democratic Rep. Dennis Cardoza of California, chairman of the horticulture and organic agriculture panel. “This is a crisis we cannot afford to ignore.”

Food prices have gone up 83 percent in three years, according to the World Bank.

The idea of bees no longer being around to pollinate crops is extremely scary. The mysterious ‘colony collapse disorder’ isn’t the only problem – it’s also the fact that pollution in the air changes scent molecules, making it harder for the bees that remain to find flowers. Time to start growing as much of your own food as you can, people. Not that that will save us from the potential disappearance of bees -–but it will at least help protect your family from skyrocketing food prices.

Link [The Huffington Post]
Photo credit: Flickr user blondyimp

Green Meme Killers: Ethanol Is Causing The Food Crisis

I’m sure you’ve heard it, just as we have, from self-righteous sounding friends and family. You know the sort: they think that global warming is a Marxist conspiracy to take over the world, and that environmentalists must be stopped. “The reason food prices are so out of control is because we’re sinking so much into ethanol and biofuels.” Wrong, wrong, wrong.

The meme generally goes like this:

Last year, food-to-fuel policies led to ¼ of U.S. corn being turned into ethanol. That number will rise to over 30% this year. By 2012 as much as 40% of our corn and 30% of our vegetable oils could be be diverted to fuel production.

This diversion of food crops is reducing the supply of food and feed and contributing to food price inflation. Today, food prices in the US are rising at twice the rate of inflation. Globally, food prices rose 83% in the last 3 years.

Compelling evidence, right? Not quite. The reality is that while the U.S. is embracing ethanol on a growing scale, that’s not what is driving food prices through the roof. First, we have to consider that–and we don’t say this lightly, being a resident of a state the neither the midwest nor the south seems ready to claim–the weather in the farm belt has been batshit crazy lately. Why does that matter? It means that the 25% of corn that went to ethanol in 2007 isn’t the same 25% of corn that was cheaply available in, say, 2000. Last year it was the drought that almost killed Atlanta. In 2006? Another drought. 2005? A third goddamn drought. And of course, to make up for all of this in 2008, we so far have been having rains that would make Noah blush–if you think food prices are high now, wait until the next harvest–there’s 4 million acres of corn that didn’t get planted this year because the weather was too bad. The farmers have insurance and soybeans to fall back on. What do we have? Stocking up.

Which segues nicely to the second point: despite all of these shortages, food would still be cheap if it weren’t for futures trading. This is America, man! We make money off of everything, including corn crops that aren’t even in the ground yet. Shares of corn futures–bushels, just like a barrel of crude oil– are sold like stocks in a company, and the more crazy the weather acts, the more intense the demand is going to be for those shares. In 2004, futures closed at $2.4175. In 2008? $4.28. This isn’t about ethanol sucking up all the available corn–it’s about that corn being bought for, and in turn having to be sold for, way more money. Because the weather in the places that grow corn (see also: flyover country) has been biblically bad.

It’s not just corn, either–wheat is up, and so are soybeans, a reflection that this is a problem that’s striking in systemic fashion, not merely a symptom of the evil environmentalists convincing everybody that oil is bad. Not that we’re not trying to do that, too. But biofuels are innocent, and anybody that says otherwise has tunnel vision.

Sean Hannity Dips Into the Desperation Well And Tries To Pin High Food Prices on Al Gore to Great Hillarity

Great Flying Spaghetti Monster. The pain! I am doubled over in pain from laughing so hard. I picked up on an item from the ‘raz about Faux News laying the blame for record high food prices on…

get this…

Al Gore.

Oh, the delicious pain of it all. The Republican party is in full retreat, they are losing Congressional races left and right in traditionally staunch GOP districts, are looking at a major drubbing in November, and are seeing huge demographic shifts to the left among young people, Hispanics, and even conservative Christians. Fox News ratings are down, right wing talking heads are being canceled every other week, and shilltards like Sean Hannity are reduced to using increasingly pathetic hit pieces like this, complete with scary music and ominous voice overs. Hannity and his dwindling audience of dead-enders are on the downslope of an eight year extreme right neo-con jihadic ciclejerk.

You can watch the hilarious video here.

Here’s a snip from the article that points out a few of the errors Fox News made in the report:

Hannity is correct that increased demand for biofuels is part of the problem. But there are other factors, too, that the “We report. You decide” network conveniently omitted. According to Time magazine, there are three other factors: One is the chronically low productivity of farmers in the poorest countries, caused by their inability to pay for seeds, fertilizers and irrigation. Another is the growing demand for food and the third, which Hannity would probably rather die than admit to, is climate change. Time reported that recent droughts in Australia and Europe cut the global production of grain in 2005 and ‘06. New York Times columnist and economics professor Paul Krugman says that high oil costs play a big role, too.
Hannity also failed to mention that U.S. policies subsidize the conversion of food into biofuels and are also to blame. Time criticizes that policy but notes a possible win-win solution: “There may be a case for biofuels produced on lands that do not produce foods–tree crops (like palm oil), grasses and wood products–but there’s no case for doling out subsidies to put the world’s dinner into the gas tank.”
Hannity went on to quote Gore in 1998 saying he was proud to “stand up for the ethanol tax exemption.” But Hannity didn’t mention that more recently — in 2006, for example — Gore endorsed cellulosic ethanol over corn-based ethanol.

Enjoy the last dying breaths of the Neo-Con revolution while it lasts. I, for one, look forward to looking deep into its eyes as they haze over in anticipation of the coming darkness.

Links [Fox News Video] & [News Hounds] via [Ecorazzi] via [Green Daily]

President Bush Claims to be a Green Local Food Proponent in Latest Speech

Ha ha, President Bush. You’re such a joker. Amidst depressing news of starving children, celebrities flying personal chefs across oceans to prepare a plate of pasta and farmers salivating over the prospect of cutting down trees in the rainforest, your hilarious comments in your most recent speech really gave us a much-needed laugh. What’s that? You weren’t joking? But in your speech the other day, you said something really funny about food prices and your own take on the situation.

From the White House:

In terms of the international situation, we are deeply concerned about food prices here at home and we’re deeply concerned about people who don’t have food abroad. In other words, scarcity is of concern to us. Last year we were very generous in our food donations, and this year we’ll be generous as well. As a matter of fact, we just released about $200 million out of the Emerson Trust as part of a ongoing effort to address scarcity.

One thing I think that would be — I know would be very creative policy is if we — is if we would buy food from local farmers as a way to help deal with scarcity, but also as a way to put in place an infrastructure so that nations can be self-sustaining and self-supporting. It’s a proposal I put forth that Congress hasn’t responded to yet, and I sincerely hope they do.

Since you said this with a straight face and seeming sincerity, you may be surprised to hear that many of us are shaking our heads in disbelief, looking at each other for answers – what proposals? Did we miss something? Did you sneak something in to Congress under a pseudonym? Hello? [Silence]

Link [EnviroWonk]

Photo credit: Flickr user azrainman

Opportunists See Dollar Signs as Food Prices Spur Rainforest Destruction

What do you know, chaos and suffering is causing some folks in the position of power to take advantage of the situation. Will wonders never cease?

As people are starting to get worried about the future of our food sources, farmers in Brazil are getting excited about the prospect of making money by cutting down trees in the rainforest, burning the land and making way for pasture and crops.

Envirolink has it:

“At the very edge of the agricultural frontier, it’s very dynamic and that’s why you get statistics for deforestation that swing wildly from one year to the next,” said Roberto Cavalcanti of Conservation International.

“A small shift in food prices can have a big impact on whether it’s economical or not to move into the forest.”

The governor of Mato Grosso, one of Brazil’s biggest farming states, last week advocated more deforestation as a solution to the sharp rises in staples such as rice that are threatening to push millions of people into hunger.

“There is no way to produce more food without occupying more land and taking down more trees,” Blairo Maggi, also Brazil’s largest soybean producer and widely known as the “King of Soy”, told the Folha news agency.

This seems like a really stupid move… at the first sign of a food crisis, we start moving in on the rainforests, which we’ve been trying to protect for decades? Isn’t there a better way, people? I’m no expert, but in the times of climate change and worries over the future of the entire planet, cutting down trees in the rainforest appears to be a very bad idea.

Link [Envirolink]

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

More Criticism for Ethanol: Now it’s Affecting Food Prices

Those who have looked to corn as the next great biofuel better be prepared for a new barrage of criticism. Missouri is currently seeing an uprising against its measures supporting ethanol production, because using corn for fuel means there’s less for food – both for people and for livestock. That means skyrocketing prices in an already damaged economy.

Reuters has it:

St. Onge said the committee is studying a measure that would roll back the mandate and is still determining whether to push any action before the end of Missouri’s legislative session next month.

The moves in Missouri come as Texas Gov. Rick Perry is asking the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for a 50 percent waiver of the mandate for grain-based ethanol production.

Pilgrim’s Pride Corp and Tyson Foods issued statements over the weekend supporting Perry’s request, saying “unprecedented increases for corn and soybean meal” would add billions of dollars of cost to the food industry this year.

The cons of ethanol are piling up with no signs of stopping. Stephen Pizzo of AlterNet said it well:

Is turning food into fuel as millions starve to death really the ethical answer to our oil addiction? If the ethanol folks have their way and Detroit starts cranking out E85 cars by the millions, how are you going to feel when you have to buy one. How will you feel filling up your car with food-juice during the day and then watching starving children on the evening news as some horse’s ass in Washington pontificates about how the world needs to do something about that? How will you feel?

Time to throw in the towel here, folks. It ain’t going to work. When it comes right down to it, it’s doubtful that ethanol will be any better for the earth than oil, and we’ll all be better off in the end if they stop funneling money into a useless cause. There are so many other options out there.

Link [Reuters] + [Alternet]
Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Developing Nations Struggle to Cope with Rising Food Prices, Once Again The Poor Get Screwed

I live on the edge of town, with real farmland about a quarter mile away. The fields in one direction have been in alfalfa for a decade. Around the corner, in a second field, they’ve been growing tomatoes for about as long. A couple of months ago, I drove past and saw machinery in both places, and thought for a dark moment that it was another suburb going in–but no. With the housing market collapse, those days are gone. Instead, wheat sprouted and grew, hundreds of acres of it. The wheat is now tall enough that, when the wind blows through the fields, it looks like it should have its own inspirational soundtrack.

Why did they switch to wheat? Because the price has gone through the roof, which is having grim repercussions all over the world. From the International Herald Tribune:

Egypt’s government is struggling to contain a political crisis sparked by rising world food prices. Violent clashes have broken out at long lines for subsidized bread, and the president, worried about unrest, has ordered the army to step in to provide more.

The crisis in the world’s most populous Arab country and a top U.S. ally in the Mideast is a stark sign of how rising food prices are roiling poorer countries worldwide….

The issue in Egypt centers on subsidized versions of the flat, round bread that is a staple of people’s diets. Acute shortages of subsidized bread, which is sold at less than one U.S. cent a loaf, have caused long lines at distributors, prompting violence at some sites in poor neighborhoods in recent weeks.

At least seven people have died, according to police.

At first, one might hold Egypt’s kludgy government responsible, but as the article explains, economists place the blame “mainly on the rising cost of wheat on the world market, where prices have tripled in the last 10 months.” World food production has been a single integrated entity for a long time now, and it does respond to prices; hence, the ketchup tomatoes down the block from me made way for wheat. The problem is that it will still take months for that food to reach mouths in, say, Egypt, and hunger won’t wait that long.

Link [International Herald Tribune]

Photo Credit: Flickr user MrBologna