RINF.COM: L'ALTERNATIVA ROMPENTESI DI NOTIZIE
Sabato 2 agosto 2008
RINF.COM: L'ALTERNATIVA ROMPENTESI DI NOTIZIE
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La crisi appare in lontananza mentre le società grippano il controllo dei prodotti
Sabato 2 agosto 2008 Discuta questo rapporto nelle tribune di RINF > Da Barbara L. Minton | La crisi di alimento globale non andrà via in qualunque momento presto. Il capitalismo ha il consumatore medio dalla pancia. In mezzo dei segni crescenti di carestia e dell'oltraggio, l'intera catena dei prodotti e le risorse in mondo ora stanno accantonande dalle società giganti. Il terreno coltivabile, l'acqua, il fertilizzante, il seme, l'energia e la maggior parte delle necessità di base di vita stanno rientrando in controllo corporativo, fornendo la ricchezza e l'alimentazione aumentate all'elite di regolamento mentre il resto di umanità lotta. Penuria dei prodotti dentro L'India recentemente è stato riflesso nella necessità di distribuire fertilizzante dalla stazione di polizia in Hingoli. Ora la polizia deve controllare le linee che formano fuori delle prese del commerciante, perché i commercianti non si apriranno al contrario per il commercio. Senza questo intervento non ci sarebbe fertilizzante per la piantatura che deve avvenire prima che la pioggia venisse. In Akola e in Nanded, la partecipazione della polizia inoltre è necessaria. Gli ufficiali di agricoltura hanno fuggito i loro posti di lavoro alla fuga arrabbiata coltivatori. In Karnataka, un coltivatore è stato sparato completamente durante le proteste, mentre i coltivatori stormed le riunioni ed hanno installato i blocchetti della strada in altri distretti. Malgrado il successo del cotone geneticamente costruito di Bt i raccolti, la tendenza in India è ora di nuovo a soie perché hanno costato di meno per sviluppare ed avere bisogno di meno fertilizzante che il cotone. E non è fertilizzante giusto che sia limitato. I semi sono inoltre difficili a ottenere che sta incolpando di su agitazione che ha interferito con traffico del treno del trasporto. Tuttavia, il deficit dentro semi è 60 per cento, un livello più indicativo di intervento corporativo da guidare sui prezzi che le azioni dei coltivatori powerless. Come i coltivatori fume, Wall Street Journal annunzia il salto whopping di 42 per cento nei profitti fiscali del terzo trimestre di enorme agricoltura Midland gigante del archer-Daniels. Questo aumento include un aumento del sevenfold di nuovo reddito nelle unità che immagazzinano, trasportano e classificano i grani quale frumento, cereale e soie. I profitti salenti del creatore Potash Corporation del fertilizzante di Saskatchewan sono riflessi nel movimento parabolico del relativo prezzo di riserva da un livello basso annuale di $70.35 al relativo prezzo corrente di $238.22 per la parte. Parti del produttore Mosaic Corp. e del fertilizzante dell'alimentazione animale. have risen from a yearly low of $32.50 to a current price of $159.38. Similar windfall profits are reported by GMO seed and herbicide king Monsanto whose last quarterly earnings surged by 45%. Some onlookers blame the financial speculators for driving up the prices of commodities related to agriculture as wealthy investors have piled on looking to cash in on the rising stock prices. And in many ways, today’s commodity market resembles the dot.com boom seen at the turn of the century, as well as the housing boom now in the throws of its bust. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission recently held a hearing to investigate the role that index funds and hedge funds are playing in driving up the prices of agricultural commodities. Total public fund investment in corn, soybean, wheat, cattle and hogs has risen by 37 billion dollars since 2006. This figure does not include the huge investments of hedge funds which don’t have to make such disclosure. It also doesn’t include the massive world wide investments in farmland made by the wealthy. The corporate spin is that these investments are helpful to humanity because they will ultimately result in increased food production at a time of rising world demand. They cite the need for increased corporate profits to invest in and develop new technologies that will help farmers improve productivity. This is how GMO seeds are being driven down the throats of farmers, who are told that the modified seeds can squeeze even more yield from each acre of planting. India has joined other developing countries in the decision to invest less in agriculture as advised by the World Bank-IMF, whose agenda has been to discourage crops for domestic consumption while encouraging production to spur export driven growth. This advice coupled with corporate sponsored deregulation has paved the way for corporate control of the farming process from seed to market. Research and development that was once the domain of universities has also fallen into corporate control. Farmers in India are caught in a credit crunch. Even if they are able to get the needed fertilizer, they will not have the credit to pay for it. With no increase in farmer income, larger loans are not advanced. The outlook for the small farmer there is much the same as it was in the U.S. thirty years ago, during the height of the small farms falling to big agribusiness. Corporations blame food shortages and rising prices on the people of China and India whose burgeoning income from manufacturing has allowed the average worker to increase both the amount and quality of his food consumption. But for the corporations, the increased demand for food is a guarantee of super profits to come. Of course the other commodity you can’t get along without is water, which is now the focus of huge multinational companies seeking to privatize water world wide, perhaps even patent it as Monsanto did with seeds. The fight over water may bring chaos, conflict and misery on a scale never seen before as corporations and governments go so far as to grab the wells from under people’s houses. And then there’s oil. To produce chemical fertilizer you must make use of fossil fuel. So rising oil prices and rising food prices are joined at the hip. The behavior of corporations in the oil business has been so egregious that there is talk of a windfall profits tax here and abroad. No, the food crisis will not go away anytime soon. North Korea, Burma and Western Sudan are currently feeling a real threat of starvation while western governments manipulated by corporations continue to promote the diversion of food into biofuels to further exacerbate the upward movement in food prices. Almost all U.S. corn production between 2004 and 2007 has gone into the production of ethanol. European production of ethanol has more than tripled during the same period. This has led to a fall off in grains relative to overall demand which is not a market phenomenon but is the direct result of the government sponsored, corporate backed programs. This comes at the expense of people looking for something to eat, particularly the world’s poor who are now effectively priced out of the food market. Sources: P. Sainath, The Hindu, “Fertilizing profit, sowing misery” Bogdan C. Enache, China Confidential, “Biofuels and the threat of starvation” Yahoo Finance Discuss this report in the RINF forums > Have Your Say: Crisis Looms as Corporations Seize Control of Commodities This entry was posted on Saturday, August 2nd, 2008 at 8:19 pm and is filed under Political News . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. |
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