RINF.COM: HET BREKENDE ALTERNATIEF VAN HET NIEUWS
Zaterdag, 2 Augustus, 2008
RINF.COM: HET BREKENDE ALTERNATIEF VAN HET NIEUWS
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BREKEND NIEUWS |
De Weefgetouwen van de crisis als Bedrijven grijpen Controle van Goederen
Zaterdag, 2 Augustus, 2008 Bespreek dit rapport in de forums RINF > Door Barbara L. Minton | De globale voedselcrisis zal niet op om het even welk ogenblik spoedig weggaan. Het kapitalisme heeft de gemiddelde consument door de buik. Amid het kweken van tekens van hongersnood en verontwaardiging, wordt de volledige ketting van goederen en middelen van de wereld nu in het nauw gedreven door reuzebedrijven. De landbouwgrond, het water, de meststof, het zaad, de energie, en de meeste basisnoodzaak van het leven vallen onder collectieve controle, die verhoogde rijkdom en macht verstrekt aan de beslissende elite terwijl de rest het mensdomstrijd. De schaarste van goederen binnen India onlangs in de behoefte werd nagedacht te verdelen meststof van de politiepost in Hingoli. Nu moet de politie de lijnen controleren die zich buiten handelaarsafzet vormen, omdat de handelaars niet voor zaken anders zullen openen. Zonder deze interventie zou er geen meststof voor het planten zijn die moet plaatsvinden alvorens de regen komt. In Akola en Nanded, is de politiebetrokkenheid ook nodig. De ambtenaren van de landbouw zijn hun het werkplaatsen gevlucht om aan boos te ontsnappen landbouwers. In Karnataka, was een landbouwer ontsproten volkomen tijdens protesten, terwijl de landbouwers vergaderingen stormden en wegblokken in andere districten opzetten. Ondanks het succes van het genetisch gebouwde katoen van BT gewassen, is de tendens in India nu terug naar sojabonen omdat zij minder kosten om minder meststof te kweken en nodig te hebben dan katoen. En het is niet alleen meststof die schaars is. De zaden zijn ook moeilijk te verkrijgen wat op agitatie wordt beschuldigd die zich in het verkeer van de vrachttrein heeft gemengd. Nochtans, het tekort in zaden is 60 percenten, een niveau meer indicatief van collectieve interventie om prijzen op te drijven dan de acties van machteloze landbouwers. Als landbouwersdamp, Wall Street Journal kondigt de kolossale 42 percentensprong in de fiscale het derde trimester winsten van reusachtig aan landbouw reuze schutter-Daniels Midland. Deze verhoging omvat een zevenvoudige stijging van nieuw inkomen in eenheden die opslaan, vervoeren en korrels zoals tarwe sorteren, graan en sojabonen. De stijgende winsten van het Bedrijf van de Potas van de meststoffenmaker van Saskatchewan worden weerspiegeld in de parabolische beweging van zijn voorraadprijs van jaarlijkse laag van $70.35 aan zijn huidige prijs van $238.22 per aandeel. Aandelen van meststof en dierenvoerproducentenMozaïek Corp. 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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