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Leaders Change the Subject at Food Aid Conference
Andrew Martin and Elisabeth Rosenthal, New York Times
ROME – It was supposed to be an emergency conference on food shortages, climate change and energy. At the opening ceremony, the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, noted that there were nearly one billion people short of food, and he called upon countries gathered here to act with “a sense of purpose and mission.”
But when the microphone was turned on for the powerful politicians who had flown in from all over the world, they spoke mostly about economic issues in their own countries and political priorities.
The United States’ agriculture secretary, Ed Schafer, talked about the benefits of biofuels and genetically modified crops.
… Everyone complained about other people’s protectionism – and defended their own.
Food experts on Wednesday, as well as many representatives from poor countries, wondered whether these divided forces could add up to any kind of solution to a global conundrum: how to feed one billion hungry people.
(6 June 2008)
Food Is Gold, So Billions Invested in Farming
Diana B. Henriques, New York Times
Huge investment funds have already poured hundreds of billions of dollars into booming financial markets for commodities like wheat, corn and soybeans.
But a few big private investors are starting to make bolder and longer-term bets that the world’s need for food will greatly increase – by buying farmland, fertilizer, grain elevators and shipping equipment.
One has bought several ethanol plants, Canadian farmland and enough storage space in the Midwest to hold millions of bushels of grain.
… These new bets by big investors could bolster food production at a time when the world needs more of it.
The investors plan to consolidate small plots of land into more productive large ones, to introduce new technology and to provide capital to modernize and maintain grain elevators and fertilizer supply depots.
But the long-term implications are less clear. Some traditional players in the farm economy, and others who study and shape agriculture policy, say they are concerned these newcomers will focus on profits above all else, and not share the industry’s commitment to farming through good times and bad.
(5 June 2008)
Contributor Scott Chisholm Lamont writes:
The consolidation of small holdings into properties that can be intensively farmed with “new technology” is exactly the opposite of what we ought to be doing. This will mean using more energy and more petrochemical based fertilizer, which will boost production for a time, but what happens when that becomes too expensive? Not to mention that a lot of this seems to be driven by use of crops for biofuels – not the best use of agricultural land. I’ve come to the conclusion that there is nothing wrong with biofuels per se, but if they are not created with waste or non-agricultural inputs, they just create pressure on food costs (which is driving this sudden interest of hedge funds in farming assets) and have minimal or no EROI.
Raj Patel interview (audio)
Jason Bradford, The Reality Report via Global Public Media
The Reality Report interviews Raj Patel, author of Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System.
The interview reviews the historical development of the global food system, from 15th century England to the WTO and today’s multi-national corporations. The discussion includes countervailing social responses to today’s food crisis, such as the landless movement in Brazil to the CSAs of North America.
(2 June 2008)
The Vegetable Patch Takes Root
Anne Marie Chaker, Wall Street Journal
More families are looking right under their feet to ease the problem of high food prices.
As consumers balk at the rising cost of groceries, homeowners increasingly are cutting out sections of lawn and retiring flower beds to grow their own food. They’re building raised vegetable beds, turning their spare time over to gardening, and doing battle with insect pests.
At Al’s Garden Center in Portland, Ore., sales of vegetable plants this season have jumped an unprecedented 43% from a year earlier, and sales of fruit-producing trees and shrubs are up 17%. Sales of flower perennials, on the other hand, are down 16%.
… The grow-your-own trend comes as the price of food has skyrocketed. The government recently reported that April’s 0.9% increase in food prices from the previous month was the fastest pace in 18 years — a reflection of global pressures, from drought in Australia to increased demand in India and China.
(5 June 2008)
Home-grown vegetables grow in popularity
Kate Kelland, Reuters
LONDON – Almost 70 years after Britons were urged to Dig For Victory to produce hearty home-grown food to help the war effort, domestic horticulture is coming back.
Across the Atlantic, where mortgage defaults, plummeting property prices and spiraling oil costs have driven the U.S. economy to the brink of recession, home-grown food is also gaining in popularity.
… Vegetable-growing in Britain declined sharply in the 1980s and 1990s as cheap all-year-round vegetables in supermarkets took prime position.
… Tom Sharples of Suttons said the fashion for organic foods — especially among middle-class mothers — had been a driving factor, but he is convinced the tougher economic climate will produce longer-term converts.
“Before, it used to be the older people and then it was the eco-mummies,” he said. “But now I suspect there is a strong economic factor.”
(5 June 2008)
