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Food riots fear after rice price hits a high
Peter Beaumont, Observer
A global rice shortage that has seen prices of one of the world’s most important staple foods increase by 50 per cent in the past two weeks alone is triggering an international crisis, with countries banning export and threatening serious punishment for hoarders.
With rice stocks at their lowest for 30 years, prices of the grain rose more than 10 per cent on Friday to record highs and are expected to soar further in the coming months. Already China, India, Egypt, Vietnam and Cambodia have imposed tariffs or export bans, as it has become clear that world production of rice this year will decline in real terms by 3.5 per cent. The impact will be felt most keenly by the world’s poorest populations, who have become increasingly dependent on the crop as the prices of other grains have become too costly.
Rice is the staple food for more than half the world’s population. This is the second year running in which production – which increased in real terms last year – has failed to keep pace with population growth. The harvest has also been hit by drought, particularly in China and Australia, forcing producers to hoard their crops to satisfy local markets.
(6 April 2008)
Editorial: The up side of high food prices
Dallas Morning News
The gas station’s not the only place they ought to be handing out tranquilizers these days.
Prices at the supermarket are skyrocketing, too, with the costs of meat, dairy and grain products climbing globally at rates not seen since the 1970s. The connection between pain at the pump and agony on grocery aisles is plain: It takes lots of fuel to grow, process and transport our daily bread (and meat and milk).
As long as petroleum prices stay high, so will the price of staple foods. Rising oil and food demand in the developing world does not bode well for U.S. supermarket shoppers in the long run.
There is, however, a silver lining in all this. Prices for locally grown produce and locally raised (usually grass-fed) meat are becoming more economically competitive with factory-farmed rivals. Typically, consumers who buy meat and produce directly from local farmers do so because of taste and health – and are willing to pay a premium. Now, though, best-selling food writer Michael Pollan tells The New York Times that higher bills for conventionally raised staples “level the playing field for sustainable food that doesn’t rely on fossil fuels.”
Mr. Pollan and other local food advocates argue that cheap petroleum and government subsidies have a profoundly distorting effect on the American diet and food system. These factors, they say, make food that is less healthy for us the easiest to afford. What’s more, they encourage an industrial agricultural system that dramatically stresses the environment. Their case is compelling.
It’s hard to dispute that creating a larger and stronger network of small farms that provide food for the local market is wise, given that the era of cheap oil is likely gone for good. Dallas consumers would be in a better position to weather future fuel price spikes if our food supply was less vulnerable to the oil market.
Nobody likes to see higher food prices. But if they unleash market forces that spur healthier eating and growth of a regionally self-sufficient style of farming, something good will have come out of our collective supermarket misery.
(5 April 2008)
Peak Moment: How Much Food Can I Grow Around My House? (transcript)
Janaia Donaldson, Peak Moment via Global Public Media
In summer 2006 Judy Alexander embarked on an experiment to see how much food she could grow, and how many neighbors could benefit, from the garden around her house. Check out her homegrown rainwater collection and irrigation system — watering her 60+ edible crops. Meet the bees, the chickens and the worms. And catch her joy in producing so much food for so little effort.
… Janaia Donaldson: We are in Judy’s wonderful backyard. How did you get involved with adventuring in gardening and more? There’s a lot more to it.
Judy Alexander: Well, I’ve been a gardener for a lot of years. Just a sort of hobbyist gardener. But, this – what I’m doing now, is definitely coming from a different place. I went to a real life changing conference with Donella Meadows, in the year 2000, I think it was, on Global Sustainability. And it just opened my eyes to the predicament that the planet is facing with limited resources and growing population. And peak oil, and all that stuff you guys know about. But this particular year was devoted – I’ve been trying to get out of my car for the last six years and have been reducing my fossil fuel usage pretty significantly. But this year’s goal –
JD: 2006.
JA: 2006 goal, was to spend my summer seeing how much food I could grow on my property. And I live in town, I live three miles from the center of town, within the city limits, and I have a lot that’s 75 by 125. And then my neighbor’s yard. And I’ve just planted something in every square inch of dirt I could find. So, it’s partly to see just how much I can provide for myself and my neighborhood, in the way of healthy food.
… JA: I want to inspire people. I want to show people what you can do. Like, you can provide for yourself, in a way. It definitely takes time and it takes a certain amount of physical capacity and energy. I do spend time in my garden, probably every day. But, I don’t want people to feel so dependent on – you know, we have a three day food supply. One of my projects, this last year, involved getting – going down to The Gulf Coast after Katrina. And I saw what happened to an entire community in face of a disaster. We’re a waterfront community. We could have a tsunami. We could have an earthquake. We could have our food supply cut off, like that. (snaps fingers) And in our county right now, there’s not even a three day food supply. If we get cut off from the mainstream. The Olympic Peninsula is the first to go from the power grid. I mean, we have all sorts of inherent vulnerabilities, in our location. That people kind of — la, la, la — and don’t pay attention to.
JD:Because it means you have to change your life.
JA:Yeah.
JD: Right. And our habits – we’ve got them, we’ve become so accustomed to the petroleum rolling, and the food coming in. And the grid working. And so on.
JA:Yeah. But, I want to go on record for saying how much fun this is.
(April 2008)
The Audio interview was first posted in December. Transcribed by April Scott. (Transcribers are the unsung heroes of the blogosphere.)
Backyard Beekeeping
Linda Cockburn, Organic Gardener Magazine
Taking on backyard beekeeping has been a steep and sometimes painful learning curve for LINDA COCKBURN, but it’s another satisfying step towards self-reliance.
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It was a climactic moment when I strapped a beehive to the back of
the ute and brought home 60,000 micro livestock. I almost felt like a real
farmer. It was climactic because for years I’ve been reading books, watching DVDs and attending field days in anticipation of exactly this moment.
Regardless, I felt woefully inexperienced to take on backyard beekeeping.
Keeping bees for honey production,the books told me, is not a timeconsuming activity. It involves checking the hive around 10 times a year, mostly around spring and summer, and diminishing over autumn and winter when the hive is inactive. But tell that to my bees!
(March/April 2008)
Contributor Michael Lardelli writes:
We know how animals can be an essential part of permaculture design but backyard permies could consider looking beyond chooks to an additional source of food and material – bees! The honey is a great resource and the wax can also be used for making candles etc.
