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Global expenditure on imported food to hit an all-time high
Financial Express
Global expenditures on imported foodstuffs in 2006 could reach a historic high of $374 billion, over 2% more than the previous year’s level. Import bills for developing countries are anticipated to rise by almost 5% from 2005, mainly as a result of price increases rather than an increase in the actual volume of food imports.
Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) anticipated in its Food Outlook report that many countries will reduce purchases, not always in response to improved domestic supplies but rather because of high international prices. Moreover, higher energy costs may force many of the poorer developing countries to curtail expenditures on imported staples to sustain their fossil fuel needs.Cereal prices, particularly for wheat and maize, have reached levels not seen for a decade. Poor harvests in key producing countries and a fast-growing demand for biofuel production have driven up grain prices, while supply constraints have also dominated the rice economy, the report said.
…Current strong prices are likely to encourage higher plantings and larger production in 2007, but if industrial use, mainly for ethanol, continues to grow at the current pace, it may take more than one good crop season for prices to retreat significantly from their current highs, the report said.
(7 Dec 2006)
FAO Food Outlook reports.
Ag crime wave grows in California
Martin Kasindorf, USA Today
In a rising wave of rural larceny, thieves are tracking commodity prices to steal everything that grows, plows or sprinkles on the USA’s farms.
California, the No. 1 state in agricultural production, reports the biggest problems. Theft rings that kept police busy last year chasing stolen artichokes, pomegranates and diesel fuel switched this year to nuts, avocados, citrus, tractors, irrigation pipe and copper wiring, says Bill Yoshimoto, the supervising prosecutor for a 13-county Central California task force on farm crime.
(3 Dec 2006)
Black market in water stolen from farm tanks
Erin O’Dwyer, Sydney Sun-Herald
WATER has become so precious in drought-stricken NSW that thieves are siphoning off thousands of litres from farm dams and rainwater tanks. The dramatic rise in water theft comes after a black market boom in diesel fuel and stolen livestock. ..
“Water theft is definitely on the increase,” said NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Steve Bradshaw. “These are desperate times and there are opportunists who are taking desperate measures.”
Two months ago, water theft barely rated a mention in police crime statistics. But Mr Bradshaw, whose command covers two-thirds of the state, said drought has hit so hard many families are struggling to make ends meet.
Last month thieves got away with 20,000 litres of water from a farm in Manildra, near Orange. The crime is so new that it remains unclear whether water is being sold on or stolen for personal use. But police intelligence officers believe water is being siphoned from dams in unlocked paddocks and tapped from rainwater tanks that were visible from roads.
Since October, more than $180,000 worth of diesel fuel has been stolen. Siphoned from farm vehicles and machinery, it is sold in roadside deals hatched over CB radio networks.
The drought has also changed the nature of livestock theft – duffing. Cattle-stealing rings traditionally stole hundreds of head of cattle at a time. Now thieves take just three or four beasts, butchering them in backyard slaughterhouses, then selling the meat on the black market. ..
University of New England rural crime researcher Elaine Barclay said irrigation companies had established teams to investigate water theft. “Demand creates crime,” she said. “Fuel theft on farms has been on the rise since the prices went up. Water is gold now, so it stands to reason.”..
(26 Nov 2006)
Junk food, junk prices (PDF)
“And you want to know why Americans have become so stupid and angry and confused?”, asks Ran Prieur. “It’s all right here.”:
(2006)
From this report: Food without Thought: How U.S. Farm Policy Contributes to Obesity (PDF)
Search for crops that can survive global warming
David Adam, The Guardian
An unprecedented effort to protect the world’s food supplies from the ravages of climate change will be launched today by an international consortium of scientists. The move marks a growing recognition that serious changes in weather patterns are inevitable over the coming decades, and that society must begin to adapt.
Some £200m a year will be poured into the research by governments across the world to help agricultural experts develop crops that can withstand heat and drought, find more efficient farming techniques and make better use of increasingly fragile soil and scarce water supplies.
(4 Dec 2006)
Experts worry warmer Earth will slash farm yields
Missy Ryan, Reuters
WASHINGTON – Urgent action is needed to make sure a warming climate doesn’t slash crop yields, heighten the risk of famine and deepen poverty for the world’s most vulnerable, international experts said on Monday.
“Climate change is not just in the future. It’s happening now,” said Cynthia Rosenzweig, a
NASA scientist and co-chair of an international panel on climate change, told a meeting of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Researchers held in Washington.
The group brings together experts from 15 agricultural research centers around the world funded by states, international organizations and private foundations.
…farm and food experts gathered for the group’s annual meeting this week focused on how climate change will affect harvests.
They said warming could bring more drought and shorter growing seasons to places like Tanzania and Mozambique, increase flooding in coastal areas of countries including Bangladesh, and reduce crop yields in countries like Colombia.
The effect of global warming on farmers will be spotty, said Robert Zeigler, director general of the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines.
It might boost potato yields in the northern hemisphere, he said, but cut them across Africa, South and East Asia, and northern South America, where the potato is a staple crop and people are more likely to go hungry.
Experts said the first step to countering the looming threat is further research that will produce weather and crop forecasts than can inform policymakers’ decisions.
Development of hardier “climate-ready” crops that can withstand warmer climates and resist water and salt is also needed, they said. Climate-sensitive management, including more efficient use of water, will also help.
(4 Dec 2006)
