World on brink of social unrest over food prices

[cory777]

Source: Gulf News

Dubai: Protests by angry youths in Algeria are just one example of the alarming signs on the horizon with regard to rising food prices.

Food inflation in many Asian countries, including China and India, is in double digits. The Kenyan government has issued a drought and famine alert after reports of several people having died from hunger-related causes.

International organisations are talking of "a food price shock" hitting the world.

With food supplies and prices making headlines around the globe for the second time in less than three years, experts are warning of the possibility of social unrest sweeping through poor countries.

Read more: http://gulfnews.com/business/economy/world-on-brink-of-social-unrest-over-food-prices-1.742319

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Breaking Activist News http://activistnews.blogspot.com

[HCE SuiGeneris]

1. Thank God we have regulations against futures and commodity manipulation in this country!

Oh, wait... :( Perhaps we should look at this possible malfeasance.

[Joanne98]

9. +1000

[lonestarnot]

21. +10,000!

K & R!

[progressoid]

2. It's a good thing that global climate change is a hoax or this could get worse.

[JJW]

3. Bankster owned farms

Good thing the Banksters bought up all the family farms and can now control prices and profits.

[Kurovski]

23. And chem companies can work on controlling the seeds!

Oh, we are SO lucky!

[reggie the dog]

4. the older i get the more i like anarchist unionists

fuck authority! our leaders are there to make themselves and their friends rich, they deserve to be dethroned....

[Javaman]

20. I forget the poster, but an long time DU member once posted...

When I was young, I was conservative. When I was middle aged, I was liberal. Now that I'm old, I'm a bomb throwing anarchist.

:) LOL

[Cutatious]

5. But if gasoline was only $7.00 oer gallon it would fix everything

That's what some enlightened people still say.

[Javaman]

15. I know what you are saying...

but as I have written countless times before, if you want people in this nation to actually get pissed about anything, raise the price of gas to at least 5 bucks a gallon. Then and only then will you see people protesting or rioting. If they can't drive the quarter of a mile to get their big gulp, god help our political halfwits.

[breadandwine]

6. We're using grain to make ethanol for cars.

As long as we're feeding our food to the machines, food prices are going to hit the outer stratosphere.

But who cares? Dumb subservient proletarians should stop complaining. There's so much caviar left for us rich people to eat.

[littlewolf]

12. +1000

ya got it right there .....

[Javaman]

16. While I agree on the face of what you are saying...

the type of grain that is used for making ethanol is none eatable for humans. That grain would tear our stomachs apart. However, cattle would gladly eat it and they do.

The failure at hand, to me is, using perfectly good farm land to grow an energy source, that is a mono crop and water intensive, rather than grow an eatable nourishing crop.

The heart of the matter with the growing of feed stocks for fuel is it's destruction on the land in the form of erosion and the sapping of nutrients from the soil.

As a result, the land/soil basically becomes dead unless huge amounts of fossil fuel bast fertilizers are constantly pumped into it in order for the corn to grow.

Ironic, isn't it? Here the government is paying subsidies to agra-corp and the like to promote a green fuel which requires natural gas based fertilizers to grow.

It takes more energy per acre to grow, extract and refine ethanol than it does gasoline.

Actually, at the moment, the energy in on energy out is a loss on ethanol. It's something like 4 to 3.

We are a stupid bunch.

[fasttense]

7. It's just the "free" market at its best.

Starving people while the corporate aristocracy gets big fat billion dollar bonuses courtesy of our tax dollars.

Saving the multi-millionaires and billionaires while the masses starve. That's the plan man.

Because it's not good enough to have most of the wealth of the nation in your pocket, you have take away what little others have too.

[Javaman]

19. As long as ex-board members of monsanto, cargil and agra-corp infest our

dept of interior and the dept of agriculture, nothing is going to change.

[dotymed]

8. What will it take for the majority of Americans

to join these protests and stop the thievery. We know it will affect us, yet we will wait till then....disgusting. We have so many tons of food rotting in silos and warehouses it is unbelievable. We can kill third world inhabitants, yet we can not feed them? We leave it for the rats?

[Javaman]

17. Want the price at the pump hits $5 plus.

until then, it's a happy motoring dystopia.

[Jeneral2885]

10. Oxfam GB's

Duncan Green doesnt think so

http://www.oxfamblogs.org/fp2p/?p=4210

[Turborama]

22. Maybe he hasn't been keeping up with the news?

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/01/2011171242359602.html

http://english.aljazeera.net/video/africa/2011/01/20111791019776116.html

[yellowwood]

11. Here's an idea: Stop subsidizing corn

About 30 per cent of corn crop is going to ethanol. An inefficient source for biofuel. Replacing food.
In Illinois field after field is devoted to corn. Meanwhile the price of land has skyrocketed. Every mile or so you can see a huge corn storage cylinder. It's all because of the subsidies on corn.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1149215820070611

Think they help the small farmer? Take a look at the money these huge farm factories receive.

http://farm.ewg.org/top_recips.php?fips=00000&progcode=corn®ionname=theUnitedStates

Recipients of Corn Subsidies** from farms in United States totaled $73,793,000,000 in from 1995-2009.

[littlewolf]

13. it is proven ... want more of something subsidies it ....

[Javaman]

18. We should do as they do in Europe. Subsidize the farmer and not the crop. nt

[Javaman]

14. The title should read, "the rest of the world..."

as long as the mouth breathers in this nation can still get their fucking big macs and mystery fries, there will be no complaining here.

We live in a self induced food dystopia.