Baltimore IMC : http://www.baltimoreimc.org
Commentary :: Poverty
The Eighth Plague
World Bank president Robert Zoelick compared the food shortage to the Old Testament's "seven plagues" but forgot to mention the eighth is the World Bank itself. The World Bank insists on agricultural production for export, not for the local supply of the population.
THE EIGHTH PLAGUE
Poverty and Hunger: How the Financial Crisis Infects the Food Markets
By Elmar Altvater
[This article published in: Freitag 17, 4/25/2008 is translated from the German on the World Wide Web, www.freitag.de/2008/17/08170101.php.]
The FAO responsible for food and agriculture estimates more than 800 million malnourished today in developing countries and ten million in the US, the richest state of the earth. Poverty and hunger have also returned in Hartz IV-Germany [Hartz IV is the radical welfare reform combing income support and unemployment benefits and severely reduces the maximum time of benefits.]. This is also an energy crisis since food becomes unaffordable for many while we tank up vital energy. From 2004 to 2007, prices for food rose on average 83 percent.
The hunger revolts in Haiti, West Africa and Bangladesh are a warning acknowledged by the World Bank and the IMF. The global financial crisis, the imminent end of cheap oil and climate change were on the agenda of their latest meeting – as well as the global food crisis. Both the energy crisis and the financial crisis have causes that are not independent of each other.
Free trade leads t5o the dominance of the most competitive suppliers of agricultural products. The mammoth agricultural conglomerates from the USW and the European Union (EU) promote monocultures for mass production and displace small producers with their regional production. On top of that, the agricultural multinationals are subsidized. They can sell at prices that make it impossible for others to keep pace and break down regional supply networks. At the same time the western model of meat-eating consumers is spreading even in countries where rice, corn and vegetables dominated for centuries. Vast land is needed to produce meat. Land is lacking for the daily food rations. Many people cannot afford meat.
World Bank president Robert Zoelick compared the food shortage with the Old Testament’s "seven plagues” but forgot to mention the eighth plague is the World Bank itself. The World Bank gives priority to agricultural production for export and not the local supply of the population. Gaining credits and currency on the global financial markets was more important to the World Bank than the nutrition of people even if this ultimately did not help the financial markets. When the real estate bubble burst, the financial markets fell into the deepest crisis of the last 100 years. Still the speculators did not give up. Despite the losses, they planted huge financial assets in raw materials and forced up the prices for food. So the crisis of the financial markets infects the market for food.
Arable land is used more than ever to fill car tanks instead of hungry stomachs. Humanity faces the alternative Food or Fuel as the FAO titled its report. There is a “diabolical alliance” of corporations from the oil branch, the automobile economy, pharmaceuticals and agro-industry. Arable land of the global South is transformed into a bastion of fuel production for the global North. We are in a fatal situation in that a soaring oil price also raises the price of bio-mass and food. The price for a full tank now determines the price of food with which people fill their bellies. The two crises of fossil fuels and food are opposite sides of the same coin of fossil capitalism that has gone wild.
The affected have the choice of “exit” and “voice.” As migrants, they can try to pull through or rebel and revolt against a social disaster. In democracies, this can happen peacefully – under the most favorable conditions – but usually entails violence starting from the defenders of the status quo who cannot guarantee supply security any more.
Real food sovereignty is only possible when the food producers themselves control the land and the food chain. This will be a waste of time and effort without control of the financial markets to prevent speculation on food. Only renewable energy – not at the expense of food for people – and a radically different way of life to save energy help against the fossil energy – and climate-crises.
In the past the idea of social reorganization fell victim to the “neoliberal counter-revolution.” Making this idea reality is more necessary than ever in view of the multiple crises that destabilize the economy and threaten the lives of a billion people.
Poverty and Hunger: How the Financial Crisis Infects the Food Markets
By Elmar Altvater
[This article published in: Freitag 17, 4/25/2008 is translated from the German on the World Wide Web, www.freitag.de/2008/17/08170101.php.]
The FAO responsible for food and agriculture estimates more than 800 million malnourished today in developing countries and ten million in the US, the richest state of the earth. Poverty and hunger have also returned in Hartz IV-Germany [Hartz IV is the radical welfare reform combing income support and unemployment benefits and severely reduces the maximum time of benefits.]. This is also an energy crisis since food becomes unaffordable for many while we tank up vital energy. From 2004 to 2007, prices for food rose on average 83 percent.
The hunger revolts in Haiti, West Africa and Bangladesh are a warning acknowledged by the World Bank and the IMF. The global financial crisis, the imminent end of cheap oil and climate change were on the agenda of their latest meeting – as well as the global food crisis. Both the energy crisis and the financial crisis have causes that are not independent of each other.
Free trade leads t5o the dominance of the most competitive suppliers of agricultural products. The mammoth agricultural conglomerates from the USW and the European Union (EU) promote monocultures for mass production and displace small producers with their regional production. On top of that, the agricultural multinationals are subsidized. They can sell at prices that make it impossible for others to keep pace and break down regional supply networks. At the same time the western model of meat-eating consumers is spreading even in countries where rice, corn and vegetables dominated for centuries. Vast land is needed to produce meat. Land is lacking for the daily food rations. Many people cannot afford meat.
World Bank president Robert Zoelick compared the food shortage with the Old Testament’s "seven plagues” but forgot to mention the eighth plague is the World Bank itself. The World Bank gives priority to agricultural production for export and not the local supply of the population. Gaining credits and currency on the global financial markets was more important to the World Bank than the nutrition of people even if this ultimately did not help the financial markets. When the real estate bubble burst, the financial markets fell into the deepest crisis of the last 100 years. Still the speculators did not give up. Despite the losses, they planted huge financial assets in raw materials and forced up the prices for food. So the crisis of the financial markets infects the market for food.
Arable land is used more than ever to fill car tanks instead of hungry stomachs. Humanity faces the alternative Food or Fuel as the FAO titled its report. There is a “diabolical alliance” of corporations from the oil branch, the automobile economy, pharmaceuticals and agro-industry. Arable land of the global South is transformed into a bastion of fuel production for the global North. We are in a fatal situation in that a soaring oil price also raises the price of bio-mass and food. The price for a full tank now determines the price of food with which people fill their bellies. The two crises of fossil fuels and food are opposite sides of the same coin of fossil capitalism that has gone wild.
The affected have the choice of “exit” and “voice.” As migrants, they can try to pull through or rebel and revolt against a social disaster. In democracies, this can happen peacefully – under the most favorable conditions – but usually entails violence starting from the defenders of the status quo who cannot guarantee supply security any more.
Real food sovereignty is only possible when the food producers themselves control the land and the food chain. This will be a waste of time and effort without control of the financial markets to prevent speculation on food. Only renewable energy – not at the expense of food for people – and a radically different way of life to save energy help against the fossil energy – and climate-crises.
In the past the idea of social reorganization fell victim to the “neoliberal counter-revolution.” Making this idea reality is more necessary than ever in view of the multiple crises that destabilize the economy and threaten the lives of a billion people.
Views
Information
Search
This site made manifest by dadaIMC software