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| Famines May Occur Without Record Crops This Year; Bumper crops or else | |
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| Topic Started: Jan 15 2008, 09:51 PM (2,079 Views) | |
| Wil | Apr 4 2008, 07:19 PM Post #21 |
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Rising Grain Prices Panic Developing World By Ariana Eunjung Cha Washington Post Foreign Service Friday, April 4, 2008; Page D01 SHANGHAI -- A spike in the price of rice and other food staples is triggering consumer panic, including food riots in Yemen and Morocco, and hoarding in Hong Kong. Governments around the world have taken radical measures in recent weeks to control their countries' supplies of rice. Egypt last week said it would ban all rice exports for six months. Cambodia has stopped all private-sector exports of rice, and India and Vietnam also have imposed restrictions. The price of grains -- corn, wheat, and rice -- has been rising since 2005 under pressure from farmers who would rather plant crops for biofuels than for food, the lack of technological breakthroughs in crop yields, and drought and disease. The sharpest increase has been this year, with the price of Thai rice, a world benchmark, nearly doubling since January, to $760 per metric ton. Some analysts expect that price to reach $1,000 in the next three months. Tang Min, a former chief economist for the Asian Development Bank, said the price increase is the inevitable consequence of supply and demand. "The world population is increasing, but the increase in the planting of rice has not been as fast," he said. Despite efforts by governments to increase public-sector wages and introduce food subsidies, price increases and shortages have led to violent clashes along supply lines, in food distribution centers and at supermarkets. "Rice shortages and unrest are not necessarily linked, until you think about the poor. Rice is of high importance in these people's daily lives," said Tang, deputy secretary general for the China Development Research Foundation, a Beijing-based research group. Nowhere is that more true than in Asia, where a meal isn't a meal without rice. Wang Qing, an economist for Morgan Stanley in Hong Kong, said U.S. laws encouraging the development of biofuels are the origin of the problem in Asia and elsewhere. This "directly led to the reduction of foodstuff planting," he said. "Without the oil price increasing substantially, the corn price will not increase. Without corn prices increasing quickly, the rice price will not rise." To encourage farmers to go back to planting food, China, Indonesia and other countries are increasing their minimum compensation to farmers who grow grains for human consumption. But as food-growing countries move to increase production and curb exports, they are under pressure from rice-importing neighbors seeking their help. Bangladesh has announced that it will import 400,000 tons of rice and sell it below cost. The Philippines, where demonstrators have taken to the streets to criticize the government for not doing enough to control inflation, is appealing to other countries for emergency supplies. Cambodian Finance Minister Keat Chhon last week called for people to be calm. He urged them "not to stock up on foods, which could make the situation even harder." Some experts say that building reserves to protect against future shortages only makes the problem worse. Full article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...artslot%3Cbr%3E |
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| belinda | Apr 6 2008, 11:21 PM Post #22 |
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Global Food Crisis Expected to Produce Social Unrest Susan Jones Senior Editor (Editor's note: Corn prices jumped to a record $6 a bushel on Thursday.) (CNSNews.com) - World Bank President Robert Zoellick says a global food crisis demands the immediate attention of world leaders. "As financial markets have tumbled, food prices have soared," Zoellick said in a speech on Wednesday. He said the situation is not expected to get better any time soon -- and he is pushing what he calls a "new deal for global food policy." "Since 2005, the prices of staples have jumped 80 percent," Zoellick said on Wednesday. "Last month, the real price of rice hit a 19-year high; the real price of wheat rose to a 28-year high and almost twice the average price of the last 25 years." While that is good news for farmers, it is blow to vulnerable groups, including children, he said. "The World Bank Group estimates that 33 countries around the world face potential social unrest because of the acute hike in food and energy prices. For these countries, where food comprises from half to three quarters of consumption, there is no margin for survival." Zoellick said the first step should be helping people with immediate needs. "The UN's World Food Program requires at least $500 million of additional food supplies to meet emergency calls. The United States, the European Union, Japan, and other (donor) countries must act now to fill this gap -- or many more people will suffer and starve," he said. The World Food Program issued an emergency appeal last month, urging donor nations to fill "a critical funding gap" as it tries to meet the emergency needs of 3 million people a day in Darfur -- as well as 70 million people in some 80 other nations. The World Food Program blames the soaring cost of food and fuel for its shortfall. It said it is doing what it can to save money -- including making 80 percent of its food purchases in local and regional markets of the developing world. "In 2007 alone, we increased our local purchases by 30 percent," the WFP said. "This not only saves on food and transport costs but is a win for local farmers, helping to break the cycle of hunger at its root." 'Green revolution' Zoellick said the World Bank will work with countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, to create a "Green Revolution" that will help countries boost productivity and help small farmers break the cycle of poverty. "We will almost double our own lending for agriculture in Africa, from $450 million to $800 million," he said. Zoellick said his new deal requires a shift away from traditional food aid. He said in many cases, cash or vouchers work better than commodity support in building local food markets and boosting local farm production. The new deal also requires a shift away from trade barriers. The world's agricultural trading system is stuck in the past, Zoelllick said. He said it's time to cut agricultural subsidies and open up markets for food imports. "A fairer and more open global trading system for agriculture will give more opportunities -- and confidence -- to African and other developing country farmers to expand production," he said. (Zoellick is a former U.S. trade representative.) Biofuels In his speech on Wednesday, Zoellick mentioned biofuels as one the "realities" that will keep food prices high for years to come. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 passed by Congress and signed by President Bush increases the amount of biofuels (usually corn-based ethanol) that must be added to gasoline sold in the United States. But diverting corn from food to fuel use has raised food prices, the Heritage Foundation noted. Corn cost about $2.00 a bushel when the 2005 law was signed, but it's now selling for more than $5.00 -- "primarily because a quarter of the crop is now used to produce energy," wrote Ben Lieberman, a senior policy analyst at Heritage. Moreover, the price of corn-fed meat and dairy products has jumped as well; and wheat and soybean prices are also rising, because acreage once devoted to those crops is now going to corn. But there is no let-up in Congress: On Tuesday, House Democrats pressed the nation's top oil companies to invest 10 percent of their profits in renewable energy, including biofuels. While some oil companies are dabbling in renewable energy, the executives insist that fossil fuels will keep America running for many years to come. http://www.crosswalk.com/news/11572379/ |
| John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life....... Amen, Come Lord Jesus! | |
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| Wil | Apr 11 2008, 08:20 AM Post #23 |
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Honey Bee Collapse Now Worse on West Coast © 2008 by Linda Moulton Howe “It's worse than last year, and last year was worse than the year before. So, it's bad. And there are a lot of good, big beekeepers that are having a lot of problems. I think we're coming in for a big train wreck.” - Gilly Sherman, Beekeeper April 10, 2008 Gainesville, Florida - On April 5, 2008, England's BBC News carried a report entitled, “U. S. Fears Over Honey Bee Collapse.” A California beekeeper, Gilly Sherman, was interviewed and he said sobering words: “It's worse than last year, and last yar was worse than the year before. So, it's bad. And there are a lot of good, big beekeepers that are having a lot of problems. I think we're coming in for a big train wreck.” I took that quote to Jerry Hayes, Chief, Apiary Section, Florida Department of Agriculture, and President of the Apiary Inspectors of America in Gainesville, Florida and asked for his comment. Interview: Jerry Hayes, Chief, Apiary Section, Florida Department of Agriculture, and President of the Apiary Inspectors of America in Gainesville, Florida: “Certainly West Coast beekeepers were more dramatically affected this year than perhaps East Coast beekeepers. Last year, East Coast beekeepers had the first and dramatic events happening to their bee colonies. Sometimes, the West Coast beekeepers said, ‘Well, it’s not happening to us. You must just be bad beekeepers.’ So, now the shoe is on the other foot and they are suffering as badly as anybody has been. Everybody is on an even playing field right now. Bees are not healthy. Bees have not been healthy for a few years and they are becoming more unhealthy. The beekeepers, the industry that uses them as a tool, is in a precarious situation. SO WOULD YOU AGREE WITH THE BEEKEEPER QUOTED BY THE BBC NEWS, ‘I THINK WE’RE COMING IN FOR A BIG TRAIN WRECK’? We’ll never know these things until after the train wreck. It certainly does not look good. I’ve been reading some reports about whole populations of bats dying and disappearing in the Northeast. The quail population in the southeast has virtually disappeared. I don’t know if any of these things have parallels and links, but it certainly is interesting that something in the environment is impacting these other animals. WHAT IS THE CURRENT STATE OF COLONY COLLAPSE DISORDER IN THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA? 34% Bee Loss in U. S. by Spring 2008 The Apiary Inspectors of America (AIA), of which I am a part – we just completed a survey of 327 beekeepers and we came up with about a 34% loss rate over this past 2007 to 2008 winter season. THAT’S EVEN MORE THAN LAST YEAR? Yes, a little bit. [ 2007 estimated American loss was 25%.] GOING INTO THIS SPRING OF 2008, WHAT ARE YOUR GREATEST WORRIES? Beekeepers cannot continue to take these kinds of losses and rebound in any kind of way. Cause of Colony Collapse Disorder? “Unfortunately, we still don’t have a clear picture of why this is happening.” THE LAST TIIME WE TALKED, IT WAS THE ISRAELI VIRUS UNDER SUSPICION OF COMING INTO THE UNITED STATES THROUGH AUSTRALIAN BEES THAT HAD BEEN BROUGHT IN BECAUSE THE NORTH AMERICAN BEE POPULATION HAD BEEN WEAKENED. IS THERE EVIDENCE THAT THE ISRAELI ACUTE PARALYSIS VIRUS IS STILL CAUSING THE MORTALITY? OR IS THERE STILL SOMETHING TO BE FOUND? WHAT IS CAUSING ONE-THIRD OF ALL THE BEES IN THE UNITED STATES TO DISAPPEAR IN THE WINTER OF 2007 TO SPRING OF 2008? [ Editor’s Note: See 090707 Earthfiles: Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus (IAPV) September 2007 journal, Science.] Boy, if I knew that, I’d probably have a statue some place, Linda. Obviously it’s all the issues that are still on the table right now. Viruses – whether it’s the Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus, or other viruses that are known and impact honeybees? There again, pesticides, poor nutrition, stress whatever that is from moving bees back and forth, a shallow genetic pool in our managed bee colonies. Some how, all these things are interacting. Basically, we need more funds in order to hire smart people and expensive equipment to figure what is going on. Research is never quick. DID YOU EXPECT AN INCREASE IN THE DISAPPEARANCE OF BEES IN NORTH AMERICA? I was personally interested to find out if it was going to continue and to find out what was going to happen to our West Coast beekeepers that seemed to have dodged a bit of the bullet last year. I was hoping that it would not, but I knew that something like this just generally does not go away on its own. BUT ARE YOU SURPRISED THAT THE WEST COAST BEEKEEPERS ARE BEING HIT HARD NOW IN 2008? No, not really. You know how things spread – if this is a pathogen or something in which all populations are not hit equally. So, it was unfortunately their turn. HAS THE ISRAELI ACUTE PARALYSIS VIRUS BEEN FOUND IN THE WEST COAST HONEYBEES? Yes, it’s there, but not at any dramatic levels. In fact, there’s kind of an East Coast variant and a West Coast variant of the Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus. There’s also the Kashmir bee virus that has shown up in quite large numbers. Then you add in all the other things we talked about that could cause the immune system collapse. All those things are interacting. SO, IN APRIL 2008, YOU CAN’T SAY EVEN NOW THAT IT IS THE ISRAELI VIRUS THAT IS RESPONSIBLE FOR MOST OF COLONY COLLAPSE DISORDER? No, because in the CCD, the Israeli acute paralysis virus was found in most of the samples and at the moment is considered just a marker. It was not present in tremendously high numbers. And we can’t say it’s the varroa mite because in CCD, varroa and trachea mites are in very low levels. The Nosema protozoan was found in less than 50% of the colonies. Unfortunately, we still don’t have a clear picture of why this is happening. Future Almond and Other American Crop Pollinations in Jeopardy? WITH A 33% DISAPPEARANCE RATE SO FAR IN 2008, WHAT HAPPENS TO ALMOND POLLINATION AND CROPS BECAUSE THEY WERE STRETCHED LAST YEAR TRYING TO IMPORT ENOUGH BEES FROM THE EAST COAST AND AUSTRALIA TO GET THE ALMOND GROVES POLLINATED. WHAT HAPPENS NOW WITH EVEN MORE BEES DISAPPEARING? Well, almond pollination is over right now. And most of the bees fell apart during or towards the end of almond pollination. I think the almond guys got by in good shape, so they don’t care as long as they get pollination for next year because this year is over with. To them, honeybees are an input, just like fertilizer, pesticides and fungicides. So, until next year, the almond growers probably don’t care. WHAT HAPPENS TO ALL THE OTHER CROPS THAT ARE DEPENDENT UPON HONEY BEES, IF THEY HAVE FALLEN APART IN SUCH GREAT NUMBERS TRYING TO POLLINATE THE ALMOND CROP? That’s a great question. The bees are coming back to Florida now and we’re talking about watermelon pollination. And then the bees will be moving north for blueberries and apples and cranberries. But yours is a good question and I don’t have an answer for it at this moment in time. U. S. Headed for Reliance On International Food Imports ”The USDA projects that something like 40% of our vegetables are going to be coming from China in 2012 or some date like that and the U. S. is going to be a net food importer in fifty years.” I’d like to see people at the federal level and others realize how important honeybees are! But if people don’t care where food comes from, if people are happy that food is at the grocery store and they don’t care how it gets to the grocery store, then maybe all this concern is a moot point. People have to care about this. The USDA projects that something like 40% of our vegetables are going to be coming from China in 2012 or some date like that and the U. S. is going to be a net food importer in fifty years. We already have someone who has us by the nose for energy production, oil (Middle East). And so now, we’re going to turn our food production over to someone else? This all has larger strategic implications than just honey bees. This is talking about the food supply and how secure our food supply is in the United States? So, I just hope that people realize how important honey bees are and somehow give support. We support sugar people. We have been throwing money at the corn people for years and everything else. Why not honey bees, if they are important? Implications for Increasing Decline of American Honey Bees? “If the almond people come up short, my guess is that probably the Mexicans will petition to bring their Africanized bee colonies across the border to fill that gap. And that will probably destroy the U.S. commercial beekeeping industry.” YOU AND I HAVE BEEN TALKING ABOUT COLONY COLLAPSE DISORDER AND THE DISAPPEARANCE OF SO MANY HONEY BEES IN THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA NOW FOR A YEAR. I THINK I THOUGHT, AS A REPORTER, THAT BY THE SPRING OF 2008 THAT WE WOULD BE SEEING A RESTORATION OF BETTER HEALTH TO THE BEES AND THAT EVERYTHING MIGHT BE GETTING BETTER. THE FACT THAT IT’S GONE DOWN HILL EVEN MORE, THE FACT THAT EVEN MORE BEES HAVE DISAPPEARED THROUGH THE WINTER OF 2007 TO 2008, THE FACT THAT AFTER THE ALMOND POLLINATION THAT, TO USE YOUR WORDS, ‘THE BEES ARE FALLING APART IN THE UNITED STATES.’ WHAT HAPPENS WHEN EVERYTHING IS GOING DOWN HILL IN APRIL? There might be crops that are potentially impacted and as the almond acreage grows, the almond growers will try to use every honeybee colony in the United States. If the almond people come up short, my guess is that probably the Mexicans will petition to bring their Africanized bee colonies across the border to fill that gap. And that will probably destroy the U.S. commercial beekeeping industry. BUT WOULD YOU AND OTHERS IN AGRICULTURE ALLOW THAT TO OCCUR? I’m just a mid-level civil servant. The almond people and value of the almond crop – money talks in our capitalistic society and the almond people will not be denied. BUT DO YOU SERIOUSLY MEAN THERE COULD BE A DECISION THAT WOULD BE ONLY POLITICAL AND ECONOMICAL FOR THE ALMOND INDUSTRY THAT COULD END UP BRINGING IN AFRICANIZED BEES THAT WOULD DESTROY THE REST OF THE NORTH AMERICAN HONEYBEE? It’s very possible. THAT IS ACTUALLY BEING DISCUSSED NOW AS AN OPTION? I didn’t make that up! (laughs) I’M VERY DISTRESSED TO HEAR THIS. Me, too. A Year from Now in 2009? “(Richard Adee, largest beekeeper in U. S.) is truthfully shell shocked and numb and doesn’t know what to do. You can’t replace 60,000 colonies overnight.” GIVEN THE FACT THAT THE PERCENTAGE IN THE NUMBER OF BEES DISAPPEARING IN 2008 IS EVEN HIGHER THAN IT WAS IN 2007, AND THAT THE BEE HEALTH IS NOT GOOD, WHAT WOULD YOU EXPECT TO BE THE STATUS A YEAR FROM NOW IN 2009? I don’t know. I don’t know if this is Darwin in action and that this might go away as the weak are culled out and the strong survive – because if this continues on for another year or two, there won’t be many commercial beekeepers left. There will be some small beekeepers left, but not of the size that can load up colonies on semi-trucks and take them over the United States. The largest beekeeper in the United States [ Richard Adee Honey Farms, Brookings, South Dakota], I think lost 60,000 colonies out of his 80,000 colonies this past late winter and spring. He had something like 100 loads of empty equipment that he had to bring back from California. You just can’t replace those kinds of numbers very quickly. WHEN YOU TALK TO THAT LARGE HONEYBEE KEEPER, WHAT HIS IS ASSESSMENT, TALKING TO YOU, ABOUT THE NEXT FEW MONTHS INTO NEXT YEAR? He is truthfully shell shocked and numb and doesn’t know what to do. You can’t replace 60,000 colonies overnight. WOULDN’T THIS RISE TO A NATIONAL SECURITY LEVEL? WE’RE TALKING ABOUT THE LOSS OF POLLINATORS THAT AFFECT SO MUCH OF OUR FOOD SUPPLY? You would think so. Obviously, Senator Boxer is meeting tomorrow. So, certainly at high levels of the government, there is interest. And of course, we’re at war and spending a lot of money on the war, and money can be authorized, but is it appropriated? So, the whole political scene has to play out its course here in the way we handle things here in the United States. ARE YOU OPTOMISTIC OR PESIMISTIC ABOUT THE FUTURE OF HONEYBEES IN THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA? I’m pessimistic. We have a tendency to wait until a crisis happens in western civilization. We might lose control of our food supply at some point. IF ONE-THIRD OF THE HONEYBEE POPULATION IN THE UNITED STATES DISAPPEARED IN THE 2007 TO 2008 WINTER-SPRING, AND IF NEXT YEAR, THE PERCENTAGE CLIMBS TO ABOUT A 50% LOSS, HAS THERE EVER BEEN A TIME IN THE HISTORY OF THIS COUNTRY IN WHICH HALF OF THE HONEYBEE POPULATION DISAPPEARED AND WAS ABLE TO COME BACK? Boy, not that I’m aware. We are in a precarious situation strategically for maintaining food supplies for our population. We need to have somebody at some level decide that honeybees are important. It’s like a lot of other agricultural industries in the U. S. – the Chinese have basically wiped out the American apple industry; the Brazilians have virtually wiped out the citrus juice industry; and these trends continue. Maybe this is the natural order of things. DOSN’T IT SEEM THAT THIS WOULD BE ABSOLUTELY THE OPPOSITE OF THE NATURAL ORDER OF THINGS? Yes, I would agree with you, but I’m a pragmatist and the low-cost producer gets the orders. It doesn’t make any difference where it’s produced or how it’s produced. Look at the Chinese goods that have come in over the last year and there are other scary things coming in, not only from them but other countries that don’t have quite the regulations and pesticides and chemical oversight that we do. Genetically Modified Crops Could Also Be Killing Honey Bees IS THERE ANY MORE HARDER DATA LINKING THE GENETICALLY MODIFIED CROPS TO THE WEAKENING AND DISAPPEARANCE OF THE HONEY BEES? Yes, that’s certainly being looked at. In fact, I read an article the other day talking about some genetically modified crops that had the BT toxin in it (genetically modified crops with built-in pesticide) and they found that with the BT toxin, there are a couple of different toxins involved, and one toxin they found was actually opening up the cell walls of insects and animals to allow this second toxin in to affect it. So, we don’t understand what we do - and places such as Monsanto. So, we’re going down a precarious path and we don’t know everything. Unfortunately, we will make mistakes as human beings, but the repercussions as things grow and become more global and widespread is that the repercussions will be more severe and more dramatic. SO, WHILE WE ARE PROMOTING A GM FOOD INTO THE FUTURE ON THE ONE HAND IN GENETICALLY MODIFIED CROPS, WE COULD BE KILLING THE VERY INSECT THAT KEEPS PLANTS ALIVE. Yes, but there again, if the seed companies can develop plants that don’t need insect pollinators, and keep selling seed to the farmers, maybe that’s the goal. WHAT I’M HEARING IN YOUR VOICE AND YOUR WORDS IS THAT YOU ARE FEELING AND SENSING THAT THIS IS A VERY DEPRESSING SITUATION WITH VERY LITTLE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL. Boy, is that coming through my voice? I’m sorry, but yeah, it is. I’m sure there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, but I can’t tell if it is an answer, or a train coming down the track. WHICH COMES BACK FULL CIRCLE TO THE BEEKEEPER WHO SAID TO THE BBC THIS WEEK, ‘I THINK WE’RE COMING IN FOR A BIG TRAIN WRECK.’ It’s possible. We’ll know in the future. But the take home message is: Honeybees are not healthy and we, at this moment in time, have no way to make them healthier.” On March 29, 2007, Brent Halsall, President, Ontario Beekeeper's Assoc., Greely, Ontario, Canada, opened his hives and found about 40% of all his bees dead - some dried up; others fresh as if not long dead. Image © 2007 by CBC. More Information: For further information about honeybees, colony collapse disorder (CCD) and other threatened earth life, please see related Earthfiles reports below in the Earthfiles Archives: • 02/29/2008 — Mysterious Bat Deaths in New York, Vermont and Massachusetts • 01/18/2008 — Amphibians Dying Out At Alarming Rate • 10/13/2007 — Now Bumblebees Are Disappearing, Too. • 09/26/2007 — North American Honey Bees Still Weak • 09/07/2007 — Honey Bee DNA Study Finds Australian Virus in Colony Collapse Disorder • 06/28/2007 — Hackenberg Apiary, Pennsylvania - 75-80% Honey Bee Loss in 2007. What Happens If Colony Collapse Disorder Returns? • 05/04/2007 — Environmental Emergency Updates: Part 1 - Spreading Honey Bee Disappearances - Nosema ceranae Not the Answer? • 04/06/2007 — Collapse of Honey Bees in U. S., Canada and 9 European Countries • 03/22/2007 — Genetically Modified Crops: Playing Dangerous Genetic Roulette? • 03/17/2007 — Honey Bee Disappearances Continue: Could Pesticides Play A Role? • 02/23/2007 — Scientists Hope "Amphibian Arks" Can Save Frogs and Toads • 02/23/2007 — Part 1: Earth Life Threats - Alarming Disappearance of Honey Bees • 08/26/2005 — What Is Killing Amphibians Around the World? • 06/25/2005 — "Junk DNA" That's Not Junk • 08/27/2004 — Global Warming Impact On Birds - More Extinctions Expected • 12/22/2001 — Scientists Warn That Climate and Earth Life Can Change Rapidly • 11/26/2000 — Environmental Updates • 11/12/2000 — Update On Increased UV Radiation and Amphibian Decline • 05/27/1999 — Amphibian Decline - Parasites and Increased UV Radiation • 02/28/1999 — Chickadee Beak Deformities in Alaska Websites: AAAS Science Journal: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/317/5843/1304 Mid-Atlantic Apiculture Research and Extension Consortium (MAAREC): http://maarec.cas.psu.edu/ Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD): http://www.ento.psu.edu/MAAREC/pressReleas...mmaryWG0207.pdf Apiary Inspectors of America (AIA): http://www.apiaryinspectors.org/ Biology of Honey Bees: http://plantphys.info/Plants_Human/bees/bees.html Varroa Mites: http://www.uky.edu/Ag/Entomology/entfacts/struct/ef608.htm Honey Bee Tracheal Mites: http://creatures.ifas.ufl.edu/misc/bees/tracheal_mite.htm National Bee Loss Survey: http://beealert.blackfoot.net/~beealert/surveys/index.php American Beekeeping Federation: http://www.abfnet.org/ American Honey Producers Assoc.: http://www.americanhoneyproducers.org/ The Xerces Society (Pollinators At Risk): http://www.xerces.org/Pollinator_Insect_Co...rs_at_risk.html American Assoc. of Professional Apiculturists: http://entomology.ucdavis.edu/aapa/aapapubs.cfm Bee Culture, The Magazine of American Beekeeping http://www.beeculture.com Credits Copyright © 1999 - 2008 by Linda Moulton Howe. All Rights Reserved. www.earthfiles.com earthfiles@earthfiles.com http://www.earthfiles.com/news.php?ID=1416...ory=Environment |
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| belinda | Apr 12 2008, 01:17 AM Post #24 |
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There was a program on T.V. a few weeks back about the issue with loosing bees. They think it is linked to pesticides.... 
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| John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life....... Amen, Come Lord Jesus! | |
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| dibldabl | Apr 15 2008, 10:36 PM Post #25 |
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If you live in a country that doesn't grow enough to feed it's population and all of the exporters hoard their harvests, what are you going to do? What is going to happen? Biggest grain exporters halt foreign sales By Javier Blas in London, Isabel Gorst in Moscow and Lindsay Whipp in Tokyo Published: April 15 2008 19:04 | Last updated: April 16 2008 02:37 http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/38cd4d58-0b15-11...?nclick_check=1 The global food crisis intensified on Tuesday as Kazakhstan, one of the world’s biggest wheat exporters halted foreign sales and rice prices shot to a record high after Indonesia stopped its farmers from selling the grain abroad. In another sign of turmoil, a big food company in Japan, Nihon Shokuhin Kako, said high corn prices had forced it to buy cheaper genetically modified corn for the first time, breaking a social, though not legal, taboo and signalling that opposition to GM foods could weaken in the face of record food prices. Meanwhile, fresh wheat export curbs in Kazakhstan, the world’s fifth largest exporter, and the rice bans in Indonesia, threaten to trigger bans in other food exporting countries, which will now face much higher demand from importing countries. Hussein Allidina, at Morgan Stanley in New York, said pressure for export bans was likely to increase elsewhere as developing countries suffering high inflation tried to combat rising local prices by cutting back on exports of agriculture commodities. Indonesia - which joins Vietnam, Egypt, China, Cambodia and India in banning foreign sales - was expected to export the grain this year due to a bumper crop. Corn futures prices in Chicago last week hit a record $6.16 a bushel, up 30 per cent in the past three months. Indonesia’s export ban boosted the price of rice futures in Chicago to a all-time high of $22.17 per 100 pounds, up 63 per cent since January. Wheat prices moved higher to $9.11 a bushel and traders warned prices could rise further as the Kazakhstan ban together with restrictions in Russia, Ukraine and Argentina have closed a third of the global wheat market. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008 |
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| Wil | Apr 17 2008, 08:45 AM Post #26 |
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BEHOLD A BLACK HORSE: THE GLOBAL FOOD CRISIS by Chuck Missler http://www.khouse.org/ In recent weeks you might have noticed your grocery bill go up. If so, you're not alone. Food prices are soaring worldwide. Consumers in many western nations are just beginning to notice the change, however in many parts of the world the rising cost of food has already reached crisis levels. According to the United Nations, global food prices rose 35 percent in the last year. Since the new year prices have continued to rise. This year corn prices have hit a 12-year high and the price of wheat has jumped almost 90 percent. Likewise, in just the past few weeks the cost of rice has gone from $580 a ton to $760 a ton. Rice is the staple food for more than three billion people around the world. Most of these live in poorer nations, and some already spend 50 to 70 percent of their incomes on food. Experts are describing the problem as "the perfect storm." Its cause is said to be a combination of various factors: Growing populations means growing demand. Also, the growing middle class in places like China means growing demand for more varieties of food. For example, the demand for beef has increased in China, which in turn effects the price of corn and other crops used to feed cattle. Unusual weather conditions and drought have also been a factor. In Australia prolonged drought has reduced wheat exports by half and the rice crop this year will be the smallest in history. In Bangladesh a cyclone last summer destroyed 600 million dollars worth of its rice crop. Events such as these have decreased the overall food supply. Rising oil prices have also had caused food prices to rise. Oil prices effect not only the cost of transporting food, but also the cost of fertilizers which are made with oil-derivatives. Government mandates and subsidies for biofuels have also had an impact. In the US it is estimated that almost thirty percent of the grain harvest is being diverted to make ethanol. Likewise, the European Union plans to start producing enough biofuels to meet at least 10 percent of its transportation needs by 2010. This situation has not received enough media attention, prompting some to label it the "silent famine." Malnutrition and hunger are growing problems, and charitable organizations are having trouble keeping up with the growing demand. The black horseman of the Book of Revelation speaks of a condition wherein a man's daily wages are so poor, he can barely support himself, much less his family (Revelation 6:5-6). Could it be that we are getting close? To learn more about this subject, listen to Chuck's briefing pack titled Behold A Black Horse. http://store.khouse.org:80/store/catalog/e...tml?mv_pc=ENEWS |
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| Wil | Apr 22 2008, 09:23 PM Post #27 |
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Ag Secretary: 'We have never been less secure' about wheat By ROXANA HEGEMAN 04.16.08, 2:57 PM ET KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The world has "never been less secure" about the near-term future of wheat as crop failures and disease combine to threaten food supplies, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Edward Schafer told food aid groups Wednesday. Schafer told the International Food Aid Conference meeting that crop failures have left global wheat stocks at their lowest point in 30 years and U.S. wheat stocks are at 60-year lows. Climate changes that have spawned unrelenting drought, floods and late freezes have all had an impact. This has left the world at particular risk for a highly virulent wheat disease called African stem rust that is quickly spreading to places such as Uganda, Ethiopia, Yemen, India, Pakistan and Iran. "We have never been less secure about the near term future of wheat," Schafer said. "With over 75 percent of U.S. wheat acres planted to varieties that are highly susceptible to this disease, the threat here at home is real and it is urgent." The disease, which is carried by wind spores, would be devastating to global food supplies if it affects the U.S. wheat crops, now valued at $16 billion. The United States has shipped wheat breeding lines to east Africa, where scientists are working to find a rust-resistant strain and new protective measures. "This is an international science partnership at its best in the face of crisis that threatens most of the world's food," Schafer told about 700 people from 25 countries. The food aid groups have been discussing soaring commodity and fuel prices that have slashed the amount of food they can buy to feed the world's most impoverished regions. Changing climate patterns that have spawned crop failures and growing competition from biofuels have come together to create what experts here are calling "a perfect storm" that has spawned a world hunger crisis. Schafer said he has not decided whether to allow the early release without penalty of acres enrolled in the federal Conservation Reserve Program, which pays farmers to take acres out of production. A decision for the 2009 crop year would not be made until August or September, he said. The conference comes amid negotiations over the federal Farm Bill, which expires on Friday. Schafer said the Bush administration would support extending the deadline by a week or two only if real progress was being made. Otherwise, the administration would prefer an extension of a year so that farmers could better plan their crop year, Schafer said. The administration is also pushing a proposal to designate 25 percent of the food aid from the United States for cash purchases in other countries, rather than shipping only U.S.-grown commodities. Gaddi Vasquez, U.S. ambassador to U.N. agencies in Rome, Congress to back the proposal. "The ultimate objective," Vasquez said, "is to help countries battling hunger to feed their own people." http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2008/04/16/....htmlAssociated |
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| Deleted User | Apr 23 2008, 07:14 PM Post #28 |
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The same thing happened here in Hood Valley, OR with peaches and cherry trees frozen in the unusual snow/hail/freezing temps of last week. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ http://cbs13.com/local/cold.snap.crop.2.705611.html Unusual Spring Cold Snap Damages NorCal Crops MARYSVILLE (AP) ― Sacramento Valley farmers are calculating the damage from the unusually cold spring weather. Freezing temperatures this weekend destroyed peaches that were just beginning to bud. Sutter County farmers are reporting losses in walnuts, canning tomatoes and tree fruits. Yuba County prune orchards lost between 10 percent and all of their fruit. Pear farmers reported 30 percent of their fruit destroyed. The full extent of crop losses may not be known until harvests begin this summer. |
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| lionschild | Apr 28 2008, 04:21 PM Post #29 |
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There is no longer any rice on the shelves at Costco or Walmart here where I live in Oregon. I have not checked any other stores. Anyone else have a hard time finding rice?? |
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| dibldabl | May 3 2008, 10:30 PM Post #30 |
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Excerpted from John Mauldin's Weekly E-Letter, http://www.frontlinethoughts.com/gateway.asp A Black Swan in Food Donald Coxe, chief strategist of Harris Investment Management and one of my favorite analysts, spoke at my recent Strategic Investment Conference. He shared a statistic that has given me pause for concern as I watch food prices shoot up all over the world. North America has experienced great weather for the last 18 consecutive years, which, combined with other improvements in agriculture, has resulted in abundant crops. According to Don, you have to go back 800 years to find a period of such favorable weather for so long a time. Yet food stocks in corn, wheat, rice, etc. are dangerously low. We are just one bad weather season from a potential worldwide food disaster. And Dennis Gartman has been pointing out almost daily how far behind US farmers are in getting their corn crops planted, due to bad weather: ...the corn crop really is behind schedule. Corn is not like wheat. Wheat can survive drought; it can survive cold; wheat, as we were taught by our mentor, Mr. Melvin Ford, many years ago, is a weed. It is an amazing, resilient plant. But corn is temperamental; it needs rain when it needs rain; it needs dry conditions when it needs dry conditions. It needs to not be hit by early season frost, or it will suffer, and it needs a rather archly set number of days to grow. Each day lost at the front end of the planting/growing season puts pressure upon the corn plant to finish its job before the autumn frosts, and puts increased soybean acreage and decreased corn acreage before us. "The maps of the Midwest this morning have it raining once again, with more rain likely over the weekend. There will be some field work done in some areas, of course, but the several straight days of corn planting that everyone had hoped for simply are not going to take place. The ethanol mandates may be in jeopardy in the long run, but in the short run, this year's corn crop is swiftly becoming problematic ... and short." I had a note from a reader relating the experience of a member of his family. The gentleman runs a rather large feed lot in West Texas. He is running half the cattle he normally does, as he is losing money on every head he sells. Ranchers are reducing their herds, as they cannot afford to feed them due to high grain prices. The same thing is happening with chickens. Producers are losing money on every chicken they sell, and they have to reduce inventories; thus meat of all types has not risen as much as the cost of producing it. This means sometime this fall supplies of meat of all types are going to be reduced, but demand will not. And that means that meat prices have the potential to rise substantially during an election season. Maybe someone will point out that using corn to produce ethanol has the unwanted and unintended consequence of driving up food prices all over the world. It is not the sole source, but it is significant. And when we finally experience a year of bad weather (whether too much rain or too little, too cold or too hot, it will be blamed on global warming), food supplies and prices are going to skyrocket. And a developing world will not look kindly on the US and Europe's use of food for fuel when so many are starving. Don says that this is not a matter of if, but when. |
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| dibldabl | May 13 2008, 09:47 PM Post #31 |
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Note that the cost of inputs (seed, fertilizer, fuel and so on) is up 47% this year compared to last year. Farmers are becoming more conservative in what fields to plant since a failure might send them under. Even though the world is clamoring for more food, our farmers might be planting LESS since they are uncertain if they can recoup their costs under less than perfect conditions even with higher crop prices. Also note that industrial ag is big in America and makes heavy use of revolving credit. The credit crisis could lead to these lines being reduced, eliminated, or refinanced at unfavorable rates. This might send some large American farms out of business. The price of ag land rose this year and smaller, family farmers that rent land now have to pay more in rent. Again, some might go under if they have a marginal year. -dibldabl ------------------------- http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-farm...3,0,38893.story Farmers unable to cash in on soaring food prices By Jerry Hirsch, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer May 13, 2008 Charlie Hoppin, who farms 3,200 acres in Yolo and Sutter counties, planted 500 acres of corn last year but says it has become too expensive to grow. He switched to safflower, even though it will bring in a lower price per acre. With costs as high as an elephant's eye, some growers are even cutting back on crops that are in short supply. All over the world, prices for basic foods -- barley for beer, milk for cheese, corn for tortillas, and the rice that serves as a staple for more than half the world's population -- are soaring. But farmers aren't rushing to cash in on the boom by planting more of the crops. The amount of corn planted in the U.S. is expected to dip this year. Rice acreage in California, which sells as much as half its crop overseas, is predicted to increase by only a small amount. Instead, farmers are planting cheaper-to-grow wheat and soy. They say the reason is simple. The cost of planting some crops is rising as fast as their prices, and sometimes faster, leaving little incentive to increase production of some foods that remain in high demand around the world. Farmers typically plant their crops once a year and not all of them cost the same to produce. Both corn and rice, for example, require more fertilizer to grow and fuel for farmers to tend than other crops. As the prices of those supplies rise faster than the prices of some commodities, farmers are shying away from some expensive crops. The little-noticed development could keep the price of some foods at their current high levels, or send them even higher, until worldwide supply can catch up with demand, economists say. "The price of crops drove what farmers did last year," said Chad Hart, an Iowa State University agriculture economist. Now "it's costs, and that's prompting farmers to reevaluate how they allocate their land this year." The cost of farming an acre of corn, for example, has risen almost 47% over the last year, according to Wells Fargo & Co. estimates, outpacing the 35% increase in the price of corn in the same period. It's the same with rice. The price on the futures market of U.S.-grown long grain rice -- the type that is in short supply worldwide -- has risen 64% this year to $22.74 per one hundred pounds. (Such a move also pushes up the price of medium grain rice, which makes up most of what is grown in California.) Still, farmers are expected to plant 549,000 acres of California rice this year, up less than 3% from last year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Charlie Hoppin, who farms 3,200 acres scattered across Yolo and Sutter counties, is one farmer opting for a crop other than corn. He figures that safflower will be just as profitable, if not better, and a whole lot easier to farm. "At today's prices, corn brings in roughly $1,200 an acre. Safflower will bring in $750. But fertilizer is less than half the cost, the seed is less and I won't need the same irrigation or pesticides," Hoppin said. He planted 370 safflower acres this year, up from none last year, and he doesn't plan to put any corn in the ground after planting 500 acres a year ago. "I will know if I made the right decision about next December, but that's the nature of farming," Hoppin said. Imperial Valley farmer Mark Osterkamp is also paying close attention to his farming costs. "We are chasing the tiger. There's a wild grain market, but there's also a shortage of all the inputs for agriculture," said Osterkamp, who farms about 7,000 acres of wheat, sugar beets, onions and forage crops for livestock. One problem for all farmers: the rising cost of fertilizer, which has nearly doubled in the last year, according to the Department of Agriculture. Prices have increased because the world demand for fertilizer is outstripping the supply, said Kathy Mathers, spokeswoman for the Fertilizer Institute, a Washington, D.C., trade group. That's been made worse by the increased cost in shipping fertilizer around the world and the low value of the dollar, she said. Many other farming costs are rising too. The price of the diesel fuel that is used to run combines and tractors has jumped by half from a year ago, according to the USDA. Seed prices have risen more than 25% from last year, the USDA said. Farmers are also dealing with higher rents, as landowners demand their slice of increased food prices. Indeed, the rent for some of Osterkamp's land has jumped to $250 an acre this year, up from $175 a year ago. Steve Dennis, who farms 6,000 acres of rice, wheat, almonds and walnuts in Colusa and Glenn counties, is also changing fertilizers in response to soaring prices for farm additives and chemicals. A year ago, Dennis paid $500 a ton for the fertilizer he uses on rice. He is spending $1,300 a ton this year, prompting him to switch to an inferior compound that sells for less. The switch will save him as much as $130,000 this year. Dennis also is hedging his bets by planting about 500 acres of wheat because it uses less water than rice. I'm "paying a lot closer attention to the numbers," he said. "I am trying to get by with a little less of this and a little less of that." |
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| dibldabl | Jun 6 2008, 08:38 PM Post #32 |
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This amounts to half of a loaf of bread for every man, woman, and child in the US. -d- The U.S. Has No Remaining Grain Reserves http://www.tristateobserver.com/print.php?sid=10121 AAM Concerned with CCC Inventories WASHINGTON - Larry Matlack, President of the American Agriculture Movement (AAM), has raised concerns over the issue of U.S. grain reserves after it was announced that the sale of 18.37 million bushels of wheat from USDA’s Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust. According to the May 1, 2008 CCC inventory report there are only 24.1 million bushels of wheat in inventory, so after this sale there will be only 2.7 million bushels of wheat left the entire CCC inventory, warned Matlack. Our concern is not that we are using the remainder of our strategic grain reserves for humanitarian relief. AAM fully supports the action and all humanitarian food relief. Our concern is that the U.S. has nothing else in our emergency food pantry. There is no cheese, no butter, no dry milk powder, no grains or anything else left in reserve. The only thing left in the entire CCC inventory will be 2.7 million bushels of wheat which is about enough wheat to make ½ of a loaf of bread for each of the 300 million people in America. The CCC is a federal government-owned and operated entity that was created to stabilize, support, and protect farm income and prices. CCC is also supposed to maintain balanced and adequate supplies of agricultural commodities and aids in their orderly distribution. This lack of emergency preparedness is the fault of the 1996 farm bill which eliminated the government’s grain reserves as well as the Farmer Owned Reserve (FOR), explained Matlack. We had hoped to reinstate the FOR and a Strategic Energy Grain Reserve in the new farm bill, but the politics of food defeated our efforts. As farmers it is our calling and purpose in life to feed our families, our communities, our nation and a good part of the world, but we need better planning and coordination if we are to meet that purpose. AAM pledges to continue our work for better farm policy which includes an FOR and a Strategic Energy Grain Reserve. AAM’s support for the FOR program, which allows the grain to be stored on farms, is a key component to a safe grain reserve in that the supplies will be decentralized in the event of some unforeseen calamity which might befall the large grain storage terminals. A Strategic Energy Grain Reserve is as crucial for the nation’s domestic energy needs as the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. AAM also supports full funding for the replenishment and expansion of Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust. The May 1, 2008 CCC Inventory report may be reviewed here: http://www.fsa.usda.gov/Internet/FSA_File/wid2a.pdf. |
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| Wil | Jun 10 2008, 07:43 PM Post #33 |
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Food Scarcity 'Creating New World Order' Published on Sunday, June 08, 2008. Source: IPS BEIJING- Unprecedented food scarcity is beginning to dictate the rules of a new political order where individual countries are scrambling to secure their own food supplies with little concern for the rest of the world, says the founder of the Earth Policy Institute. Recent manifestations of national food insecurity like export restrictions imposed by some grain-producing countries are the troublesome portents of an "entirely new chapter in the book of food security," Lester Brown told foreign correspondents in Beijing on Tuesday. "We are in the midst of the most severe food crisis in the world's history," Brown said. "This is not your mother's food shortage...but a chronically tight food situation, a serious and long-term problem.'' Politicians have been meeting in Rome to find global solutions to soaring food prices and civil unrest caused by food shortages, but in reality many countries are already acting unilaterally to secure supplies for the future. From Africa to Asia, countries are scrambling to buy or lease land overseas to grow crops and feed their people. China, which has to feed the world's largest population, has taken the lead by contracting land in Tanzania, Laos, Kazakhstan, Brazil, and others. India has set its eyes on Uruguay and Paraguay, while South Korea is looking for farming deals in Sudan and Siberia. Libya and Egypt for their part have been negotiating deals to lease land in Ukraine. The worry here, according to Brown, is that "the more influential countries would be able to secure food supplies, leaving a number of low-income, less influential countries with no food to import." "This could create a lot of desperate countries," he says. The United Nations says soaring prices of basic foods such as rice and other cereals could affect around 100 million of the world's poorest people. In Asia, rice prices have almost tripled this year alone, leading many governments to fear the consequences if the poor cannot afford to buy their staple food. To protect their domestic consumers, India, Vietnam, Indonesia, and China have all taken steps to restrict exports. This year has seen China's first grain trade deficit in decades. It has scrapped export rebates for wheat, rice, paddy, maize and soybeans, and it will start imposing export duties of 5 to 25 percent. World Worries as China Begins to Import Grain As the current food crisis unfolded, China's role as the world's largest grain producer and consumer has come in for increasing scrutiny. Politicians around the globe are looking at China, which has to feed 1.3 billion people, with apprehension, worrying that any change in the country's long-held policy of self-sufficiency could have a tremendous effect on the global grain markets. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has said China's main priority is to feed its own population and that this would be the country's "biggest contribution to the world." Beijing contends it has large grain reserves to weather the current food crisis. However, the size of the country's state and private reserves is uncertain. "It is mostly rice," says Zhao Jinhou, a grain analyst with Shenyin Securities. Chinese planners subsidize grain production and this has led to discrepancies between international and domestic prices of rice. While global prices of rice have soared, China's domestic prices have remained stable. "There has been no incentive to sell the rice stocks," Zhao says. In 2007, China produced more than 501.5 million tons of grain, almost level with the nation's annual consumption of 510 million tons, according to official statistics. Chinese officials have vowed to keep the nation's grain output stable and above 500 million tons to cope with rising global grain prices. But analysts say even a stable grain output in China could do little to slow down global price surges as the country is already a net grain importer. Last year, China imported 31 million tons of grain, or 22 million tons more than what it exported. The bulk of the total imports were soybeans. "[The Chinese] have sacrificed their self-sufficiency in soybeans in order to preserve land and water for other crops," says Brown, predicting it is only a matter of time before Beijing moves to the world markets for grain as it has done with soybeans. "China only needs to import 10 percent of its grain consumption to influence markets greatly," he reckons. The devastation caused by the grade-8 Sichuan earthquake on May 12 has also heightened speculations that Beijing may take further steps to restrict its exports to rein in inflation and ensure domestic supplies. "More restrictions on grain exports would hurt China's ability to assume its leading role of a big country in the current crisis," cautions Mei Xinyu, researcher with the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, under the ministry of commerce. "The side effects of further tightening of exports would be significant and there will be more harm than benefit." The impact of Asia's export curbs has already provoked riots in Africa and Haiti, places that depend on cheap food imports. The U.S. Department of Agriculture predicts that high prices and export restrictions will cut the volume of rice traded internationally by 9 percent in 2008, which will drive prices even higher. At the ongoing food summit in Rome, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon pressed nations around the world to ease a wide range of export bans and import tariffs to help millions of poor cope with the highest food prices in 30 years. |
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| Wil | Jun 13 2008, 07:38 AM Post #34 |
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Grain Prices Soar on Flood Threat to Crops By Dow Jones Newswires June 11, 2008 CENTRAL CITY, Neb. (Dow Jones) -- U.S. grain markets caught fire Wednesday, as fearsome spring floods raised the specter of short harvests this fall, leaving cash contracts limit-up for most commodities traded at U.S. futures exchanges. Corn futures continued their climb to all-time highs, pushing the spot CBOT July contract above $7 per bushel, as the result of an extremely bullish supply-demand report issued by the USDA on Tuesday. Linn Group analyst Jim Riley pointed out that, "if the USDA is right in its production numbers, the ending stocks (for U.S. 2008-09 corn) would be 673 (million bushels), which is the lowest in 13 years, and would represent only a three-week supply." He adds that many traders and analysts fear that flooding, which has devastated the Corn Belt during the past 7-10 days, may prevent farmers from seeding more than 84 million acres to corn -- instead of the 86 million acres originally forecast by the government, "which, if the yield estimate (of 148.9 bushels per acre) is correct, will lower production even further." Basis levels were mixed, with most commodities seeing weaker premiums in the interior but stronger bids at the Gulf and the Pacific Northwest Wednesday. CIF bids jumped 5 cents for HRW wheat in the Pacific Northwest and strengthened by as much as 10-11 cents for soybeans, corn and SRW wheat at the Louisiana Gulf as well. "Cash market sources said that concerns over flooding on the Mississippi (River) and rising barge rates were adding to the (futures market) strength," said a CBOT market report. The Joint Ag Weather Facility at USDA said unusually cool, wet weather prevails across the northern Plains and upper Midwest, which has slowed the emergence and development of spring crops. "Northwestern crop development remains sluggish due to persistently cool weather during the last three months, with the exception of a brief, mid-May heat wave," said agency meteorologist Brad Rippey. "Widespread lowland flooding continues in many Midwestern river basins, and flooding is worsening in some areas west of the Mississippi River." In contrast, very warm, dry weather was promoting winter wheat ripening and the resumption of harvest in the southern Plains on Wednesday. Even so, Rippey warned that a strengthening storm system over the nation's mid-section will generate heavy rain across the northern Plains and Corn Belt in coming days. "Storm-total rainfall of 2.00 to 5.00 inches will aggravate the flood situation across the eastern Plains and the Midwest," he said. -- Gary Wulf, Dow Jones Newswires http://www.smartmoney.com/breaking-news/smw/index.cfm?story=20080611040416 |
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| dibldabl | Jun 19 2008, 11:37 PM Post #35 |
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The Best Farmland in the U.S. Is Flooded; Most Americans Are Too Stupid to Panic June 19th, 2008 http://cryptogon.com/?p=2753 The best commentary I could offer is a link to a previous story: World’s Largest Maker of Crop Nutrients: Famines May Occur Without Record Harvests http://cryptogon.com/?p=2061 But I’ll ramble on a bit more about this, anyway. As soon as I became aware of the flooding situation in the American Midwest, I posted the story with the EMERGENCY prefix on the title. Just so we’re clear, when I write EMERGENCY at the beginning of a post title, this is my way of indicating that the situation is as serious as it gets. It means that I feel as though everyone reading should consider taking immediate evasive action. All the jawboning about conspiracy, how things could have been, how things should be, etc. are behind us now. You know, EMERGENCY, act fast, eyes wide, nostrils flared, etc. While the food supply situation has skated along a knife edge so far this year, with higher prices and many countries experiencing food riots, widespread famine did not take hold. In an incredible move, the Japanese quietly eased rice shortages by releasing portions of their imported rice stockpiles - from giant warehouses in Tokyo - into the system; a welcome but one off blip in the big picture. What happens next time? Now, this growing season, when yields need to be at record levels to avert disaster, what do we find? Floods or droughts in several of the breadbaskets of the world. Whatever your plans are, I hope that you’re ready to execute them (or, better yet, are executing them). I’m pretty sure that most people have done nothing, and I don’t know why this continues to amaze me. How can so many people, even those who should know better, be content to hit the wall without doing anything at all to change course? This includes my own family, who lives in Southern California. I view Southern California as one of the most dangerous death traps in the world. Since it’s such an important focus of economic activity, though, I like to keep tabs on herd activity there, just for my own situational awareness. I can’t get a meaningful response from my dad - who thinks that traffic jams everywhere in the region and at all times of the day and night represent ‘progress’ - I emailed someone there who’s about to flee to a country in Northern Europe. I asked if there was even a subtle sense of panic setting in with regard to the food and fuel prices. Here is part of the response I received: I have noticed that most people don’t even have instinct enough to panic and hoard, and they wouldn’t know *what* to hoard. They don’t cook, they don’t know what a ’staple’ means. A young woman in my training last week brought animal crackers and cheese ruffles for breakfast, and a box of Cheezits and Coke Zero for lunch. I asked her mockingly if she’d tried fruit or vegetables, she said she couldn’t afford them. I once saw a woman behind me at Ralphs with food stamps, and she was buying cottage cheese, dry pinto beans, and wheat bread, and told her kid to put the Doritos back. If you don’t have that kind of sense to begin with, the current situation is not going to give it to you. We’re now well into a phase where system maintenance depends on the inability of the herd to grasp the nature of the immanent threat. "Yes, Kevin," you say. "Same as it ever was." I don’t think so. The food situation is far off the radar screens of Joe Average. It only becomes a problem after it’s too late to do anything substantive to ameliorate conditions. We’ve already seen food riots, armed escorts for grain deliveries, rationing, sharply higher prices. And still, I’m mostly noticing yawns and drugged gurgles from the herd. Meanwhile, the die is all but cast on this year’s lower crop yields. If the herd had any idea of what was coming, this show would be over inside of 24 hours. You might be sick of reading this on Cryptogon, but, it’s worth repeating: Use your time wisely. Via: Financial Times: Consumers were warned to expect even sharper increases in global food prices after US officials said that some of the country’s best farmland was facing its worst flooding for 15 years. Agriculture officials and traders said the damage could push up worldwide corn and soyabean prices, which have spiralled in recent days as floods have swamped crops in parts of Iowa, the US’s biggest corn-producing state. The warning comes at a time when high food prices are already sparking protests across the developing world. Corn futures in Chicago this week rose to record highs of more than $8 a bushel on fears that up to 5m acres of the crop could be lost, while soyabean prices hit a record of $15.93 a bushel. Tom Jennings, acting director of the Illinois Department of Agriculture, said: "The price of corn and the price of beans could rise more. If we lose a lot of corn the prices will continue to go up." The increase in the cost of corn and soyabeans - the two main feed crops for farm animals such as cows and chickens - increased the price of live cattle yesterday for the second day in a row, to the highest level in 22 years. Mr Jennings said that the impact of the heavy rains was "dramatic". "According to the emergency reports I’m getting, we’re above what happened in 1993 but we’ll have to see how that tapers off as [the rain water] comes down the river," he told the Financial Times. The Mississippi River broke through its levee system in 1993, destroying about 1m acres of crops and causing $20bn of damage. Lewis Hagedorn, of JPMorgan in Chicago, said that the losses were significant. "The risk of still-higher agricultural prices remains decisively distributed to the upside amid the fundamental need to ration demand in light of smaller supply," he said. Greg Wagner, at Ag Resource in Chicago, added that corn prices could take a pause to assess the weather impact. However, he warned: "Additional price gains are likely as the market is prone to overshoot." After weeks of heavy rains and low temperatures, the US Department of Agriculture said that only 57 per cent of the country’s corn crop is in good or excellent condition, considerably less than the 70 per cent registered this time last year. Local farmers in Illinois said that the bad weather had delayed planting by up to five weeks, which would result in a much reduced crop of corn and soyabeans. Some farmers expected their corn production to be down by as much as 50 per cent from last year’s level. Agriculture traders described the problem graphically, saying that corn plants in Iowa or Illinois should now be reaching almost waist height, but due to the impact of the heavy rains and low temperatures were below knee-height. They added that expensive nitrogen fertiliser - critical for the plants’ development - has now been washed out from the fields by the rains. For that reason, some farmers are likely to leave their land fallow and, instead, cash in their crop insurance policies, further reducing supply. |
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| Wil | Jun 25 2008, 08:33 AM Post #36 |
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The Price of Food: 2007 - 2008 HOLLY NOTE: Notice that many foods which have risen in cost are either grain products or depend on grain as feed or need bees for polination. June 24, 2008 http://standeyo.com/NEWS/08_Food_Water/080624.prices.2007.vs.2008.html |
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| dibldabl | Aug 2 2008, 12:59 AM Post #37 |
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In our complex society, a food shortage can take many forms. The story below tells how American grain elevators, key players in crop distribution, are under increasing stress. -d Midwest elevators exhaust credit limits http://www.agweekly.com/articles/2008/08/01/commodities/crop/crop14.txt By Chris Serres, Star Tribune Scott Dubbelde has told himself, time and again, that there is no use fretting about things over which he has no control. Even so, the general manager of a grain elevator cooperative in Hanley Falls lies awake at night, worrying about the ballooning debt his elevator has incurred to finance its inventory. “I’d be lying to you if I said I wasn’t worried,” Dubbelde said. “This is about our survival.” These may be boom times for farmers, but the sharp rise in commodities prices is putting unprecedented financial pressure on country grain elevators - the first point of sale for most crops. Just as families have borrowed more to meet rising costs, grain elevators have dramatically increased their debt burden as the prices of corn, soybeans and wheat have soared. Borrowing levels at some grain elevators have more than quadrupled since February. And with little cash on hand, many elevators have stopped buying grain from farmers that won’t be delivered within a few months, depriving farmers of a key hedge against falling grain prices. The financial crunch has led to the closing of one grain elevator in Illinois and another in Nebraska in the last year. Many others across the Midwest have nearly exhausted their credit limits. Another sharp rise in commodities prices - like the one that occurred this spring - could force many more elevators to fold or to sell out to Wall Street investment funds. The results would be unprecedented bottlenecks in the nation’s food delivery system and, ultimately, higher food prices for consumers, say economists and agricultural analysts. “This is extremely serious,” said Michael Swanson, an agricultural economist at Wells Fargo. “If elevators start having major problems, the whole food system could be affected.” Longer term, a liquidity crisis could play into the hands of Wall Street investment funds and private investors; they’ve been sinking billions of dollars into agriculture, in the hope of profiting from the world’s ravenous appetite for food. Tom Traen, general manager of Glacial Plains Cooperative in Murdock said he gets at least one letter a month from investment funds looking to buy the farmers’ cooperative, which handles about 25 million bushels a year. Even so, he was surprised recently to get a telephone call from an investment banker at Bear Stearns. “If you’re sitting in New York and you’re being told that the world’s running out of food, you probably see agriculture as the next big hurrah,” Traen said. And with the costs of doing business skyrocketing, some elevators may be forced to consider selling. The price of corn, the nation’s biggest crop, has almost doubled in the past year, partly because of growth in world food consumption and increased production of ethanol from corn. In June, corn futures for December delivery hit a record $7.99 a bushel, though it since has fallen to $6.42. Adding to their financial stress is the fact that many elevators don’t just handle grain, but also sell seed, fertilizer and pesticides. The cost of those also have risen to record levels, further pushing up elevators’ borrowing costs. “Any time an industry gets as leveraged as grain elevators are today, it’s very worrisome,” said Kendall Keith, president of the National Grain and Feed Association. Grain elevators may appear to be little more than storage bins. But in many small towns, they remain the largest employer and are the center of economic activity. Minnesota has nearly 600 that together employ 11,000 people and handle more than 9 billion bushels of grain annually, according to the Minnesota Grain and Feed Association. And elevators have become increasingly large and sophisticated businesses that use complicated risk-management tools to hedge their large grain purchases. To offset the risk that prices will fall, elevators typically sell futures contracts on the Chicago Board of Trade. Although designed to mitigate risk, the futures contracts require large amounts of capital in rising commodities markets. When the price of grain moves higher than the price in the futures contract, the elevator has to post more money - known as a “margin call” - to keep the account current. For elevators that handle hundreds of thousands of bushels of corn, those margin calls can be huge. During the sharp run-up in commodities prices in February, it wasn’t uncommon for grain elevators to have six-figure margin calls in a single day. The result is that many elevators are nearly tapped out. Roger Longhenry, manager of the Nassau Farmers Elevator, a 4-million-bushel elevator company near the South Dakota border, said repeated margin calls have forced his elevator to use up all but $750,000 of its $4.5 million credit line. Longhenry said the elevator could pay down the debt if it could sell the 300,000 bushels of soybeans sitting in its bins; but he can’t sell them quickly enough because food processors have reduced their orders while commodity prices are high. Longhenry worries that prices will spike again before he unloads the soybeans, leaving him exposed to a new round of margin calls. “It’s a race,” he said. “We’re hauling grain as fast as we can, but we’re still not generating enough cash.” The big question many agricultural analysts are asking is how much debt elevators can incur before a liquidity crisis occurs and banks start tightening. Swanson estimates that U.S. financial institutions already have provided at least $10 billion to grain elevators, just to fund margin calls for futures contracts. Some elevators have been forced to turn to three or more lenders just to meet their debt obligations. In a rising commodities market, scrambling to make margin calls can be a highwire act. Mark Nowak, a senior loan officer with Farmers State Bank in Freeborn said a customer called him one morning in June and declared, “Sir, I need $60,000 wired to my account by 2 p.m.” Nowak said Farmers State Bank didn’t have the loan commitments in place for the customer, so it had to line up the financing through other lenders in less than four hours. “The Chicago Board of Trade doesn’t play games,” he said. “Either you send the money or you lose everything.” The impact is starting to filter down to farmers. Grain companies have placed strict limits on buying grain. As a result, many farmers who were accustomed to selling their grain forward a year or more, in order to lock in prices, now are worried about next spring’s crop and whether they will make enough to pay for their rising fertilizer, fuel and chemical costs if prices rise again this fall. Not surprisingly, the volatility has everyone involved - farmers, grain elevators and bankers - keeping a close eye on weather conditions and weekly crop reports from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In recent years, late-summer dry spells have sparked a boost in corn prices. “The bankers have gone along with (the elevators), but they’re very nervous,” said Roger Ginder, an agricultural economist at Iowa State University. “It’s far beyond what they intend to lend.” |
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| Wil | Aug 16 2008, 12:50 PM Post #38 |
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Middle East Faces Widespread Drought and Devastated Crops By Abigail Brown, Water For The Ages. Posted August 14, 2008. Contrary to popular belief, the Middle East isn't entirely desert. But now even those fertile valleys fed by the Tigris and Euphrates are at risk. The following words come to mind as I think of the Middle East -- oil, Iraq, war, Palestine, Israel, and desert. I know, I know, many of the words on my list are mere impressions of media-induced messages, but one word on my list is pretty realistic -- desert. The Middle East is an arid region known the world-over for sand, camels, heat, and more sand. So when I tell you in a few moments that many countries in the Middle East are facing severe drought conditions this year, you may not be too surprised. Yet contrary to my word list the Middle East isn't entirely desert. Among the sand and heat, the region hosts fertile valleys and forests fed by one of two main rivers -- the Tigris or Euphrates. This place was once so fruitful it has been called "the fertile crescent," "the cradle of civilization," and "the birthplace of agriculture." Today, crops exported from the region include wheat, dates, olives, pistachios, raisins, eggplant, hazelnuts, and apricots. >So when I tell you again that many countries in the Middle East are facing serious drought conditions this year, you may be a bit more dismayed. Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Palestine, Israel, Cyprus, Iran and Iraq (to name a few) have each been dealing with decreased rainfall, reduced water storage, irrigation water shortages, and in some cases, declared drought. Drought in northeastern Syria over the past two years has devastated wheat production in the region. In 2008 Syria was forced to import wheat for the first time in fifteen years to compensate. Crops were also wiped out in Turkey this year after drought affected 35 out of 81 provinces. Iran is another nation importing extra wheat this season after a 20 percent decline in annual yield. Palestine and Israel have been in a "regional drought" for over half a decade. Palestinians in the West Bank, enduring especially difficult circumstances, are without water for hours or days at a time this summer. Israel controls 90 percent of the water distribution system for the West Bank, but claims to be unable to provide additional water to those in the West Bank. Meanwhile, King Abdullah in Jordan has secured an Emergency Water Supply plan for next summer in case rains are less than predicted over winter. And, of course, the island of Cyprus is dealing with prolonged drought. Turkey is sending water by tankers to the Turkish half of the island, but the Greek half of the island refuses to accept water from Turkey. They are receiving water by tankers from Greece. A drought has been declared in Iraq after significantly less than the annual, average rainfall of six inches. Some say it is the worst drought in ten years. Both the Tigris and Euphrates flow through Iraq in less quantities from a lack of rainfall and dams constructed in Turkey and Syria. Barley and wheat yields, in this country, are expected to be reduced by half this year. Widespread drought in the Middle East means that many individuals are enduring severe hardship with little watery relief. Often forced to relocate or consume muddy, polluted water unfit for human consumption, people in this region have to test the limit of life with minimal water. Also, simultaneous drought in regions such as the Middle East and Australia further influences already soaring grain prices on the world market. In fact wheat prices have risen by 40 percent over the last several months alone. http://www.alternet.org/water/95085/middle_east_faces_widespread_drought_and_devastated_crops/ |
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