Global Food Supplies Stretched to Limit

reply to post by SeekerofTruth101


Sorry, I have to disagree.

Technology cannot create the world's weather.

Unless we want all our food grown with genetics - I would rather starve first thanks.

If humans cannot have natural food, they will die anyway.

But the way we are going, I wouldn't worry about it.

Ever work in the food industry and see how much food is wasted that could go to feed the homeless in the area?

That said, every other month or so I go to to the same store to stock up on food for an emergency and rotate out what I have stored. This is completely separate from my day to day food shopping. I buy the same items and same amount every time. The price has more than doubled from what I was paying 6 months ago. However canned corn went down from 58 cents a can to 47cents.

I sure know what you mean about working in the food industry. You see loads of food being thrown in the trash nightly. I worked at a pizza place in my younger years and one of the most popular orders was these bread sticks.... Basically they were a big pizza dough cut into strips.... 25% of that bread would go straight in the trash.

Hearty tasty fresh baked bread. The employees often made food out of them because basically they were just excess breadsticks from the outer part of the crust. Perfectly good, perfectly edible.

For some reason we were not allowed to give that food away. We would throw out bags of these unused crusts (breadsticks) daily.... could have supplied a homeless shelter with breadsticks each day.

I brought it up to the manager and he told me that we were not allow to give food away... because IF someone got sick on it we would be liable. Somehow we were liable if the food was free, but not if the food was paid for... I dont know. Doesnt seem right but Im no law talkin guy...

I imagine this sort of thing happens in most restaurants food prep as an amount of waste. Then there is also spoilage from mismanaged purchasing or demand predictions.

There are some organizations out there that take these excess food donations from restaurants.

Im not talking about food shelves.
But like this organization: Sister's of Camelot

Global food chain stretched to the limit. Soaring prices spark fears of social unrest in developing world

The USA part of the developing world?

Originally posted by babybunnies
Also, prices on junk food are rising because the holidays are over. Junk food is always cheaper over Christmas / New Years, every single year, and rises again once the holidays are done.

It's better to price out real food instead of junk food for good measure.

Not in Australia lol

Petrol prices, luxury food items and drinks are generally alittle bit higher during the holidays, especially if you live in one of the many tourist cities/towns.... its good for the local economy

Sometimes they will do "sales on selected items" during the holiday season

Locals know when to buy, when not to buy and when to stock up lol

Originally posted by dbriefed
Suppliers are hiding the price increases (a 'soft landing'?) by shrinking package sizes and keeping the prices the same.

Can't get any more credible than Consumer Reports, can you? Well, one of the more trusted organizations anyway.

pressroom.consumerreports.org...

Release Date: 01/04/2011

CR Finds More Products Are Getting Smaller

Manufacturers downsizing packaging by as much as 20% but still charging the same price

YONKERS, NY — Does it seem like some products don’t last as long as they used to? From toothpaste to tuna fish, hot dogs to hand soap, companies have been shaving ounces and inches from packages for years. ConsumerReports’ latest investigation, featured in the February issue of Consumer Reports and online at www.ConsumerReports.org, found that more and more products are getting downsized.

Household names like Tropicana orange juice, Ivory soap and Kraft singles American cheese are all playing the shrinking package game, and manufacturers are attributing it to rising costs for ingredients and energy. “They’ve got a point. Higher commodity and fuel costs are expected to spike in food prices by as much as 3 percent is 2011,” said Tod Marks, senior editor and resident shopping expert at Consumer Reports. “But if manufacturers are skimping when costs go up, why aren’t they more generous when costs hold steady or fall?”

Companies often hide their handiwork when they shrink their packages. Indenting the bottom of containers, making plastic wraps thinner, or whipping air into ice cream are a few subtle ways companies downsize their products.
...

Ive noticed this and its not just happening to our food packaging but also other grocery items, like detergents cleaning products and the like

The bottles, boxes, cans are getting smaller but you're still paying the same price as before

At first, they market these new repackaged items at a low price

Weeks later or a month or so later, you notice the price increases on those items

Stores are clever - THEN all of a sudden you see "sales" marked on some of these item for awhile

For items like this, its not so much of a shortage but FOR company (who sells these items) and supermarket profits

Did you guys actually read the article ?


The article was talking about the IMPACT of soaring prices ON DEVELOPING countries!
( unless I missed the announcement; "NEW USA Ranking - USA Officially Declared a Developing Country" )

Higher oil prices are also pushing up the cost of food

The added shipping cost raises the delivered price of agricultural products.

Higher oil prices also divert more crops like corn and soybeans to biofuel production, further tightening supplies for livestock feed and human consumption. Conley estimates that more than a third of the corn produced in the U.S is now used to make ethanol.

Despite tightening supplies, the rise in food prices has been much tamer in the developed world. On Friday, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that food prices at the consumer level rose just one-tenth of one percent. On Thursday, the government reported that the food component of the Producer Price Index rose just 0.8 percent in December. For all of 2010, food prices at the producer level rose 3.5 percent.

The reason for the modest price rise in the U.S.? People living in developed countries eat more processed foods, so raw materials make up a much smaller portion of the total retail cost.

"In this country, a much higher proportion of your food dollar is spent on processing, advertising and promotion and marketing," said Tom Jackson, a senior economist with Global Insight. "There’s not really that margin built in between the farmer and the consumer in the developing countries."

Food price spikes hit less-developed countries much harder because a greater share of per capita income — half or more — goes to pay for food. U.S. consumers, on the other hand, spend an average of about 13 percent of disposable income on food.

strong global demand and tight supplies are bringing misery to some poor countries, the price surge is a sign of improving conditions in emerging economies. That’s because increased demand is caused in part to rapidly rising standards of living, according to David Malpass, president of economic research firm Encima Global.

I bought 350 today and came home with very little. I value shop but it just did not go anywhere, do you suppose the 50 million people on foodstamps has anything to do with the price increases?

Houston Chronicle: Houston puts a stop to homeless outreach - Couple must have proper permit to continue feeding dozens each day

Bobby and Amanda Herring spent more than a year providing food to homeless people in downtown Houston every day. They fed them, left behind no trash and doled out warm meals peacefully without a single crime being committed, Bobby Herring said.

That ended two weeks ago when the city shut down their "Feed a Friend" effort for lack of a permit. And city officials say the couple most likely will not be able to obtain one.

"We don't really know what they want, we just think that they don't want us down there feeding people,"

WTF?!?

Is it just me or is there something very wrong with this?

reply to post by AllSeeingI

I think the shortage is cause more by capitalism and mismanagement then actual lack of resources. Also the shortage could be designed.....

It IS by design! The world wide food supply is being strangled by red tape. This is part of what I wrote three years ago.

Stolen harvest: the hijacking of the global food supply By Vandana Shiva
Small Farmers Hold Key to Feeding the World

The IMF/World Bank “Structured Adjustment programs” removed nation support systems for third world farmers and drove them into bankruptcy. Countries were blackmailed into producing agricultural goods for export instead of food for local consumption. Transnational corporations dumping subsidized US/EU grain, drove farmers into bankruptcy, then bought the land cheap to produce high price exports. The following quotes show the grain traders greed and the level of concern for other humans.

“In summary, we have record low grain inventories globally as we move into a new crop year. We have demand growing strongly. Which means that going forward even small crop failures are going to drive grain prices to record levels. As an investor, we continue to find these long term trends...very attractive.” Food shortfalls predicted: 2008 www.financialsense.com...

“Recently there have been increased calls for the development of a U.S. or international grain reserve to provide priority access to food supplies for Humanitarian needs. The National Grain and Feed Association (NGFA) and the North American Export Grain Association (NAEGA) strongly advise against this concept..Stock reserves have a documented depressing effect on prices... and resulted in less aggressive market bidding for the grains.” July 22, 2008 letter to President Bush www.naega.org...

The Global Diversity Treaty allows Transnationals to patent thousands of years of seed breeding by third world farmers. The European Union is leading the way with laws limiting the sale of seed to only those who can afford enormous fees. The USA has promised to “harmonize” US regs with EU regs. Animal patenting is also targeted with an international patenting service already set up and over 600 animal patents registered internationally. Meanwhile Monsanto sues any farmer found to have GMO crops “volunteering” (that is, appearing without having been deliberately planted) in his fields.
Is the extermination of family farms planned, or is it just bureaucratic bumbling?

This question was answered during discussion of the agricultural conditions for entry by Poland into the EU. The EU chair lady bluntly stated the EU plans to oust a million Polish farmers from their land. Another EU member proudly announced Portugal had already removed 60% of their farmers. After traditional farmers are regulated out of business, corporations move in buying land cheaply and instituting environmentally devastating monoculture farming. The EU has doubled the intake of herbicides, multiplied the use of fungicides by six times and increased the area sprayed with pesticides by almost a hundred per cent in the past two decades. All very profitable for the Ag chemical giants. Polish entry into the European Union www.i-sis.org.uk...

The bottom line is that transnational corporations want to make the largest profit possible without regard for the consequences. Recent actions indicate they are moving behind the scenes to:

Vertically integrate the food chain
Get rid of competition via mergers, buyouts and regulations,
Make it impossible for new competition to arise via cost prohibited regulations
Transport goods across national borders without inspections thanks to free trade agreements
Transfer product liability (lawsuits) to others using unfair contracts
Have a captive market who has no option but to buy from them
Create a monopsony so sellers have only one buyer

Do the transnationals views competition from independent farmers selling locally a threat? Yes

With consumers increasingly demanding food that is safe, nutritious, and locally grown, the industry is sure to grow, say Penn State researchers, who believe that maximum growth will depend on collaboration among different parts of the industry from the grower through the processor and marketer to the consumer, and also involve institutions of higher learning to provide science-based innovations and an educated workforce. The university is responding to this need by developing a coalition to address strengths and weaknesses in the food industry.

[The project is being funded by a USDA grant.]

Wal-Mart Supports Local Produce: Wal-Mart announced that it is increasing its partnerships with local growers and shining the spotlight on locally sourced fruits and vegetables available in its stores. www.americanvegetablegrower.com...

The IMF/World Bank “Structured Adjustment programs” The WTO Agreement on Agriculture, Patents of plants, animals and even human body parts, treaties and regs that stifle farmers and favor rich Transnationals. Once US regulations are “harmonized,” control of the world food supply will shift completely out of the hands of farmers and into that of corporations. If consumers can no longer purchase food direct from a local farmer or grow it themselves, then monopolies will drive up price and drive down quality.

UNITED NATIONS - Former President Clinton told a U.N. gathering Thursday that the global food crisis shows "we all blew it, including me," by treating food crops "like color TVs" instead of as a vital commodity for the world's poor.... sudanvisiondaily.com...

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton made a remarkable admission a couple of weeks ago. His neoliberal “free trade” policies of the 1990’s have led to the destruction of Haiti’s agricultural sector and the inability of the country to feed itself.

"It may have been good for some of my farmers in Arkansas, but it has not worked. It was a mistake," said Clinton to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on March 10. "I had to live everyday with the consequences of the loss of capacity to produce a rice crop in Haiti to feed those people because of what I did; nobody else.” www.stwr.org...

July 26, 2002: Report Finds Fundamental Flaws in WTO’s Agreement on Agriculture:

Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy report argues that the Agreement on Agriculture fails to account for agri-business’ monopoly over global agricultural trade. www.socialfunds.com...

2002 Effect of policies on farmers in USA and Mexico:

Between 1995 and 2000, the prices US farmers receive for corn declined 33 percent, 42 percent for wheat, and 34 percent for soybeans… since NAFTA went into effect 33,000 small farmers in the US have gone out of business— more than six times the pre-NAFTA rate. According to a study by Jose Romero and Alicia Puyana carried out for the federal government of Mexico, between 1992 and 2002, the number of agricultural households fell an astounding 75% – from 2.3 million to 575, 000 www.globalexchange.org...

Farmer suicides in India:
Now the full toll—surely among the largest sustained waves of suicides in human history—is becoming apparent. And as Sainath emphasizes, these numbers still underestimate the disaster, since women farmers are excluded from the official statistics… It is important that the figure of 150,000 farm suicides is a bottom line estimate…. As Professor Nagaraj puts it: “There is likely to be a serious underestimation of suicides…what has driven the huge increase in farm suicides, particularly in the Big Four or ’Suicide SEZ’ States? “Overall,” says Professor Nagaraj, “there exists since the mid-90s, an acute agrarian crisis. That’s across the country. In the Big Four and some other states, specific factors compound the problem…. Cultivation costs have shot up in these high input zones, with some inputs seeing cost hikes of several hundred per cent… Meanwhile, prices have crashed, as in the case of cotton, due to massive U.S.-EU subsidies to their growers. All due to price rigging with the tightening grip of large corporations over the trade in agricultural commodities.” alternatives-international.net...
www.counterpunch.org...

...Unless there was a change of attitude, Sydney's poultry industry was doomed, as councils no longer gave development approval to chicken sheds. The fresh chickens that Sydneysiders took for granted would no longer be available and the energy-saving boon of poultry only a few food miles from their plates would be lost. ... www.smh.com.au...

Tyranny: How to destroy a business with environmental red tape

....This is the price we pay for vague laws where business people can run ventures, do everything to the letter of the law, with best-practice procedures, winning customers and contracts, yet go broke despite all that because of onerous, impossible-to-meet conditions, that are unmeasurable, and change suddenly, with the added bonus of inordinately long delays. At the moment, Janet and Matts farm, Narrogin Beef Producers, lies empty, unstocked, while debts accrue by the minute.

This is also a story of sovereign risk. Investors in Australian industry beware.... joannenova.com.au...

reply to post by boondock-saint

and this right here is one of the main reasons why TPTB want population control. Not enough resources for the existing population

There are plenty of resources if the Banksters and International Corporate Cartels would quit mucking with the food supply!

reply to post by keelan55

If something isn;t done now there will be long term issues concerning food supply in the future and will there will be some food storages...

Something was done.

The Ag cartel, using the World Trade Organization is staging a grab for cropland worldwide. The USA was the last to go with the recently passed Food "Safety" Law. Expect to see independent farmers driven off the land in the EU, Canada Australia and the USA in the coming decade or two.

It is all documented in this three part series:
www.smirkingchimp.com...
www.smirkingchimp.com...
www.smirkingchimp.com...

reply to post by boondock-saint

hate to bring this up again as I know folks are tired of hearing it, but guess who owns massive stock in Monsanto and Pfizer ??? George Soros

Do you have the link???

Last I checked

85% of Monsanto is held by mutual funds and Institutional(financial) Holders

Holder........................Shares....Date Reported: Position
GRANT HUGH............520,604...17-Feb-09: Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer
PARFET WILLIAM U...351,482...30-Jan-09: director (M), CEO MPI Research, Inc.,
CREWS TERRELL K...158,070...16-Jan-09: Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer
FRALEY ROBERT T....111,226...20-Oct-08: Executive Vice President Chief Technology Officer
MORLEY CHERYL P.....88,798...20-Oct-08President, Animal Ag Group, SVP Corp.e Strategy

TOP INSTITUTIONAL HOLDERS

Holder..............................................Shares.....% Out........Value*................Reported
FMR LLC.........................................28,189,865...5.15...$1,983,157,002...31-Dec-08
MARSICO CAPITAL Mgmt, LLC.....27,538,373...5.03...$1,937,324,540...31-Dec-08
Barclays Global Investors UK Ltd....22,279,264...4.07...$1,567,346,222...31-Dec-08
STATE STREET CORPORATION....20,919,310...3.82...$1,471,673,458...31-Dec-08
VANGUARD GROUP, INC. (THE)...17,816,692...3.26....$1,253,404,282...31-Dec-08
AXA...................................................17,330,295...3.17...$1,219,186,253...31-Dec-08
PRIMECAP MANAGEMENT CO.....15,394,518...2.81....$1,083,004,341...31-Dec-08
MORGAN STANLEY.........................11,109,734...2.03.....$781,569,786...31-Dec-08
Capital Research Global Investors....10,678,430...1.95.....$751,227,550...31-Dec-08
JANUS CAPITAL Mgmt, LLC..............9,863,845...1.80.....$693,921,495...31-Dec-08


TOP MUTUAL FUND HOLDERS

Holder...........................................................Shares.....% Out.........Value*........Reported
VANGUARD/PRIMECAP FUND.................6,351,460...1.16...$628,667,510...30-Sep-08
FIDELITY GROWTH COMPANY FUND....5,819,978...1.06...$409,435,452...31-Dec-08
VANGUARD 500 INDEX FUND.................5,250,119......96...$519,656,778...30-Sep-08
FIDELITY MAGELLAN FUND INC...........5,117,600......94...$360,023,160...31-Dec-08
SPDR TRUST SERIES 1.............................5,021,081......92...$496,986,597...30-Sep-08
GROWTH FUND OF AMERICA INC..........4,924,351......90...$346,428,092...31-Dec-08
VANGUARD STOCK MARKET INDEX FD.4,259,093......78...$421,565,025...30-Sep-08
VANGUARD HORIZON FUND...................3,819,486.....70...$378,052,724...30-Sep-08
COLLEGE RETIREMT EQUITIES FUND..3,512,888.....64....$347,705,654...30-Sep-08
PRICE (T.ROWE) GROWTH FUND INC.....3,410,200.....62...$337,541,596...30-Sep-08
finance.yahoo.com...

Divisions of Fidelity hold total shares: 39,127,443 or 7.15% The founding Johnson family controls most of Fidelity Edward C Johnson 3rd is chairman of the group.

The Vanguard Group founder is John Bogle FUNDS WATCH; An Unusual Window Into Vanguard It has 94 different funds!

Vanguard and Investors Against Genocide

reply to post by boondock-saint

if it ain't nailed down or guarded, it will be stolen !!!

Ain't that the truth! I am luck to end up with 1/3 of my lamb crop to sell in the fall. And that is despite locked gates!

reply to post by KOGDOG

Hemp protein & oil would feed a lot more folks than the cows & pigs who eat the corn planted to feed livestock.

I would like to see hemp grown and livestock put back out to grass where it belongs!

Livestock belongs on hilly rocky soil that is not good for crops or on worn out fields to rejuvenate them. I bought a worn out farm - no topsoil 98% pure inorganic CLAY per the soil tests. I now have four to six inches of nice black topsoil thanks to my livestock. I lime and use chicken litter - no commercial fertilizer.

Corn, tobacco, cotton and southern gully washer thunderstorms are very hard on farmland.

reply to post by kwakakev

The price rise is due to inflation as the market place has been flooded with money over the past couple of years. The story about food shortages is more of a distraction so the Federal Reserve are not blamed for there reckless management of the economy...

That is the other half of the story. Nothing is completely simple and straight forward, but if you follow the money it becomes clear.

Doubling the money supply will mean double the prices sooner or later.

In essence the bankers and corporations they loan that fiat money to will be stealing our wealth (labor) as their source of profits. The amount of WEALTH in America did not increase only the fiat currency traded for goods and services did. This causes a readjustment of the ratio of money to real wealth otherwise known as INFLATION.

Mises explains it better than I can.

...
New money does not appear magically in equal percentages in all people's bank accounts or under their mattresses. Money spreads unevenly, and this process has varying effects on individuals, depending on whether they receive early or late access to the new money

It is these losses of the groups that are the last to be reached by the variation in the value of money which ultimately constitute the source of the profits made by the mine owners and the groups most closely connected with them

This indicates a fundamental aspect of Mises's monetary theory that is rarely mentioned: the expansion or contraction of money is a zero-sum game.... Some individuals are made better off by an increase in the money supply; others are made worse off. The existing money is an example of a "fixed pie of social value." Adding to the money supply does not add to its value....

Mises argued that the losses of the late-coming losers are the source of income for the early arrival winners. This inescapably identifies the monetary system as a zero-sum game. In Human Action, he included a section denying what he calls the Montaigne dogma: "the gain of one man is the damage of another; no man profits but at the loss of other"

...his [Mises] entire theory of money rests on this dogma's complete applicability in the matter of increases and decreases in the money supply. The economic benefits obtained by the early users of new money, even gold, are made at the expense of those who gain access to it after it has altered the array of prices.

Again, here is his theory, briefly stated. Money is neither a production good nor a consumption good. Thus, increases or decreases in the supply of money cannot scientifically be said to create or destroy wealth in general. These changes distribute wealth.

Mises on Money: www.lewrockwell.com...

reply to post by AllSeeingI

For some reason we were not allowed to give that food away. We would throw out bags of these unused crusts (breadsticks) daily.... could have supplied a homeless shelter with breadsticks each day.

I brought it up to the manager and he told me that we were not allow to give food away...

You can thank the *#@& FDA.

It used to be pig farmers would collect garbage (waste food) to feed thier pigs. It was taken home and cooked then fed out. As late as 1975 the US army base my Ex was at sold the waste food to pig farmers.

Of course this use of waste food took money out of the pockets of Cargill and Monsanto so the practice was stopped.

I can not even get old veggies to feed my goats from the groc. store any more because of FDA "Food Safety" regs.

reply to post by Ellen15

The article was talking about the IMPACT of soaring prices ON DEVELOPING countries!

You can not leave the USA out of the discussion. The USA produces about 25% of the worlds grain.

In round numbers, U.S. farmers produce about $100 billion worth of crops and about $100 billion worth of livestock each year...

Corn: The United States is, by far, the largest producer of corn in the world... In 2000, the U.S. produced almost ten billion bushels of the world’s total 23 billion bushel crop...

... about eighty percent of all corn grown in the U.S. is consumed by domestic and overseas livestock, poultry, and fish production. About 12% of the U.S. corn crop ends up in foods... It also has a wide array of industrial uses including ethanol, a popular oxygenate in cleaner burning auto fuels.

Soybeans: ...Over 350,000 farms in the United States produce soybeans, accounting for over 50% of the world’s soybean production and $6.66 billion in soybean and product exports in 2000. Soybeans represented 56 percent of world oilseed production in 2000.

Wheat: ... The U.S. produces about 13% of the world’s wheat and supplies about 25% of the world’s wheat export market...

Cotton: ..Cotton is grown from coast-to-coast, but in only 17 southern states. Farms in those states produce over 20% of the world’s cotton....

Rice:... farms are concentrated in six states: Arkansas, California, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, and Texas. U.S. rice production accounts for just over 1% of the world’s total, but this country is the second leading rice exporter with 18% of the world market. www.epa.gov...

reply to post by AllSeeingI

WTF?!?

Is it just me or is there something very wrong with this?

Unfortunately this is very typical. When I was a kid the community took care of it's own. Now thanks to laws, regulations and zoning, if you try to do anything to help others you will get stomped on HARD!

During the worse winter in the 90's a Fitchburg MA church set up an unused warehouse, donated by a member as an emergency shelter. It had bathrooms, beds.... Church members brought food and fed people. The city officials shut them down and kicked the homeless back out on to the streets to freeze to death!

There are no news stories of the incident so I can not link but it was in the local paper.

The wife does the majority of the grocery shopping and, usually, when I do go with her to the store I spend most of my time with my kids flipping through magazines or stocking up on fly tying materials so I tend to not notice gradual consumables price increases. I went with her yesterday, though, and actually helped her do the shopping. I was flabbergasted. Eggs, for example... last I checked we were paying $8.00 for the big 5 dozen case. This was, like, October or early November. The same brand, same box is $12.00 at Fred Meyer. A freaking 50% price increase in a matter of 3 months!?!? Wife said it's been bumping up about a buck a month since Fall. Same goes for milk, which she says is about 30% higher in the actual store, but less dramatically increased when we buy it from CostCO. (We do not buy eggs at CostCo because they do not make the trip to Alaska very well... many broken/cracked eggs.) Produce has gone up, dry goods have held suit, but package sizes have shrank considerably.

I'll tell you this, I'm planning on doubling my canning efforts this summer. I'd like to have my garage shelves packed with canned berries, garden crops, salmon, wild mushrooms, and moose to go along with the frozen meat in the deep freezes because this pattern is unsistainable. I'm frankly amazed the average consumer has already reached their breaking point, but it's gotta happen sooner or later.