It's not a food production crisis, it's a food distribution crisis. It's the same old, same old. This generation of corporations and financiers are morally and creatively bankrupt. The only thing they can come up with to feed their own insatiable appetites is to threaten the subsitance of others.

Too many people to feed. Too many stupid, uncaring, greedy people to enrich. All populations bloom and crash. That includes people.

Back in the 50's the USDA did a hell of a job dealing with this issue. What happened?

Corporate greed pure and simple combined with a bad case of humans. Also we do have a few folks around who "think' that inspection and regulation are bad for us.

"It's the same old, same old." Very accurate and true words indeed. Surely by now an ever increasing number of people will see through this creatively designed imitation reality and rather than focusing on the unobtainable carrot dangling in front of us, simply turn around and focus on the who, why and how the hidden power entity sitting right behind us is pulling the strings. Please don't waste time blaming or fighting anything or anyone. Seek the truthfull knowledge of what "it" really is and pass "it" along. This is merely "food" for thought which may very well keep the rest of us from facing a similar destiny as our disadvantaged have since the beginning of our social origins. "It" still remains in hidden control, therefore "civilization" only exists within the true defined meaning of the word only.

Give a man a hedge fund
and you teach him to gamble.
Teach a man to gamble,
and the WHOLE world starves!

The 21st century version of " Give a man a fish.."

When will we establish some form of institution with some form of control protecting the world's neediest from the duplicity, greed and short-sightedness of hedge fund managers, corporate czars? This isn't "communism - faux FOX News, Glenn Beck, etc... Rather it's prudential oversight.

The food crisis is a silent tsunami which probably can only be understood by watching it fall apart; as in the US financial system, although that is momentarily holding together. The rest of the doomsday scenarios have also proved false, so far. But the 2010 food crisis seems different because of climate change. Abnormal weather is ruining crops across the planet which could bring down the global financial system.

The entire world is in crises. Period. Thanks mostly to corporatism and capitalism and the never ending mantra of growth.

Food prices should not be allowed to increase through speculation.

Caroline Lucas and the British Greens are right about this as is the UN official investigating this. Food shouldn't in the least be so absolutely and completely subject to the kind of speculation by speculators which wreaked so much havoc on so many doing so much to make maximum profit at the expense of all others. This needs to cease. That's the reason that we can now say those who voted Green in the last British general election voted just as they should and didn't fall for that hot air about not letting the "Tories" in. Hell the new Tories, fake Labor was already in. What the hell is the difference? Just as in the USA what's the difference between the Republicans and the new Republicans, the fake Democrats? Here the mantra is keep the GOP out. Please! What's the big damn difference with some noteworthy exceptions on both sides of the Atlantic. Yes, some Labor backbenchers in the British House of Commons and some local council counterparts are worth saving, but that is the exception and not the rule. Oh, and the new party leader for Labor looks as though he won't be worth a damn either. Damn Labor sure knows how to throw away its opportunities, so much like Democrats on this side of the Atlantic.

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As big AG forces people world wide off the land and into squatter camps the skills necessary to produce local food crops disappear, as do the languages and cultural traditions that grew alongside them.

Zero Population Growth - - please.
Trylon

But the invisible hand of the market is the most efficient mechanism for the distribution of goods and services.
If folks can't afford to buy food, they are either stupid, lazy or both.

Now, pass the Soylent Green please - mmm mmm good.

A lot of you make the wrong conclusions from this article, but first, one thing the article did not address. Without spikes in food prices, there is little incentive for farmers the world over to increase production and if production is not increased and supplies worldwide fall to dangerously low levels, then watch the pandemonium invoked when food prices spike 10 fold or more. If the time comes when everyone is hoarding food for themselves and farmers are eating their seed for next year's planting, then we could see a situation not unlike the devastation of a nuclear war. In agriculture, the "invisible hand" is a highly useful tool. Changes to commodity futures legislation has enabled vast sums of money to move these markets very quickly. It is also true that there are times when the money moves the other way, and people have an opportunity to lock in food prices at a very attractive level. A few decades ago, America had a different type of agricultural policy. Back then we had a farmer-owned grain reserve where the government paid the farmer to store some extra grain. If prices went up, the government stopped paying the farmer to store and grain would naturally find its way into the market. This program had some benefits with its reserve capacity. One aspect was rather bad, however. We used to ship some of this grain to starving nations. Unfortunately this was the wrong thing to do. When this free grain arrived in what was often a drought-ravaged country, local farmers who had severely reduced yields, suddenly had their meager harvests reduced from high value to low value. These devastated farmers then had no money to put in a crop the next year. We now know that supplying money to buy food locally is the best first step.

I got my seeds, including 100lbs of organic wheat berries, 50 lbs of barley, and 50 lbs. of rice, all ready to go. Let the show begin!

In the 1970s and 1980s, farmers were paid to grow surpluses.

This surplus food was stored in salt caves, molded into ugly orange cheese squares (fed to kids and seniors) and sent to developing countries under PL 480 (Food for Peace).

In the beginning, food aid was provided to MCH clinics and to school kids - much like WIC and school lunch programs.

Over time, food aid became monetized; first as food for work and later as food that could be sold in local markets as long as proceeds were used for "development"

Most development occurred in high official offices where proceed from monetization bought mercedes (the wa benzi)and weapons to keep the people from demanding their share.

Government officials sold tons of free and subsidized food

In many developing countries the local farmer cannot sell their produce in any markets. "Food aid" is cheaper.

Farmers have no choice but to sell their farms to Chinese entrepreneurs and western multinationals (esp Monsanto). 90% in many countries are now unemployed.

The Wabenzi develop a taste for western foods. Coca Cola replaces local drinks. Heinekin replaces local beer.

It is now impossible to purchase good food, since farmers have fled their farms. Western foods lead to obesity, heart disease and diabetes. The underdeveloped medical system can not provide adequate coverage - except to the Wabenzi.

Rather than measles vacinations for the kids, we now have angioplasty for the wabenzi.

The local economy is now owned by the Chinese and in some cases by Europeans and Amerikans.

The local entrepreneur has no title to land, cannot monetize their land to get credit to compete, and even if they could get credit, bribery and corruption would render them less competetive.

Haiti is a good example of the shit hitting the fan. When disaster struck, 65% of Hatians were small farmers. Since it was the end of the "hungry" season, little food remained in the market. Disaster struck and there were no reserves.

The call went out from city relatives to country relatives
Seed corn was sent to feed starving relatives in the city - who in good times sent money out from the city to the farms.

Haiti was left with no seed just before planting season. The geniuses in Washington, Geneva and Paris flooded Haiti with food aid. Little to no thought was given to providing seed to keep 65% of the country working - working to feed the other 35% who were in dire straits.

A large part of the urban population "sells" farm produce and operates local restaurants (food stalls). They cannot compete with food aid and go out of business -

Other sectors, used clothing and local clothing merchants cannot compete with free clothing from the donor world.

This all could have been prevented - or was it political?

..........

All the pie in the sky green ideas are conceptually great.

Unfortunately the world system is beyond the control of progressive ideas. As with global warming, little will be done until too late.

With a shift of climate bands, we will see hundreds of millions die in China, Northern India, Pakistan, Central America and even around the Mediteranean. Even more will perish in Africa.

Talk is great - excellent ideas - it is too late.

With a minimum of effort and a bit of planning it is easy for anyone with access to a small plot of earth and water to grow plenty of food for a family. However, laziness and lack of foresight should take care of the population bomb

How about UG98. a wheat rust originatin in Uganda in 1998 which destroys wheat crops and is spreading.

Nematodes are the most destructive agricultural soil pest and is spreading because there is no defense other that fallowing the land.

All species except humans are strengthened by the law of natural selection. Modern medicine insures than even those with flawed genes live to propagate thus weakening the human gene pool and eventually leading to the extinction of man.