 FROM NEW WORLD ZCIENTIST Earth economist: The food bubble is about to burst 10 February 2011 by Alison George Magazine issue 2798. Subscribe and save We're fast draining the fresh water resources our farms rely on, warns Lester Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute What is a food bubble? That's when food production is inflated through the unsustainable use of water and land. It's the water bubble we need to worry about now. The World Bank says that 15 per cent of Indians (175 million people) are fed by grain produced through overpumping - when water is pumped out of aquifers faster than they can be replenished. In China, the figure could be 130 million. Has this bubble already burst anywhere? Saudi Arabia made itself self-sufficient in wheat by using water from a fossil aquifer, which doesn't refill. It has harvested close to 3 million tonnes a year, but in 2008 the Saudi authorities said the aquifer was largely depleted. Next year could be the last harvest. This is extreme, but about half the world's people live in countries with falling water tables. India and China will lose grain production capacity through aquifer depletion. We don't know when or how abruptly the bubble will burst. With population rising, a fall in grain production would spell big trouble. Yes. Tonight at the dinner table there will be 219,000 people who weren't there last night. But that's not all: we also have maybe 3 billion people moving up the food chain, consuming more grain-intensive livestock products. Then there is the conversion of grain into ethanol for cars, mainly in the US, where last year 119 million tonnes went to distilleries out of a harvest of just over 400 million tonnes. What will happen if we carry on as we are now? Civilisation as we know it can't withstand the stresses of continuing with business as usual. We've got to move, almost on a war footing, to cut carbon emissions, eradicate poverty, stabilise population. We must also restore the economy's natural support systems: forests and aquifers and soils. No civilisation ever survived that kind of destruction; nor will ours. We haven't gone over the edge, but we're much closer than most people think. If the heatwave that hit Moscow in 2010 had been centred on Chicago instead, we would be in deep trouble. The Russians lost 40 per cent of their 100-million-tonne grain crop, but we would have lost 40 per cent of our 400-million-tonne crop - a massive global setback. READ MORE  FROM THE RAW STORY China’s poor treated to fake rice made from plastic: report By David Edwards Tuesday, February 8th, 2011 -- 11:45 am China's history with food safety is a rocky one, but even in the annals of robbery and abuse, this will go down in infamy. Various reports in Singapore media have said that Chinese companies are mass producing fake rice made, in part, out of plastic, according to one online publication Very Vietnam. The "rice" is made by mixing potatoes, sweet potatoes and plastic. The potatoes are first formed into the shape of rice grains. Industrial synthetic resins are then added to the mix. The rice reportedly stays hard even after being cooked. The Korean-language Weekly Hong Kong reported that the fake rice is being sold in the Chinese town of Taiyuan, in Shaanxi province. "A Chinese Restaurant Association official said that eating three bowls of this fake rice would be like eating one plastic bag. Due to the seriousness of the matter, he added that there would be an investigation of factories alleged to be producing the rice," Very Vietnam noted. Unfortunately, it's not the first time fake rice has been sold in China,according to China's Global Times. READ MORE  FROM CNN Tensions rise on surging food prices NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Food prices have been rising worldwide, as the cost of raw materials and agricultural products surge, contributing to political unrest around the globe. In December, international food prices broke an all-time high when they rose 25% for the year, led by rising costs for staples like rice, wheat, and maize, the United Nations reported. The sharp rise in food prices, in particular, has become "a source of political instability," New York University economist Nouriel Roubini, told CNNMoney's Poppy Harlow, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland this week. Roubini, nicknamed "Dr. Doom" for his famously bearish predictions, said spiking energy and food prices pose one of the greatest global threats -- especially to emerging market economies. Why prices are rising: Bad weather in Australia and Russia over the summer severely diminished wheat crops, partially fueling the latest commodities surge. Rising incomes in emerging markets like China and India also play a role, analysts at the Eurasia Group say. The growing middle class in those countries has prompted a shift from a grain-based diet to one consisting of more meat. And a push toward biofuels has also led to rising demand for corn and sugar, pushing up commodity prices. Where it's hitting: The pinch has been felt most in rapidly developing countries like China, India, and Russia, which still have large portions of their population living in poverty. Food inflation in China was recently at 9.6%, while in India it surged a staggering 18%. Countries that depend on imports and don't grow a lot of their own grains, like many Middle Eastern nations, are also feeling the pain from price pressures. The recent turmoil there, with outbreaks of riots and violent clashes with police and military forces, is partially related to surging food prices. "What has happened in Tunisia, is happening right now in Egypt, but also riots in Morocco, Algeria and Pakistan, are related not only to high unemployment rates and to income and wealth inequality, but also to this very sharp rise in food and commodity prices," Roubini said. In Egypt alone, food prices soared 17% -- in part because of the worldwide surge in commodities prices but also because of local supply imbalances. READ MORE  From inquirer global nation Residents gather, eat dead fish floating in barangay Ibo By Jucell Marie Cuyos, Doris C. Bongcac Cebu Daily News First Posted 09:08:00 12/18/2010 Maribel Mori asked her teenage son to fetch water yesterday morning. Michael John came back with a pail of fish locally known as “potpot.” He and other residents had collected the fish, which were floating dead along the coastal waters of barangay Ibo, in Lapu-Lapu City. A few hours after eating the fish, which was cooked with vinegar as inun-onan for breakfast, Maribel was at the barangay health center complaining of nausea, vomiting and headache. She told health workers she started to feel sick after eating the fish. “Murag nang hugot akong panit unya ni init akong nawng (It felt like my skin tightened and my face burned),” said Mori. Health and fishery officials yesterday started looking into the origin and cause of the fishkill in barangay Ibo, where thousands of fish have turned up dead. Pollution is the most common cause of a fishkill. But Dr. Rodulfo Berame, chief of the City health Department, said it could also be a result of the seasonal low tide in December. He warned Ibo residents not to eat the dead fish or sell it pending results of a laboratory examination. Samples of the seawater and fish were gathered by city health personnel yesterday. Results will be known after three to four days. Health workers will check the quality of the seawater for chemical oxygen demand (COD) and its biological oxygen demand (BOD). READ MORE  POPULAR SCIENCE New Genetically Modified Chickens Can't Transmit Bird Flu, Scientists Say Future chicken cutlets may come from birds that have been genetically modified to resist bird flu, after a breakthrough in Britain announced this week. Researchers have produced chickens that cannot spread avian flu to other chickens, a major step toward protecting birds — and humans — from the deadly virus. The transgenic cluckers still died from bird flu, however, so there’s still much more to be done before scientists produce a truly flu-free bird. Generating flu-resistant birds may be more effective than giving vaccinations to an entire flock, said Dr. Laurence Tiley, a veterinarian and lecturer in molecular virology at the University of Cambridge, England, one of the authors of the chicken study. Vaccinated birds may not develop flu, but the virus can still replicate in their bodies and be transmitted to other unvaccinated fowl, he explained in a podcast with the journal Science, which publishes the study tomorrow. Besides, just like with human influenza, there are plenty of strains, and vaccines don’t cover all of them. Science, Rebecca Boyle, animals, Avian flu, bird flu, chickens, Future of Food, Genetic Engineering, Genetically Modified Food, influenza, livestock, transgenic animalsThe new genetic modification is basically the opposite — birds will still get sick and die, but they won’t pass on the virus to other birds, a major advancement for animals that generally live in very close quarters. The lack of transmission also means the virus will be less likely to spread to people. “You reduce the likelihood of transmission onto those people who are in contact with them, and therefore reduce the potential of avian flu strains to jump from birds into humans,” he said. READ MORE  The truth is in the middle, the bill contains an exception for food grown and eaten at private residences, however it requires small farmers to pay a 500$ annual fee, any food sold at a farmers market will require certification. Of course it is thought to only be an initial step towards one form of Monsatan grade slop that will be called "sustenance" or some shit, which will be injected not eaten. This of course gives the corporations the edge, read this: "Requires the HHS Secretary to submit to Congress: (1) a comprehensive report that identifies programs and practices that are intended to promote the safety and supply chain security of food and to prevent outbreaks of foodborne illness and other food-related hazards that can be addressed through preventive activities" Even though these parasites and outbreaks breed in monocultural environments, the more mass produced, sterile, and medicated the more vulnerable. Its ridiculous.  Food and Modernization act to pass in 2 months | Illegal to grow food with sun and rain What is S 510? S510 is the most dangerous bill in the history of the US if not in the world, not even Hitler could come up with something as offensive as that. The new law if passed would grant the US government authority over everything citizens eat or consume. The bill would regulate the transporting of all food and it would give the government the power to arrest anyone selling unauthorized vegetables or fruit or any food for that matter. The law would put all food and agricultural products under the supervision and authority of the Department of Homeland Security. It would treat people making their own gardens as drug smugglers, it would criminalize seed selling, except for Monsanto off course they can do what they want. The Department of Homeland security will own your food and all food you could possibly think of. No more growing your own food. On the 17th the bill was voted for cloture and passed 74 to 25. Now amendments can only be made within the next 60 days and then the law passes. READ MORE  Fad- "5 years of price volatility..." claims gaurdian. Which makes absolutely no sense. Unless you understand this: "When derivative markets are linked to commodity markets, this nearly unlimited capital from the financial sector can cause excessive price volatility."<<< I mean WTF!!!???!!! Only bullshitters understand that jibberish!!! Why would it just be OK after 5 years, unless millions die, and by that time gas has doubled, I mean how? Oh yes I know, its all bullshit! From the Gaurdian Cost of meat, sugar, rice, wheat and maize soars as World Bank predicts five years of price volatility An Indian farming family carry bundles of paddy from a rice field in the northeastern state of Tripura. India has had food price inflation of 17% in the last year. Photograph: AFP/Getty ImagesRising food prices and shortages could cause instability in many countries as the cost of staple foods and vegetables reached their highest levels in two years, with scientists predicting further widespread droughts and floods. Although food stocks are generally good despite much of this year's harvests being wiped out in Pakistan and Russia, sugar and rice remain at a record price. Global wheat and maize prices recently jumped nearly 30% in a few weeks while meat prices are at 20-year highs, according to the key Reuters-Jefferies commodity price indicator. Last week, the US predicted that global wheat harvests would be 30m tonnes lower than last year, a 5.5% fall. Meanwhile, the price of tomatoes in Egypt, garlic in China and bread in Pakistan are at near-record levels. "The situation has deteriorated since September," said Abdolreza Abbassian of the UN food and agriculture organisation. "In the last few weeks there have been signs we are heading the same way as in 2008. "We may not get to the prices of 2008 but this time they could stay high much longer." However, opinions are sharply divided over whether these prices signal aworld food crisis like the one in 2008 that helped cause riots in 25 countries, or simply reflect volatility in global commodity markets as countries claw their way through recession. READ MORE | All ArchivesFebruary 2011  |
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