Posts with the tag food

Venezuela: No Food for Colombia

Liz — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 22:48:16 EDT

Venezuela: “Not a grain of rice, nor corn for Colombia”

Venezuela has called in the law and the army in an effort to stop alleged cases of Colombians crossing the border to buy their neighbor’s low priced rice and corn.

“Not a grain of rice, nor corn for Colombia,” Eduardo Samán, president for the Institute for the Defense of Persons Access to Goods and Services (INDEPABIS) said at a press conference. Oil and milk have also been detected leaving the country, another trade INDEPABIS is working to prevent, reported Union Radio.

Saman said the products, many of which are subsidized by the government, need to go to citizens. “We need to feed the Venezuelans,” he said.

Articles - Breaking Through To Reality

Ray Pairan — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 09:57:12 EDT

Blind Acceptance of Unjust Economic Society
http://structuraleconissues.blogspot.com/2008/07/blind-acceptance-of-unjust-economic.html

We've all been blessed with the ability to rationally discern reality from illusion propped up by an aesthetic orthodoxy of economic fundamentalism. What do we realize when we arrive at a gas station to fill our car up with gas, visit the grocery, receive a bill from a hospital that shows a $200,000 balance that our insurance didn't pay, open the mailbox and find a foreclosure notice on our home, get the news that our office or factory is closing and moving overseas, or we find ourselves unable to send our child to a university because the cost is now beyond our comprehension? Are we then struck with a profound belief that the 'free market' coupled with 'globalization' will continue to provide us with economic security or does reality grasp us by the neck demanding our recognition.

We all know far to well what is transpiring globally - a select group of oligarchs (the business elite) that comprise less than 5% of the population have setup a system (totalitarian economic society) that ensures them ultimate power over the 95% of us that fall under their crushing 'boot'. Within their society we're continually bombarded by the frantic ranting of fanatic experts espousing the omnipotence and infallibility of the 'free market economy'. They've even instructed the most intellectually pliable among us in the fine art of simultaneously reconciling a multitude of contradictions into unquestioned compliance and acceptance of their orthodoxy. Essentially, all it requires is a citizenry that is indoctrinated into thinking in terms of proffered processes and dissuaded from deep thought.

When you can rob someone of all pretenses of personal power over their lives and instill in them a sense of hopelessness in the face of forces seemingly beyond their control you've essentially anesthetized them from taking meaningful actions at understanding the reality of their situation much less directly acting to change their condition. Feelings of "that's just the way it is", "we've done it to ourselves", "there's nothing we can do about it", and "we'll just have to adjust", begin to permeate the collective consciousness.
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The 'Free Market' Guise Is "Big Brother"
http://structuraleconissues.blogspot.com/2008/07/free-market-guise-is-big-brother.html

Funnel everything back onto the adaptive, receptive masses of the global citizenry instilling in them a feeling of inferiority whereby all their actions have and will be perceived to result in a continuing deterioration of their economic situation. It is a perversion of thought pandered through the totalitarian economic society that every injustice or inequality committed by the business elite is ultimately our fault due to our inherent inferiority. We are to blame for not adequately educating ourselves, for over spending, and generally not adjusting to the new world economic order.

In order to effectively perpetuate this ball-faced lie the media is used by the business elite to manipulate not just public opinion but thought itself. There now exists correct and incorrect thought and incorrect thought is portrayed as deviant thought to be identified and ultimately vanquished within our current authoritarian society. Thought is always constrained to only those ideas and concepts acceptable to those who wield power within a strictly regimented hierarchical society. Therefore within the totalitarian economic society complete uniformity of opinions throughout the entire global citizenry is a goal strived for constantly by the elite.

The totalitarian economic society can only effectively extend it tentacles of corruption, subversion, hate, and inequality into every crevice of existing equality through their complete obliteration of the self. Individuality is the enemy of the oppressor for it represents individual thought that disrupts the currents of illusion perpetuated by effective societal propaganda. In fact, the two primary aims of the totalitarian economic society is the complete subjugation of all global citizens under the 'heal' of the business elite and the maintenance of a perpetual vigilance targeted at rooting out and extinguishing all independent thought from whatever level of society it originates.
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Not Inflation but Monopolistic Pricing
http://structuraleconissues.blogspot.com/2008/07/not-inflation-but-monopolistic-pricing.html
Inflation is an increase in prices that is triggered primarily from rising wages among the general population which in turn results in a significant consumption 'pop'. With more and more money flowing into the economic system from the acceleration in consumption spending by a citizenry flush with wealth - prices will trend higher. Companies realize that there are far more consumers that are willing to spend money on their products than products available to purchase - they therefore ramp up production to meet the demand. In the process, these companies will increase their prices for their products realizing full well that consumers that may never have purchased their products before may now want them given their new found wealth.

Prior to reaching an inflationary period the Federal Reserve will analyze trends in inflation indicators such as the M1 money supply and wage levels relative to worker productivity. If the money supply and wages start rising within an economy that has experienced negligible productivity increases this (along with other economic markers) typically indicates that an economy is moving towards an inflationary period. Wage increases within an economy that has experienced negligible productivity gains is indicative of a tight labor market and/or a well organized labor market that is in a position of strength relative to (capital) corporations. In the 1960's & 70's when the United States was at its economic nadir and labor unions represented a larger percentage of workers there were periods of inflation and one brief instance of stagflation.
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Wake up America - The Financial Pillage Continues
http://structuraleconissues.blogspot.com/2008/06/wake-up-america-financial-pillage.html

The U.S. dollar's fall against most of the major currencies is the result of a lack of confidence by speculators and governments in the future viability of our economy. We are a nation of debtors that produce very little of anything - not even our past ingenuity and technological base remains for it was erased by greed induced multinational companies scouring the planet in search of cheap labor. Why would anyone want to possess even one dollar bill since it represents a government in name only, a government that is completely beholden to special interest business elites that only use its shell to do their exclusive bidding. Therefore it is only logical that these same evil cloaked speculators realize that the United States is on the verge of a final pillaged by their fellow wicked business elite rulers. Why possess the paper money of a shell of a nation whose poor citizens are bleeding profusely on the pavement (from globalization) unable to muster any meaningful spending power without acquiring debt that they can no longer find or afford.

Only the special interests of a few well heeled business elites matter to our governmental representatives - you're of no concern to them, just a mere citizen. National interests are no longer relevant because nations are fast becoming just fascades that are used by the business elite to exact their complete control over every aspect of our lives - our wallets will be completely drained into the bottomless cauldrons of a seething greed that covers the entire financial landscape of this corrupt totalitarian economic society.
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The Human Toll of Our Economic Death
http://structuraleconissues.blogspot.com/2008/06/human-toll-of-our-economic-death.html

Sitting out in the car last fall waiting for Diana to step out of the last remaining department store in a dilapidated mall that had been dying slowly for a few short years, it occurred to me that the moment represented the collapse of our nation. This store was closing its doors forever, when the setting sun caressed it in shadows - there would be no returning. Looking over the quiet, dark, and desolate concrete that the encased towering glass opening one couldn't help but wonder what went wrong, for when it happened we were all in the midst of flying head first towards the payment with hair streaming back - there was no halting the terrible fall.

This had mall been just a reflection of the general capital destruction (both material and human) that had been occurring even prior to the 'Great Fall' which happened in just a few sharply defined months. Through a combination of factors both inherent to the distorted economic society and symptomatic of the resulting consumption crisis that grew unabated as real wages steadily dropped lights everywhere started their crescendo of darkening.
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Consumption Crisis Resulting From Distorted Economy
http://structuraleconissues.blogspot.com/2008/06/consumption-crisis-resulting-from.html

Everything that transpires on our planet cycles within one of many natural loops given that the entire biosphere is our self contained spaceship hurtling us on its elliptical track around the Sun. Space engulfs this living organically lush planet reaching around it with a cold vacuum of nothing other than plasma energies that race across the poles ebbing from our pulsing star. All the various natural systems stabilize across a range of dynamic spectrums merging, mingling, and converging across boundaries that are in a constant state of flux. Nothing is at any instant in a state of equilibrium but only continually approaching a natural steady state. The key word is approaching, since the planetary events are like a boiling pot of water vigorously active but never so stimulated to exceed the natural limits placed upon their expanding volume of molecular excitement.

Chaotic systems both natural and artificially induced (like our contorted, manipulated economic society) always involve the excitement of a multitude of variables that operate within a unique closed system. It is still a system even though most of the variables have been distorted in order to bring short-term gain to a few at the expense of those many who continually grope for income with outstretched hands. Any one of the perturbed variables may tilt the entire system towards temporary instability. Granted a multiplicative effect of income generation is possible by generously infusing the system with income but only through meaningful production either creative or actual transformation of material into useable capital is unperturbed economic steady state migration possible.
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Caress Us with Lies from a Corrupt System
http://structuraleconissues.blogspot.com/2008/06/caress-us-with-lies-from-corrupt-system.html

The cackles can be heard coming from behind every wall of this 'windowless dirty room' that where trapped within - with little or no hope of escape. Don't worry every now and then they'll throw us a dark moldy piece of stale bread from that opening in the wall to our far right. Word is that those on the other side who call themselves 'controllers' have nightly banquets within crystal palaces. The controllers belong to a select group of privileged citizens who are the lobbyists, business elite, corrupt elements of the intelligentsia, and least we forget the governmental representatives that have been 'body snatched' by the business elite through their lobbyists.

We've been dropped here because when we were working outside within their society we had the indiscretion to engage in wasteful spending. Not just your average supplementing of our paltry subsistence wages through excessive borrowing (credit card, and 2nd mortgage debt) at their financial 'company stores' but the heinous act of causing a correction within their economic society. We neglected to cut back our daily meals from 3 to 1 in order to save some of our meager income at their banks.
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Oil Block Induced Profit Inflation - Crumbling Economy
http://structuraleconissues.blogspot.com/2008/06/oil-block-induced-profit-inflation.html

Immediately nationalize all the oil companies whose corporate offices reside within the borders of the United States. Seize all assets belonging to the oil companies and their associated oil block (OPEC, oil speculators, and oil companies) thieves' intent upon exacting a short term extraction of available income from every sector of our dying economy. The consuming nation-states should use any and all means at their disposal to ensure that an adequate oil supply is maintained. We cannot afford to idly watch while the entire contrived totalitarian economic society swirls into an income drain gasping with flailing arms for consumption that is mostly chocked off through artificially imposed oil company profit inflation, and speculator income extraction enhanced through OPEC production limits.

Stop the profit inflation spurred on by the oil 'block' intent upon financially razing each and every global citizen leaving behind a barren economic landscape incapable of sustaining consumption spending. With the consumption 'machine' already sputtering from lack of any real wage growth among the working class (even during a period of unprecedented productivity gains) the assault by the oil 'block' on the wallets of this most important group of citizens further erodes their already strained ability to spend. With each and every day the erosion of potential spending from this majority of the citizenry is spilling every additional dollar of potential spending into an encroaching sea of oil profits.
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Many more articles that break through the wall of illusion...
http://structuraleconissues.blogspot.com/

Wheat crops in Africa and Asia threatened by Ug99

Jim Callahan — Wed, 28 May 2008 16:55:58 EDT

The financial press is reporting that a variety of a
black stem rust fungus called Ug99 after its discovery in Uganda in 1999 is spreading into Kenya and threatens wheat crops in Africa and Asia. Europe is not expected to be affected because of climate and because mountains form natuaral barriers to the wind borne spore. Budget cuts to USDA labs in the US and international labs funded by USAID may delay vital research.

The disease isn't expected to pose a serious threat to European wheat areas, some experts say, because it can't tolerate frost. In addition, the Alps and the Pyrenees provide natural barriers against spores transported by the wind.

The potential for crop loss in Africa, the Middle East and south Asia is higher. Based on wind patterns and the rate of spread, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization says countries in the immediate path of Ug99 grow 25% of global production.
* * *
Of particular concern is a relatively new, aggressive strain of black stem rust, called Ug99 for its 1999 discovery in Uganda, which has spread to Kenya, Ethiopia, Yemen and Iran. Most commercial wheat grown world-wide has no resistance to the disease. The threat comes at a time when wheat stockpiles have shrunk because of bad weather and strong demand for wheat-based foods.
* * *
Fears that the disease may have spread to Pakistan haven't been confirmed, experts say, but Pakistan is a concern because of its proximity to India, the world's third-largest wheat producer.
* * *
"This new strain of rust has the big potential to destroy right now the major commercial wheat varieties, especially in the irrigated areas where there's high use of fertilizer, be it organic or inorganic," said Norman Borlaug, professor of international agriculture at Texas A&M University.
* * *
Ug99 poses a more serious threat to commercial crops than even the U.S. black-stem-rust epidemic of 1954 that destroyed 40% of the U.S. wheat crop, experts said.
* * *
There are some signs of hope. Scientists in the U.S. are finding effective resistance to Ug99. But many of these sources are wild relatives of wheat, and there are problems with moving the ability to resist Ug99 into commercially viable seed.

"We're fortunate here in that we've hopefully got quite a few years of lead time," said Marty Carson, research leader with the Cereals Disease Laboratory in St. Paul, Minn., a division of the U.S. Agriculture Department's Agricultural Research Service. "We're not in the situation, for example, of say India and Pakistan," which face more immediate threats.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121185245470521741.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

But, don't worry, even Forbes magazine is reporting that the Bush administration and the US Congress is cutting the budgets of the labs chareged with finding a cure for Ug99...

Dr. Jin works for the U.S. Department of Agriculture at the University of Minnesota, in greenhouses where he examines wheat samples infested with the telltale brown lesions of stem rust and seeks to identify plants whose genes resist the disease. His lab was hit by a $300,000 cut this year, 20 percent of its overall budget. The Bush administration made that reduction in a quest for budget savings. At the same time, money for international research centers that Yue works closely with, including a wheat laboratory in Mexico, saw their U.S. funding cut from $25 million to $7 million.

The threat to wheat, which provides 20 percent of the calories for the world's population, is but one facet of a food crisis that has sneaked up on policymakers. Overall U.S. spending for agricultural development around the world has dropped from more than $1 billion a year in the 1980s to less than one-third of that since 2000. "This amounts to neglect," says Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, the top Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee.

The international labs, part of a consortium called the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, have for years been financed in part by the Agency for International Development. However when it came time to dole out money this year, AID found it had little to give because Congress had specified that nearly all overseas development aid go to other priorities - education, water projects, help for business start-ups, combating AIDS and malaria and promoting democracy.* * * The cuts in agricultural research budgets couldn't come at a worse time, says Dr. Norman Borlaug, the 94-year-old Nobel laureate best known as the father of the "Green Revolution" that brought adequate food supplies to developing countries around the world in the mid-20th century. Lulled by that success, "the public and policymakers became complacent" about maintaining research, Borlaug said in an interview. * * * The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in April gave $27 million to help fund rust research in Mexico, Kenya and Ethiopia.

A Government Accountability Office report due out this week concludes that the United States and other developed countries have failed to give proper attention to helping their poorer neighbors grow sufficient food to feed their people.

Jim Callahan
Orlando, FL

People are hurting

Jim Callahan — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 08:14:25 EDT

Behind the tenth of a percent analysis of GDP and unemployment rates; the anecdotal evidence is piling up that people are hurting.

Even the every booster-ish Orlando Sentinel had two disturbing pieces today.

In an article titled, "Hunting for jobs in Orlando area is getting tougher" the Orlando Sentinel reported:

Only eight of Florida's 22 metropolitan areas gained jobs in February compared with the same month last year. The Orlando region was among them, but the 4,100 jobs it added was a fraction of the 36,500 jobs it had picked up during the same month from 2006 to 2007.

The construction industry, the most battered sector of the economy, continued to shrink in February, shedding 77,400 jobs in Florida -- a 12.1 percent year-over-year decrease -- including 8,200 jobs in Metro Orlando.

Little effect on tourism

The nation's economic downturn, which started in residential real estate and spread to the financial sector, has had little effect so far on tourism, Central Florida's key industry. Metro Orlando has added 4,100 leisure-and-hospitality jobs during the past year, a 2.1 percent gain.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/community/news/ucf/orl-employ2908mar29,0,4882120.story

In an opinion column titled, "Groups fighting hunger have their plates full" Daryl Owens writes:

"The folks needing food today are invisible," Krepcho says. "People aren't going to talk about it. . . . Outside disaster times, I have not seen anything like it."

Two years ago, Second Harvest served about 53,900 people in a given week. Tack on 15 percent to 20 percent above that today. And it's not just food pantries quieting more rumbling tummies.

The Women, Infants, and Children program, which feeds mothers and their kids, has enrolled 43,000 participants since February 2007. The food dollar doesn't buy as much with milk flirting with the $4-a-gallon mark and the price of other staples on the rise, so more people supplement with food pantries.

Meanwhile, a perfect storm brews:

While the rising cost of living drives demand for supplemental food, the supply is shrinking. Cutbacks in USDA commodities, which make up about 25 percent of Second Harvest's stores, haven't helped. Neither has the fact that retailers who once donated distressed items now often sell to dollar stores or prison systems to beef up the bottom line.

"We turn people away all the time," says Robert F. Stuart, who heads the Christian Service Center for Central Florida Inc., which feeds the hungry through its Daily Bread program. Once clients came in every 90 days for a care package that lasts several days. Now, he says, "we're seeing them coming every two weeks."

Meanwhile, food providers, too, are feeling pinched. Tiny outfits are negotiating gas-saving partnerships. And with diesel at about $4 a gallon, Krepcho may need to park one of the eight trucks that pick up food.

"My budget on fuel is totally blown. But I can't cut back on the diesel fuel because if the trucks don't roll, the food doesn't arrive here and it doesn't get out to the people."

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/columnists/orl-owens2908mar29,0,7964532.column

Watchamacallit? Depression? Recession? Call it hard times.

Jim Callahan
Orlando, FL

Gas, Food Spur Inflation Jump in 2007 Yahoo News Banner.

Michael Tiffany — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 05:57:58 EST

Modern Day Hippies...

Citizen Rye — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 12:38:38 EST

We need to be modern day hippies
Put our two fingers in the air for peace
Sure we may hug some trees
But our cares and concerns go deeply

We need to take a stand for our fellow man
Say what really needs to be said
If we follow our current political trends
We will all end up dead.

That said...

We need to wake up and realize that the power is in the people!

We the citizens make up the United States of America. Asking that our basic needs, Food, Shelter, Education and Health Care be met is a right not an option. These things can be taken care of collectively and is the only way to be a productive, healthy nation.

The path our current government is leading us down is a path of ultimate distruction. The foundation of this country is crumbling day by day and we are letting it happen by being quite spectators.

Democracy will only flurish if the citizens are educated and healthy. A false sense of fear has been driven into our minds, making us submissive and weak. We need to create change, change that will enhance the lives of our citizens.

I am not speaking of a total socialized society, just socialized human rights and basic needs. Democratic and Socialized systems can work in harmony for the betterment of citizens.

The United States has become crusty and non progressive in the realm of basic human needs, especially in our own country. Why police the world and try to convince other nations to follow our ways, when we can't even provide the basics to our own citizens?

We as a nation have been intentionally distracted and lied to in regards to major political actions taken by our government. The checks and balances that are needed have been pushed under the rug and those in power are running wild.

We need to stand up for our people, our children, our way of life. We are the political system, let our voices be heard!

Please express your ideas and thoughts openly! This is the only way we can collectively make change.

Receipts for Democracy

Brandon — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 12:40:52 EDT

I will be the first to admit, perhaps I take it a little too far. But, that is what happens when you are young, enthusiastic and willing to work hard for what you stand for.

When I am dining in a sit-down restaurant, any venue where I will need to sign a receipt at the end of my meal, I always leave a nice little note about the service to my server:

"You had such a wonderful attitude."

"Thank you for working as hard as you did to make this experience great."

"So charming! Never never never quit."

And, to top it off, I remind hard-working service industry professionals just who had their back:

"Don't forget to vote Democratic on [Election date here]"

or, "Vote Howard Dean!" (That was from my days as a volunteer in Orlando, Fl.)

or, "The Democrats have the REAL family values!" (my most recent message, as of yesterday.)

Believe it or not, I've had more than a few of them tell me the message really brightened their day; the good news is a small little note could very well turn around for hundreds of thousands of servers around the world.

And if they are happy, we'll get better service.

And, if they give better service, they'll get better tips.

And, maybe, just maybe (it is all a numbers game, really), they will remember to return the favor to help others, buy Democracy Bonds and even vote for the Democrats who supported them in the first place.

Like I said, kind of quirky.

On Teaching Debt Collection To Kids, Or, Here's The Outrage Of The Week

Democrat in Chicago, IL — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 11:03:12 EDT

There have been efforts in the past to teach “<a href="Link skills</a>” to students in the public schools, and of course among those skills is the lesson of financial responsibility.

I can imagine that these classes, especially for a student forced to take them first thing in the morning, can be like a daily session of discussing Hawley/Smoot in Ben Stein’s high school <a href="Link class</a>. So, so dull that they make you nod your head in....zzzzzzz...

For some school districts, however, a more direct method of financial education has been employed-a method that will be our outrage of the week.