Food price rises again

 

This article demonstrates how important is not to waste food . Natural disaster that are affecting the production of rice, wheat and other crops so essential to feed the world are happening more and more often.

The agricultural system based on  monoculture could collapses and leave half of the population in the world( or more ) with no food. this will put people on the brink of war around the planet. millions of people will start to move to find food and survive. This is not an apochalict vision but a potential reality. If a company like Monsanto is allowed to patent corn seeds ( controlling 90% of it) then the risk of a dictatorial system in agriculture will mean that freedom of cultivation will became a crime. If we look at the graphic about the wheat production and consumption, we should add a column to it. After the stock pile column we should add one about the waste. if 50 % of the food produced is wasted from the production line to the end line ( our personal fridge) then we can see that we could feed about half of the population in the entire world.

If the Consumption of wheat  in 2010 is going to be 665 million tons, and by the time the product is manufactured and transformed into food, and half of the food is wasted, then surely if we do not waste all this food we can feed half of the population that is starving.

I recommends to watch this documentary for a better insight of the problem about food production.

Extract from the BBC

"Food prices are at their highest level on record, according to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

It tracks the wholesale cost of major foods such as sugar, meat and cereals, and says that prices last month were higher than their peak in 2008, when a food crisis prompted riots and demonstrations around the world.
The FAO was keen to say that we are not in the midst of another emergency, but as recent demonstrations in Tunisia and Algeria have been linked to higher food prices, alarm bells are ringing once again.
What's more, oil prices are also edging up, reaching their highest level in two years.

Following the 2008 peaks, good harvests for most basic foods helped prices to fall back.
But in 2010, severe weather in some of the world's biggest food exporting countries damaged supplies.
That helped to push food prices almost 20% higher than a year earlier, according to the FAO. (The 2010 figure was slightly below the annual measure for 2008 as a whole.)
Flooding hit the planting season in Canada, and destroyed crops of wheat and sugar cane in Australia.
In addition, drought and fires devastated harvests of wheat and other grains in Russia and the surrounding region during the summer, prompting Russia to ban exports.
As a result, wheat production is expected to be lower this year than in the last two years, according to US government estimates.

Wheat Production and Consumption
Year	Global Production	Global Consumption	Stockpiles (end of period)
millions of tonnes Source: US Department of Agriculture
2006-07	596	616	131
2007-08	611	617	125
2008-09	683	643	166
2009-10	680	652	187
2010-11	646	665	175

It will still be the third largest on record.
But crucially, it is expected lag behind the growing demand for food, which is another key factor pushing up prices.
Have the prices of all foods gone up?
The picture is mixed.
Rice, which is a staple in many Asian countries, hasn't risen by as much as other commodities because a record harvest is expected this year.
In addition, some countries which don't rely on supplies from disaster-hit exporters haven't experienced the same price squeeze.
Prices of maize in East Africa, for example, where it is the most important food crop, have fallen by up to 50% following bumper harvests.

There have also been more localised weather problems. They have received less coverage - but are no less important to farmers and consumers in those areas.

In Central America, lack of rain has damaged bean crops and caused the biggest individual price rises, according to a recent FAO report.
The price of red beans, part of the staple diet in the region, has almost trebled in the past year in El Salvador and Honduras.
What about speculators?
The FAO says speculators who trade commodities on the financial markets are not to blame for the huge rise in prices, but they have made matters worse.
Take sugar for example. Production has failed to keep up with the growing demand coming from developing countries, pushing prices sharply higher.

But the Economist Intelligence Unit also points to the role of speculators, who spotted the situation as an investment opportunity and "helped exaggerate" the price rallies.
The World Development Movement (WDM) is keen to curb this betting on prices.
It wants greater regulation of the buying and selling of futures contracts - which are an agreement to sell a commodity at a certain price at a set time.
These were created to reduce uncertainty as the producer has a guaranteed price and the buyer secures the goods they need. It is effectively a way for both sides to reduce the risk of doing business.
But the WDM and others think that trading these contracts like stocks and shares is pushing food prices even higher to the detriment of the poorest people".

back to my protest now.

I have been eating soup all week at lunch time and tonight I will finish the broth made from the goose carcass.
The brown trout kept in the jar from last year was edible but with a very strong flavour. The roast lamb was better. I suppose that the two products were tiny bit disappointing, but I am not wasting them. I will finish them this week. I am not eating stuff that is not edible or dangerous, simply some preserved food did not turn out to be as tasty as I expected. This is part of a process of learning and mistakes are always likely to happen. Generally I am more than satisfy of my preserved food. Last night we had goose breast made into steaks ( really good) and boiled beetroots leaves plus some  beans from freezer. The beetroot leaves are a good success and I will keep them again. I have recently made two more loafs of bread and one was made with rescued double cream and cheese.This one is particularly good. Crunchy outside and soft inside.
When bread is good I will be happy eating it on its one or with some sliced of the ham or cheese. Toasting it will be good to make bruschetta with oil,garlic and fresh tomato on top. Typical simple italian dish. Talking about tomatoes, we have not bought tomatoe for long time as we decided that to eat tasteless food is a waste of money. When we go back to Sardinia and we eat our cultivated ones then is difficult to try a variety that of the tomato has only the name and the colour. Fruits are in the same spectrum. In the past we tried to buy different varieties of fruits for fruit salads to find out that 2 thirds of them have no taste at all. So the fruit we buy in the family is limited to apples, tangarines, occasional peneaple or oranges.
Some of our apples are starting to go bad so I am going to proces them into jam as I did with our pears.
I have only four jam jars left so it wil be usefull to make some more. The best jam produced so far is the raspberries one. Hopefully next time the damson tree will be more generous than last year. The last jam we bought in the shop was probably three years ago or more.