Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>]

Naturally I can't endorse everything these articles say or imply, but I
don't see where this article goes there. I would add that any crop that
goes into animal feed will pass on rising costs to the animal product, and
ultimately the consumer. Oilseed goes into many human food products. It's
not much, but it is when you add up all the ingredients going up with it.

The whole point of that article and the report it's based on is obvious.

paul tradingpost@lobo.net

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 12/6/2007 at 4:52 PM E. E. Mitchamore Jr wrote:

>After seeing so many reports like this, I'm starting to notice a pattern.
> Either:
>
>1) These reporters can't visualize or believe a significant move toward
>(local) production of healthier food
>or
>2) They're emphasizing the danger to scare people into doing just that.
>
>I can't see a legitimate reason for maize and oilseed prices to
>significantly affect food prices.  They aren't food.  Wheat, sure, corn
>also, but that isn't what is usually mentioned.  It seems that they assume
>that people are incapable of reacting to the threats in a positive way.
>
>E. E. "Mitch" Mitchamore
>www.hillcountrynatives.biz
>  ----- Original Message -----
>  From: TradingPostPaul
>  To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
>  Sent: Thursday, December 06, 2007 4:23 PM
>  Subject: [Livingontheland] Food Prices Climbing, With No End in Sight
>
>
>
>  Published on Thursday, December 6, 2007 by Inter Press Service
>  Food Prices Climbing, With No End in Sight
>  http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40359
>
>  WASHINGTON - Globalisation, climate change, and the mass production of
>  biofuels are pushing up food prices worldwide, which could jeopardise
the
>  livelihoods of the world's poorest, according to a report released
>  Tuesday by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).1206
>09
>
>  "Food prices have been steadily decreasing since the Green Revolution,
>  but the days of falling food prices may be over," said Joachim von
Braun,
>  lead author of the report and director general of IFPRI.
>
>  Titled, "The World Food Situation: New Driving Forces and Required
>  Actions", the 16-page report examined how various global trends are
>  impacting world hunger on both the supply and demand ends of the market.
>
>  "Surging demand for feed, food, and fuel have recently led to drastic
>  price increases, which are not likely to fall in the foreseeable
future,"
>  von Braun said. But "climate change will also have a negative impact on
>  food production."
>
>  Similar findings have been reported by the Organisation for Economic
>  Cooperation and Development, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the
>  U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation, according to IFPRI.
>
>  Researchers predict that shifting weather conditions resulting from
>climate
>  change will disrupt rainfall patterns that farmers rely on to nourish
>their
>  crops and water the grasslands that feed their livestock. As a result,
>  cereal production in South Asia could drop 22 percent by 2080, while
>wheat
>  production in Africa may virtually disappear by that time, the report
>said.
>
>  Furthermore, temperature increases of more than three degrees Celsius
>could
>  in turn lift food prices by as much as 40 percent.
>
>  The production of crop-based biofuels - renewable energy sources
>  developed in response to climate change - may also dramatically impact
>  food supply, and thereby further escalate food prices.
>
>  If the countries that have already committed to biofuel production, as
>well
>  as other high-potential producer countries, carry out their current
>  investment plans, global maize prices would increase by 26 percent and
>  oilseed prices would rise by 18 percent by 2020, according to the
report.
>  This is due to state subsidies for biofuels, as well the shift in
>  committing scarce resources toward cultivating biofuel crops.
>
>  "As biofuels become increasingly profitable, more land, water, and
>  capital will be diverted to their production, and the world will face
>more
>  trade-offs between food and fuel," the report said.
>
>  In the U.S. alone, the use of maize for ethanol production increased by
>two
>  and a half times between 2000 and 2006.
>
>  On the demand side of worldwide food production, globalisation, economic
>  growth, and urbanisation in places such as China and India have impacted
>  people's dietary preferences and food choices, the report noted. While
>  demand is on the increase for processed food and high-value agricultural
>  crops such as vegetables, fruit, meat and dairy, demand for grains and
>  other staple crops is declining.
>
>  This shift in "tastes" represents a microcosm of the food costs issue,
>  said IPFRI research analyst Timothy Sulser, who also contributed to the
>  report. As wealthier populations shift to a diet full of meat, fruits,
>and
>  vegetables, poorer populations will struggle to afford ever pricier food
>  staples.
>
>  "There will be an even wider gap between affluent people and poorer
>  people in terms of access to a nutritional diet" if trends continue,
>  Sulser said.
>
>  With many factors threatening the world's food supply and demand,
>  immediate action is needed in the areas of international development and
>  global trade policy in order to avert what could be a dramatic hunger
>  crisis, according to authors of the report.
>
>  Eliminating trade barriers and programs that set aside agriculture
>  resources is one way that developed countries could help equip
developing
>  countries for the rising food prices.
>
>  Other suggestions include strengthening policies to promote early
>childhood
>  nutrition - thereby diminishing the risks related to limited food access
>  - and incorporating food and agriculture considerations into the agenda
>  for domestic and international climate change policy.
>
>  Yet these solutions may only mitigate the effects of a global trend
whose
>  causal forces, such as globalisation and climate change, have already
>been
>  set in motion, say researchers.
>
>  "The policy suggestions are intended to help minimise some of the impact
>  of these changes," said Sulser. "It's important now to look at how we
>  can help people adapt to the changing the situation."
>
>  © 2007 Inter Press Service
>