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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] Making a killing from the food crisis

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  • From: Liz <liz@allslash.org>
  • To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Making a killing from the food crisis
  • Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2008 21:29:02 -0400

At 03:39 AM 4/28/2008, you wrote:

Much of the news coverage of the world food crisis has focussed on riots in low-income countries, where workers and others cannot cope with skyrocketing costs of staple foods. But there is another side to the story: the big profits that are being made by huge food corporations and investors. Cargill, the world's biggest grain trader, achieved an 86% increase in profits from commodity trading in the first quarter of this year. Bunge, another huge food trader, had a 77% increase in profits during the last quarter of last year. ADM, the second largest grain trader in the world, registered a 67% per cent increase in profits in 2007.

This begins to look an awful lot like Exxon and the other petroleum companies, doesn't it. Prices way up, the corporations raking in huge profits, and the rest of us barely getting by. Without getting into politics, I'd say that was a recipe for political disaster if nothing else.

Nor are retail giants taking the strain: profits at Tesco, the UK supermarket giant, rose by a record 11.8% last year. Other major retailers, such as France's Carrefour and Wal-Mart of the US, say that food sales are the main sector sustaining their profit increases. Investment funds, running away from sliding stock markets and the credit crunch, are having a heyday on the commodity markets, driving prices out of reach for food importers like Bangladesh and the Philippines.

Even if Walmart and the other big retailers are being sustained by increased food prices now, their overall sales will almost certainly begin to drop as people have less and less income to spend on other things. They will pressure their vendors and distributors even more to keep prices down, and I think we can expect to see continued recalls of contaminated goods. There's only so far the manufacturer can cut prices and stay in business, without beginning to cut quality, and that's not even including the people who don't care about the quality to begin with.

Liz in SW VA
http://life-as-a-spectator-sport.com




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