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  • From: "Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lflj@intrex.net>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [permaculture] Food First Commentary on Food Crisis Roots
  • Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2008 15:34:05 -0400


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [SANET-MG] Food First Commentary on Food Crisis Roots
Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2008 07:55:28 -0700
From: Chrys Ostrander <chrys@THEFUTUREISORGANIC.NET>
To: SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU

See this article by Gretchen Gordon who is a
fellow at Food First/Institute for Food and Development Policy

http://www.foodfirst.org/en/node/2099

Excerpts:

"Thanks to non-existent anti-trust enforcement
and rampant vertical integration, we’ve reached a
level of concentration in our global agriculture
system that would make Standard Oil blush. Three
companies­Cargill, Archer Daniels Midland, and
Bunge­control the vast majority of global grain
trading, while Monsanto controls more than
one-fifth of the global market in seeds.
Consumers from Sioux City to Soweto are more and
more dependent on fewer and fewer producers. By
eliminating the breadth and diversity of the
system, we’ve eliminated its ability to withstand shock ormanipulation..."

"The Cargills and ADMs of the world are
traders­similar to financial traders­but in
livestock and commodity futures. In an
un-regulated global market they've gained enough
market share that through buying and selling,
they can play off both supply and demand. And
their actions can set the direction of global
prices. They can send shockwaves through the entire system..."

"So that brings us to the second key difference
between the housing crisis and the food crisis:
the scale of consequences. When a housing bubble
inflates till it pops, people lose their homes.
But when a food bubble grows till it bursts,
people starve... If the rural farm economy tanks,
we’re set to see farm foreclosures, another
banking crisis, and global hunger that will make
the sub-prime mortgage effects look like a drop in the bucket..."

"It’s long past time we re-claim a rational
economic and agriculture policy in this country
and globally, before it’s too late. The
unregulated free market has proven itself the
gambling addict that it is­- incapable of self
control. We saw it in the sub-prime mortgage
crisis and we’re seeing it in the current food
crisis. The venture capitalists and the ADMs and
Cargills have bet both the house and the farm.
Now global leaders have a choice: they can either
regulate, or leave the fate of our economic and
food systems to the next roll of the dice..."

http://www.foodfirst.org/en/node/2099

This message originated from or was forwarded by:
Chrys Ostrander
Chrysalis Farm @ Tolstoy
Organic Micro-permaculture
33495 Mill Canyon Rd.
Davenport, WA 99122
509-725-0610
chrys@thefutureisorganic.net
http://www.thefutureisorganic.net

"From each according to their ability to each according to their need"
Karl Marx - "Critique of the Gotha Program" 1875

"The purpose of agriculture is not the production
of food, but the perfection of human beings"
Masanobu Fukuoka - "One Straw Revolution" 1978

"We will never have an organic future and a
stable climate until we pull all the troops out of Iraq
and redirect our annual $650 billion military
budget to greening the economy and guaranteeing
a sustainable environment and economic justice for everyone."
Ronnie Cummins, National Director, Organic Consumers Association
at the "Farms Not Arms" public forum and protest in Manhattan, September,2007





  • [permaculture] Food First Commentary on Food Crisis Roots, Lawrence F. London, Jr., 06/18/2008

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