UN: Food Price Rises Threaten Global Security  

I'm finding the global outbreak of food doomerism this year a little bizarre as, the biofuel folly aside, it seems like any perceived scarcity is because we are planting less crops this year and I haven't seen this explained yet. Some of the food price rises can be attributed to rising fuel prices - but that doesn't explain all of it - and the higher prices should be stimulating more planting - it's not like we've run out of arable land yet.

Cryptogon has the latest update, with his own unique take on it. See also Philippines Threatens Rice Hoarders with Life Imprisonment.

This situation is maddening. I’ve been reading our Bill Mollison permaculture books again (Intro and Design) and the path to abundance is right there. I have to conclude that the governments involved want the chaos they’re experiencing, or are about to experience. Rather than yielding some control to localities and supporting smaller, integrated animal/garden/food forest systems, these states are trying to do the old top-down command economy nonsense, and the result is totally predictable: famine.

Remember the one about give-a-man-a-fish vs. teach-a-man-to-fish? What happened to that?

Oh yeah, I remember. If the man is out fishing he’s not working in a mobile phone factory, etc…

What I find most amazing is that we made it as far as we have, as long as we have, without system wide failures. I’d like to think that people will get together and say, “F&@$ this, let’s produce our own food instead of waiting for it to arrive in a plastic bag on a military convoy.” Hint: Don’t wait for that day to come.

What’s going through Bill Mollison’s head right now, in the twilight of his days, as he sees all of this crap unfolding? Is it weird to have seen this coming for 30 years, to have dedicated his life to building and teaching people about other realities, and then, well, watch this unfold? I’ve seen some interviews with him, none of them recent, and he comments on agricultural devastation in a matter-of-fact, detached way; sometimes, with a hint of a smile and benign wonder at the intractable stupidity of people.

Via: The Guardian:

Rising food prices could spark worldwide unrest and threaten political stability, the UN’s top humanitarian official warned yesterday after two days of rioting in Egypt over the doubling of prices of basic foods in a year and protests in other parts of the world.

Sir John Holmes, undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs and the UN’s emergency relief coordinator, told a conference in Dubai that escalating prices would trigger protests and riots in vulnerable nations. He said food scarcity and soaring fuel prices would compound the damaging effects of global warming. Prices have risen 40% on average globally since last summer.

“The security implications [of the food crisis] should also not be underestimated as food riots are already being reported across the globe,” Holmes said. “Current food price trends are likely to increase sharply both the incidence and depth of food insecurity.”