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Tuesday, July 17, 2007 |
NZHerald: "The era of cheap food is over. The price of maize has doubled in a year, and wheat futures are at their highest in a decade. The food price index in India has risen 11 per cent in one year, and in Mexico in January there were riots after the price of corn flour - used in making the staple food of the poor, tortillas - went up fourfold.
Even in the developed countries food prices are going up, and they are not going to come down again. Cheap food lasted for only 50 years.
The global poor don't care about the price of meat because they can't afford it even now. But if the price of grain goes up, some of them will starve. And maybe they won't have to wait until 2016, because the mania for bio-fuels is shifting huge amounts of land out of food production.
A sixth of all the grain grown in the United States this year will be 'industrial corn' destined to be converted into ethanol and burned in cars, and Europe, Brazil and China are all heading in the same direction.
The attraction of biofuels for politicians is obvious: they can claim that they are doing something useful to combat emissions and global warming - although the claims are deeply suspect - without demanding any sacrifices from business or the voters."
And then there is also the devastation that will be caused by GM food. Food production completely in the hands of huge corporations which will be able to dictate their own prices and destroy all other varieties or strains by 'unnatural selection'. This will be aggravated by governments that only cater to the needs of the greedy companies, not the citizen.
11:09:10 AM 
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IHT: "Nearly 12 percent of U.S. Army recruits who entered basic training this year needed a special waiver for those with criminal records, a dramatic increase over last year and more than twice the percentage four years ago, according to new Army statistics obtained by the Globe."
10:58:51 AM
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EUObserver: "The European Commission is set to approve the cultivation of a genetically modified variety of potato, following a stalemate among EU member states. Brussels argues the product is safe despite some NGOs claiming the opposite.
EU farm ministers failed on Monday (16 July) to agree on the large-scale cultivation of GM potato Amflora, developed by German chemicals giant BASF.
Germany, UK and Sweden reportedly supported the authorisation while Austria, Ireland and Italy led the camp of its opponents. Several countries, including France, abstained."
10:53:03 AM
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RadioDismuke: "July 15 has passed and, thanks to the emails, letters and phone calls listeners placed to Congress, Internet radio is still streaming - at least for now. Under pressure from Congress, SoundExchange agreed at the last minute to not immediately enforce the devastating rate increases that were scheduled to take effect today and to enter into negotiations with webcasters.
To those of you who have contacted your representatives in Congress, you have my profound gratitude. Please know that your your doing so DID have an impact. I can guarantee you that the ONLY reason that thousands of stations did not go silent yesterday was because of the pressure Congress felt after hearing from hundreds of thousands of concerned constituents over the past several months.
Unfortunately, at this point, there is still much that needs to be resolved and the future of Internet radio still faces many potential dangers in the days and weeks ahead. The good news is we are still alive to fight and, now that Congress has stepped into the picture, SoundExchange is under pressure to negotiate honestly and in good faith - something that it has not done to date."
10:45:33 AM
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© Copyright 2008.
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