Grain prices soar globally. World food crisis. Axis of Logic asks, “Why?”

 By Daniel Ten Kate; commentary by Les Blough, Editor
Mar 29, 2008, 20:51

Editor’s Comment: It’s interesting to note how “analysts” quoted in this Christian Science Monitor article, attempt to blunt the crisis by telling us that food shortages aren’t as bad as they seem – not as bad as they have been in the past. Moreover, they provide a 3-fold explanation for the current food crisis:
“These factors, combined with a falling US dollar, steadily rising demand from developing countries, and biofuel policies that mop up excess cereal production, have all helped boost world prices.”
Biofuel policies that “mop up excess cereal production”? If only “excess” grains are used to make fuel for cars, how are they contributing to a food shortage? CSM also blames “Surging oil prices (in turn, boosting fertilizer and transport costs) combined with a drop in production due to droughts in Australia and the Ukraine have helped to drain global food stocks.”
This corporate media rendition bears part of the truth, but without context. We must ask, “Why is the dollar falling? … Why are oil prices surging? They also throw in honorable mention for blame to “droughts in Australia and the Ukraine”, but we won’t go there and begin talking about global warming.
Who are “those who want to make an easy buck” in CSM’s vague suggestion that local officials in various countries are culpable for the shortages as they profit when their fellow countrymen go hungry. Nowhere in this corporate media article is the blame laid at the feet of the capitalist speculators on the price of grain and the price of oil who bear utmost responsibility for food prices and shortages around the world. The time has long passed for a hard look at the system: Capitalism.
“Capitalism is an inherently distorted system that will always foster hunger, poverty and deprivation. The general structure of capitalism perpetually reproduces misery, and this is particularly the case with the current neo-liberal phase of capitalism.”
- José Vicente Rangel, former
Venezuelan Vice-President
“[Under capitalism], poverty, hunger, the destruction of the peoples of the land and the destruction of the environment have increased in the world.”
- Raúl Castro
President of Cuba
And as President Hugo Chavez Frias stated of Venezuela:
“within the limits of capitalism, the problems of misery, poverty and inequality that Venezuelans face, cannot be solved.”
- Les Blough, Editor

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Vietnam to cut rice exports this year

HANOI: Vietnam will cut rice exports this year in an effort to secure domestic supplies and stabilise skyrocketing food prices now driving double-digit inflation, the government said on Friday.

The communist government also cut its economic growth target to 7.5 percent for this year — down from last year’s 8.5 percent and an earlier target of up to nine percent for 2008 — and announced a 10-percent cut in public spending.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has capped exports of the staple grain rice at 3.5 million tonnes this year, down from a previous target of 4.5 million tonnes, said a statement on the government’s official website.

Vietnam is the world’s second largest rice exporter and its farmers have benefited from fast-rising grain prices on the international markets, but domestic consumers have suffered as prices have shot up. Amid low global stocks and high prices, the Philippines has secured a commitment from Vietnam for 1.5 million tonnes of rice this year, barring natural disasters or unexpected harvest losses, its agriculture ministry said.

Inflation in Vietnam has topped 16 percent in the first quarter, government data showed this week, in a trend that has fuelled popular anger and an ongoing spate of labour strikes in the country of 86 million people.

Vietnam’s government, in a top-level meeting on fighting inflation and other economic woes, decided to freeze prices of 10 essential goods until June, also including electricity, coal and retail fuel, the website said.

The Vietnam Food Association has tightened rules on rice export contracts, telling exporters they must not exceed the average of the past two years. “The regulation aims to find a better balance between production and exports, so as to balance local prices and guarantee food security,” said Huynh Minh Hue, deputy general secretary of the association.

In the first quarter of 2008, Vietnam exported 859,000 tonnes of rice worth 366 million dollars, up 5.3 percent in quantity and 42.6 percent in value, according to the state-run General Statistics Office.

The government meeting this week also discussed Vietnam’s other economic challenges — including a widening trade deficit, a falling stock market, and lower growth projections for the year.

“We are facing quite a bad situation,” said Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung, according to news website VNExpress. “The world economy is declining, but we have to be calm.” Hung said the government will require ministries and agencies to economise, cutting about 10 percent of regular spending, the report said.

“These economic difficulties will last for about one year and we have to accept high inflation levels … In the current situation I think reaching economic growth of 7.5 percent for the year would be high.” afp

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