The Indian government is pissing about on climate change, seeming somehow to think that because it wasn't responsible for it, that it will remain unaffected. The extent to which the Indian Government has got this very wrong is something to which the Indian press is starting, slowly, to wake up, as this article on the disappearance of Himalayan glaciers shows. The consequences of this for food production in Asia are profound, as Lester Brown notes here. With most ... read more »

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Posted on 21 November, 2008 - 20:46

Source: Ted Taber

The floods in the Midwest have already killed four people. Thousands have been evacuated, and the bill for clean-up will surely run into the hundreds of millions (the Red Cross alone is spending $15 million) - the estimate for Cedar Rapids' clean up just in: $700 million.

But these are the most cosmetic costs - the ripples from this storm will spread globally. Already, the price of corn has broken through the $7/bushel point. Soybeans are also up, and I'd be shocked if the price of white corn isn't going through the roof too - it has already been kicking up the price of tortillas in Mexico. Certainly, the ethanol price is soaring to its highest point since June 2006.

Large agribusinesses are taking a hit here too. See, for instance, Archer Daniels Midland’s flatlining share price. The disaster in the Midwest has put a serious dent in their profit forecasts. There’s just less corn around for them to make money off through trading, reselling, and using in meat, ethanol and high fructose corn syrup manufacture.

Worse for them, the disaster-induced shortage is making it politically harder to support corn-based ethanol, which is making ADM’s business plans – a glorified way of saying ‘sucking at the government teat’ – a little less politically and therefore economically viable.

But not all agricultural capitalists are taking a beating. The hedge funds and commodities traders are having a ball. According to The Wall Street Journal, “the decline in the dollar and rise in crude prices is resulting in investors piling on in the corn market, buying futures in anticipation that the price will continue to rise.” Yep, it’s speculative open season.

Meanwhile, stories abound about the floods’ horrors. A recurring theme is that people who step into the floodwaters immediately seek tetanus shots. The water is utterly polluted.

I’ve not read it in any of the reports so far, but I’ll put money on some of this pollution coming from burst sewage reservoirs from Concentrated Animal Feed Lots. We saw it happen in North Carolina and there’s no reason to think that it hasn’t already in Iowa.

Citizens in Iowa have long been active in trying to Clean Up Iowa. They’ve been stymied by large agricultural interests. The University of Iowa is the place I’d go to find more information – they’ve a fine research unit looking at some aspects of CAFOs, but at the time of writing, the University site says:

“Due to the flood situation on campus, The University has suspended normal operations. Classes have been cancelled and UI employees designated as non-essential are asked to stay home beginning Friday, June 13 through Sunday, June 22.” ... read more »

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Posted on 17 June, 2008 - 05:10

This piece is doing the rounds at the moment, and it helpfully pulls the climate change debate into one tight whole. Although I enjoyed the prose of Richard Manning's piece more, this one packs in more of the science of climate change. ... read more »

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Posted on 5 December, 2007 - 18:15

The good people at the Food Ethics Council have run a piece I did on the politics of vegetarianism. It appears in December's issue of Food Ethics magazine.

If Meat is Murder, What’s Vegetarianism? ... read more »

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Posted on 30 November, 2007 - 17:19

Here's an interesting document from Via Campesina, provocatively titled Small Scale Farmers are Cooling Down the Earth. To see how they do it, scroll down to the lists.... ... read more »

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Posted on 24 November, 2007 - 16:46

South Africa's Mail and Guardian newspaper has a splendid article on the conflict between the 'green' issue of climate change and the 'red' issue of poverty eradication. There is, of course, no dichotomy here. Sustainable ways of addressing climate change *have* to involve the eradication of poverty. It's true that livestock farming contributes to climate change. What's interesting here is a new twist.

While most of the environmentally destructive livestock production happens in the Global North in Concentrated Animal Feedlot Operations (CAFOs), it is poor farmers, usually in the Global South, who end up being the scapegoat for environmental degradation. We've seen similar tactics at work before, in the blaming of small farmers for bird flu, a disease incubated and spread by large-scale poultry operations. For those of us concerned both about climate change, and about eradicating poverty, this remind us to point the finger in the right direction.... ... read more »

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Posted on 10 October, 2007 - 16:20

Photo credit: Sixintheworld

At one of my first public talks, in London, someone asked me what I thought of the fact that New Zealand lamb involved the production of less CO₂ than British lamb. I responded that there was something odd about the study being conducted by the New Zealand Lamb Marketing Board (or somesuch), and rubbished the idea. ... read more »

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Posted on 28 September, 2007 - 01:40

The World Bank is in the news of late. Its president, Paul Wolfowitz (pictured), has been pilloried for making confetti out of the Bank's ethical rulebook, and showering his sweetheart with it. While this is generally unremarkable behaviour in Washington, he has attracted more attention than his peers because of his institution's crusade against corruption, and his saying things like “to make poverty history, we need to make corruption history”.

The real muck, however, doesn’t come from annals of hypocrisy. The bigger story is one that the media are ill-suited to find. It’s about what happens when the limelight is off the Bank, when the Bank goes about its normal business, and enforces policies that impoverish millions, while saying things like “Our Dream is a World Free of Poverty”, (the World Bank’s slogan). And although it’s tempting to blame the fourth estate and their habits of sensationalism, part of the reason there's no scandal is because the World Bank is in the business of hiding the evidence.

Over the past two weeks, for example, at the very same time that Wolfowitz has been pilloried, the Bank has been quietly airing a draft of its World Development Report which, for 2008, covers agriculture. Few outside a small circle of policy junkies got a chance to look at it (and even they were rushed – pointing out what’s good and bad with a dense 500 page report takes more than two weeks). Yet the report will do far deeper, and more lasting, damage than any Beltway bedroom farce.

To see how it all happens, here's a review of some recent salary-related scandals, which rehearse some of the techniques of scandal and subterfuge that are to be found, on a deeper and more covert scale, in the Bank's latest thoughts on agriculture. ... read more »

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Posted on 17 April, 2007 - 18:14

Here's a fine analysis, and call for caution, from George Monbiot. His website is here and this article is from Z Magazine.

Freeze biofuels
George Monbiot
March 27, 2007
The Guardian

It used to be a matter of good intentions gone awry. Now it is plain fraud. The governments using biofuel to tackle global warming know that it causes more harm than good. But they plough on regardless. In theory, fuels made from plants can reduce the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by cars and trucks. Plants absorb carbon as they grow - it is released again when the fuel is burned. By encouraging oil companies to switch from fossil plants to living ones, governments on both sides of the Atlantic claim to be "decarbonising" our transport networks. ... read more »

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Posted on 8 April, 2007 - 02:42

It's biofuels a-go-go here at Stuffed and Starved with yet another post on the theme. That the wires are buzzing with news about biofuels is welcome, though. It means the newsagencies are catching up with the struggles in the fields.

Yesterday saw news of an important protest against agribusiness giant, Cargill. It's important not just because it shows the depth of resistance to what's happening in the name of 'alternative energy', but also because in the lead were the women of the Brazilian Landless Rural Worker's Movement (MST). The opposition to biofuels in Brazil is as broad as it is deep.... ... read more »

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Posted on 7 March, 2007 - 20:07